As a mom, spending quality time on the water with my family is a simple and relaxing way to unplug.

It's really hard juggling, trying to carve out a time to have a family and be a mom and have a career, especially a creative career.

I've been a pretty selfish mom and a very unselfish athlete for about three years now and it's time to put my family first. It's probably time to move on.

We go to church on Sunday and then have family dinner. My mom usually cooks, and most of the time, it's protein and something else. She will ask us kids what we want!

My first time coming over to North America was to New York around Christmastime when I was 7. My mom was a flight attendant, and she got put on to the Trans-Atlantic route over Christmastime, so she brought the whole family.

I remember the first time seeing myself on TV, when my family was watching the documentary 'Eyes on the Prize' for the first time. There were pictures of people going up the school stairs, and Mom said, 'Oh, that's you!' I said, 'I can't believe this. This is important.'

Every time I go back to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to wait for my test results, and I wonder if I've relapsed or if I'm doing okay, I don't think about my company. I'm proud of everything we've done, but at the end of the day, it comes back to family. I'm still a wife, a mom, a sister - all of those things.

My parents told me from the time I can remember that, 'Yeah, you're adopted. But this is your family.' I can remember my mom, she tells me this story: when I was little, I was looking at her, and I was like, 'Why isn't my skin the same color as yours?' She was like, 'Oh, you're adopted, but I wish I had pretty brown skin like you.'

I was awful my first time. I was so shy eating in front of people. It was so awkward. But my next contest, I brought a bunch of my family out, and I won that one. I remember I almost barfed because my mom, at the end of the contest, she yelled out, 'Do it for Mama!' Everybody laughed. It was one of the closest I've ever been to barfing.

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