She was polite about not checking her watch, but I could tell she was concerned about the time.  Michelle Obama had spent the day campaigning in Iowa and now she was spending time with me, but her heart was already headed to Chicago where her two little girls were waiting for Mommy. As a mother of five children under the age of 12, it's a tug I know well -- you've memorized the flight number and departure time of the last plane home.

Obama makes no bones about it -- her family comes first. In a candid interview [click to watch], the 43-year-old wife of

Janet sits down with Michelle Obama for an interview. Photo by NBC News Producer Doug Adams

Her home life sounds a lot like those of other families with young children, except for the Secret Service agents posted outside their home. Time together is more likely to be focused on piano practice than politics ... and Obama says the only campaign in the home is the one waged by daughters Malia and Sasha, angling for a later bedtime.

You can watch Janet's interview with Michelle Obama tonight on the NBC Nightly News .

Editor's note: Janet reported this story tonight as part of our continuing series on immigration, "Whose America?" Click here to watch the video.

Gabriella is like many 5-year-olds who walk to school every day. One hand clutches a furry frog backpack, the other clings tightly to her mother. But that's where the similarities seem to end. For Gabriela, a U.S. citizen, the trip to kindergarten starts in Juarez, Mexico, and ends at her elementary school in El Paso, Texas.

More than 1,000 students make a similar trek across the Santa Fe Bridge every day in a dedicated "fast lane." Some are in private school. Their parents pay tuition. Others are college students. Hundreds of others are, like Gabriella, attending public school. To do this, parents need proof they live in or are property owners in the El Paso district.

Photo caption: Two girls cross the border on the Santa Fe Bridge. Photo by NBC News.

Border officials say the lane offers no special privileges other than to allow students to bypass the morning logjam at the checkpoint. Yet its creation has raised awareness of these students and angered some El Paso parents who believe many children don't meet the residency requirement. The El Paso Independent School District, 64,000 students strong, has almost a dozen workers who check credentials, but school officials say they are educators -- not immigration officials.

The lane has given birth to a variety of immigation-related issues. But for Gabriela, who has the proper documentation, it means only that she'll have a few extra minutes with her friends before the first bell. For her mother, it's a bridge to education and a path to a better life. 

"Turn OFF the computer, we're late for soccer," I called upstairs for the third time yesterday.   It's been like that in our house lately.  When the computer is on, my children lose their hearing.  What a reversal from times when parents used to fight to get their kids to stop playing baseball and come in for dinner or homework. Now, it can be a struggle to get them outside to play.

It was right after the New Year that I started hearing my children talk about Web sites I'd never heard of: Webkinz and Club Penguin. Now, all five of them -- ages four to eleven -- make a beeline for the computer.  Over the weekend, my daughter had an online play date with her best friend who lives just across the street.  Her sisters played checkers against each other from opposite ends of the house.  Their brother was buying a virtual big screen TV to decorate his Webkinz bedroom, and a frustrated 4-year-old was begging for a turn at the keyboard.

This is the new world of online social networking, one aimed squarely at the playground crowd. While many of the sites attracting elementary school children get high marks for safety, they are engaging to a point experts call "sticky" -- with games and friends just a point and click away, it's hard to log off.  For this mom, the computer screen feels a lot like another one in our home, so the Internet is now treated like television -- access is regulated and restricted.

Make no mistake, interactive Web sites are part of our children's future and they can be good teachers, but educators say a virtual airplane will never stir creativity like a die-cast model on a runway fashioned from a plank of hardwood floor.

We'll take a closer look at these social networking sites, as well as their risks and rewards, tonight on Nightly News.

It was 10 years and more than 500 babies ago. Debbe Magnusen was sitting in her home in southern California, watching the evening news. A story that garnered only 15 seconds of airtime would change her life forever. 

A baby boy, a few hours old, was left to die in a dumpster, just a few minutes from Debbe's home. She couldn't get it off her mind. Not that night, not a week, not even a month later. Her grief over an infant she didn't know gave birth to Project Cuddle, a nationwide crisis hotline (1-888-628-3353) for girls and women who are pregnant and frightened. She offers them maternity clothes, prenatal care and a hand to hold in the delivery room. She also helps find families for the babies -- 564 of them over the past 10 years.

Perhaps most remarkably,  she's done it all while raising two kids of her own, adopting five others and being a foster mom to another 30. But, by Debbe's accounting, every Project Cuddle baby is one of her kids.

We'll introduce you this very special mom who's "Making a Difference," tonight on Nightly News.

The trip to Grand Rapids, Mich., felt like an overdue trip home. A long time ago, I worked at the NBC affiliate here and spent many a day at the Gerald R. Ford Museum when the President was in town for a birthday or other celebration.

The mood is decidedly different today. The flag, limp at half staff, seems to know.

It is gray and cold and a steady drizzle of mourners are pulling hands from mittens to add their names to a book that will soon fill.  The museum is shuttered as if bowing to its namesake.

President Ford wasn't born here and he didn't retire here but by almost any definition, Grand Rapids was his home. He played football on fields not far from the museum and later represented the people of Western Michigan in Congress for more than two decades. He's a native son in these parts whose passing is a fresh wound.

Tonight's installment in our Making a Difference series introduces you to the sheriff of Peoria County, Ill. But it was more than 400 miles from his jurisdiction where I caught up with Mike McCoy. I met him in Memphis. And he wasn't walking. This 57-year-old grandfather was running, for the 25th year, in a relay he founded as a fund-raiser for kids with cancer. Like any home-grown event, it started small and with all kinds of problems. Unlike most local charity events, Mike's annual trek between Memphis and Peoria has gone big time. When the relay ends tomorrow in Peoria, Mike will have raised more than $12 million for the St. Jude Children's Hospital.

And speaking of that amazing place, I had the privilege of visiting it this week. To say that I was deeply moved would be an understatement. Children, the age of my own, were bravely battling disease without complaint. Moms and Dads told me of their children's treatment with only optimism in their voices. What I didn't see were tears, just hope and happiness and faces like that of 10-year-old Shannon Longstreet from Galena, Mo. Her enormous grin will stay with me. When you meet a beautiful and courageous young girl like Shannon, it's easier to understand Mike McCoy's passion for making a difference.

Our report about child caregivers last night generated a considerable response. You can read the script and watch the video here. We've heard from a number of viewers who cared for an ailing mom or dad when they were children. The stories are told with tenderness and without sadness for the sacrifices made. We also heard from parents who are on the receiving end of a child's care, remarkable stories of young people who are acting with maturity beyond their years. Many of you asked to see the report, conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving in collaboration with the United Hospital Fund. Here is a link to a .PDF file of the report.

What parent hasn't endured a grocery store run with a child in tow, begging for a sugary cereal or high-calorie snack? As a mom of young children, it's a struggle in my own kitchen. The low-sugar oatmeal is often left untouched, as the troops scour the pantry for the cartoon character cereal they saw on television.

Tonight, we'll examine a major study on the effects of food marketing on the diets and health of children. A nation of young people are being bombarded with sales pitches for low-nutrition food, at a time when childhood obesity rates are at an all-time high. The study reveals children as young as two are targets of these persuasive ads.

We'll talk to a suburban mom with four children about her strategies, and hear the panel's recommendations for limiting this kind of marketing.