Wife, Mother, Spy - an Extraordinary Life Filled With Ordinary Days

"Wife, Mother, Spy - An Extraordinary Life Filled With Ordinary Days" is a powerful story of how one woman can have a stimulating and demanding career as an undercover officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, a happy marriage, and a big at the same time. It's proof that she can have it all but only if she's willing to pay a price. It is a story about balancing career and family, to the extreme. Needing to hide her day-to-day affiliation from family, friends and everyone around her was difficult, yet essential so that she could keep them safe. Every minute of every day, it was also her responsibility to keep those from whom she asked the ultimate sacrifice (the ones stealing the secrets to keep our country secure) out of harm's way. Ann grew up wanting an international career. She threw herself into the complicated world of the CIA and while moving through the ranks of the clandestine Directorate of Operations, got married and had five children. She quickly realized that being committed to a career that required constant long distance moves, hiding true intentions from family members, being available any time day or night and often being out of communication for extended periods - all while raising a big family - might be taking things a step too far. Could she do it all? How did she make it work? It's a story of conundrums. Being honest with colleagues yet hiding the truth about what she did from everyone else; teaching right from wrong to her children yet telling lies to protect her sources; being one hundred percent committed to her work yet needing to find the energy and time to be a proper and present mother. This memoir highlights the happiness and the excitement of a unique life but doesn't hold back the stresses, the worries, and the constant questioning that goes along with it. "Wife, Mother, Spy" is for anyone interested in how the world of intelligence work can positively intersect with the raising of a big family as they navigate the world together surrounded by the cloak and dagger secrecy of their mother's career.