Jennifer, wearing the red bandana, with her running group Team Berry after finishing her first half marathon, the Berry College Half Marathon in Rome,Ga. in 2011.

Jennifer Bressette is one busy Mother Runner. This mom of four (two tweens and two teens!) tackled running—she started with a 5K and soon racked up half marathons—just as she’s taken on life’s numerous challenges. This Fourth of July she ran the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, the nation’s largest 10K. She recently registered for her first marathon, the Country Music Marathon in Nashville in April 2013.

I run b­­ecause I can. When I was 20, I had half my right foot amputated as a result of infection.  This left my leg with just a stump below my right ankle. The day I was able to put pressure on my foot I looked straight ahead and slowly put one foot in front of the other. I kept walking into my wonderful life graduating from college, graduate school, and marrying the love of my life.

Fast forward 12 years. I am now the adoptive mom of four children under five years old, three who arrived in the same year. I am overwhelmed.  I had always been successful in school and went back to graduate school obtaining a Master of Education degree to conserve brain cells. My children’s diagnoses started coming in. One was micro cephalic, one asthmatic requiring around the clock breathing treatments, and one ADHD. I kept putting one foot in front of the other.

I started teaching full time and was as stressed as any first-year teacher and mother of four could be. I gained quite a bit of weight. A gym had advertised its boot camp so I figured, why not? I have challenged my brain; I should challenge my body. During the boot camp I decided to sign up for a 5K to benefit the college my husband teaches at. It was tough. I was in awe of the half marathoners at the event.  Over the next several years I did three more 5Ks. Meanwhile, more diagnoses come in with regard to my children: autism, mood disorder, learning disabilities. I was in a very gray place.

Jennifer and her family: Andrew (“my fabulous cowbell ringing hubby”); Drew, 13; Jacob, 10; Lili, 11; and Elizabeth, 14.

I was laid off from my teaching job and that place went black. I decided I was going to run the half marathon in my town. It gave me a reason to get up and dressed in the morning. I was petrified. I was not a runner! I found a group of runners and was tickled when I saw they had a 12-minute mile pace group. I could do that! My mantra became “13.1 miles one and one half feet.”

I completed my first half! If I could do that, I could certainly handle any of the challenges that my wonderful, chaotic, blessed life brings me. I have since found another job I love: working with the severe and profoundly handicapped. I’ve also completed four more 5Ks, and two more half marathons. I keep a running log. I am planning races for the rest of 2012, including a variety of 5Ks, the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta (10K), and the Chickamauga half marathon.

When life with two teens and two tweens gets crazy, I lace up. I run because I can.