"My husband and I always say we have our own party in our home, so there's never a dull moment," laughed Liliane Cooper.
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Liliane has a daughter, who is 17-years-old, and five sons, ages 16, 13, 11, 8, and 5.
Not only did Liliane and her husband Henry juggle parenthood during a pandemic, Liliane graduated from Villanova Law in May - and she was elected class speaker at graduation.
"I was trying to figure out how to do my own homeschooling of law school and trying to help the children with homework," Liliane explained.
It wasn't always easy.
The children were homeschooled before the pandemic, but, even for homeschooled kids, the pandemic caused upheavals in schedules, outings, and help from outside the household.
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And Liliane had her own schooling.
"Exam time, trying to figure out how I'm going to sit for three hours without interruption. During class time, making sure no one is crawling in between my legs so I can pay attention to the lectures," said Liliane with a smile.
Husband Henry shared, "Liliane did a really good job, and we all rallied behind her, so that was a lot of fun because she did all the hard work, and we just played in the background."
Liliane was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her father's work as an ambassador landed her in Washington, D.C. at age 15.
She came to Philadelphia to attend Drexel University for undergrad.
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While the pandemic brought challenges, Liliane also relished the time with her family.
"That was nice to be able to go down and have dinner with them in the middle of studying or after my classes, something that was difficult to do before the pandemic," Liliane said.
In her graduation address, she spoke to her classmates about their hard work during three years of law school, especially when the pandemic hit.
"How we were thrown into the middle of a pandemic and were able to come out on the other side successful students who graduated law school," Liliane said.
No time to slow down for this Morning Mom. She is now busy studying for the Bar Exam.
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