A Most Precious Gift

A double-sized family that gets along ... and gets into print.

Suzi Colman, Zack
Colman, Marcy Colman
Rosenfeld, Jessica Colman,
Marty Rosenfeld and Jon
Colman at Jessica's North
Farmington High School
graduation.

appear in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul on Tough Stuff - Stories of
Tough Times and Lessons Learned.
The book, edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and
Kimberly
Kirberger, will be published Oct. 18 by HCI in Deerfield
hen Jessica Colman had to write an essay about herself
Beach, Fla., and will be available for $12.95.
in her school, she knew she wanted to describe her
"I was excited just to have my essay considered as a possibility,
unique family.
but finding out that it is actually going to be published made me
extremely happy," says Jessica, a 19-year-old sophomore in the
"I have four parents, eight grandparents and four siblings," she
James
Madison College at Michigan State University in East
says of her family unit that resulted from her parents' divorce and
Lansing.
remarriages. "These numbers definitely grab people's attention when
"Jessica loves telling people how well her father and stepmoth-
they first find out my family's situation. But when I tell them that
er
get
along with her stepfather and I," says Colman Rosenfeld.
we all get along, it comes as even more of a shock."
"It was always very important to me that we showed a unified
After receiving a A-plus on her essay — written in a record 30
front for the kids on major decisions and during milestones in
minutes — Jessica decided to take her story beyond the classroom.
their lives."
"My mom suggested that I send it to the publishers of the Chicken
"If anything special is happening in either one of our lives, my
Soup series because it brought a tear to her eye," she says of her
real
brother Zack and I can count on all our parents to be there,"
Jessica
Colman
mother, Marcy Colman Rosenfeld.
Jessica
says of her mom and step-dad, Marty Rosenfeld of West
"After I sent the essay in, they sent me a response letter telling me
Bloomfield
and dad Jonathan and step-mother Suzi Colman of
they receive about 250,000 stories a year," Jessica says. "They said
Commerce
Township.
Jessica's
step-brothers are Jeff Ferber, 29, of Palo Alto,
they'd let me know."
Calif., and Josh Rosenfeld, 29, of Chicago. Her step-sister is Sandy Ferber, 26 of
Several months later, another letter informed her that her essay was in the "final
Wilmington, N.C.
grading process."
"I am grateful to my parents for understanding that they had to be on com-
"Only stories that receive a 10 or 10-plus make it into the final cut of the book,
mon
ground and civil with each other in order for my brother and I to appreci-
which is usually around 101 stories," says Randee Feldman, Chicken Soup for the
ate
our
situation," Jessica says. cannot even image my parents married to each
Soul product manager at Health Communications, Inc. (HCI) and a former
other.
They
are so happy with their second spouses. And they got me and Zack
Detroiter living in Boca Raton, Fla.
out
of
their
marriage
together, so they really couldn't go wrong." El
Finally, last August, Jessica received word that her story, "A Most Precious Gift,"
whose title was changed by editors, from the original, "A Perfect Divorce," will

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer

IV

10/5
2001

46