I guess I should stop fussing over perfection in a first post and just do it already! I’ve debated launching this Christian mom blog for years, but I think God is telling me it’s time.
What’s This Blog About?
TL;DR: We have, like, a million kids, which regularly throws me back into faith-journey mode.
Life here is chaotic but honestly really great when I sit and reflect. What else is a blog good for if not deliberate reflection, with the main goal of helping my readers with some profound epiphany? Okay, perhaps I’m ambitious, but I already love you and think we should be friends in this wild ride of motherhood struggles.
My day-to-day can be pretty lonely, but I yearn to encourage and be encouraged. How do I do that? I share the ugly truths of motherhood as I know it and connect the dots to where God shows up in our lives. Hopefully, I can help you see Him in yours—because faith and family chaos often go hand in hand.
What Makes Me Qualified?
Rubs hands together Okay, let’s get to it.
My name is Maris, and I’m thirty-something years old. I’m in my second marriage to the love of my life, Wolf, and together we raise our six boys and one girl. They range from teens down to one-year-old twins. Like I said, we have a million kids (okay, only seven). I work a remote job full-time, have once run a handmade small business out of my home, and had a near-doula-business launch (twice). I’ve dealt with marital abuse in my first marriage, followed by divorce and single motherhood, before meeting Wolf. In those days, I worked four jobs while raising my first two children after moving back in with my parents. I’ve hospital-birthed and home-birthed, breastfed and formula-fed, co-slept and crib-slept. I’ve been sober from alcohol for a decade and still powering through.
Motherhood Struggles: The Hot Mess Express
My qualifications are that I’m the hot mess express, constantly missing the mark on “perfection.” (My mom literally themed her Christmas gifts to me in 2024 with “Everything is fine, I’m fine” memes—dumpsters on fire, cats ablaze—as it was the year our twins were born.) I’m painfully lacking in grace for myself, and only after an allotted time of self-loathing do I remember that God is always with me. I’ve obviously wasted a lot of time in the trenches when God was dangling lifelines in front of me—I just couldn’t see it, wouldn’t see it, didn’t see it.
Faith and Family Chaos: God’s Ever-Present Grace
That’s just it, though. Whether we remember it or not, the objective truth is that God is present now and always for the deepest, darkest, most raw parts of our days. He sheds grace on us in our motherhood struggles, carrying us like little babes in His hands and bestowing blessings.
Blessings, indeed. My life is clearly not a walk in the park and is full of mistakes I’ve made and still make. I’m hoping my vulnerability and the sliver of wisdom I hold are enough to help another mother feel seen, heard, and uplifted. I want to challenge you, as I’m real-time challenged alongside you, with digging into the Word of God and digging into our hearts.
Fruitfulness in Motherhood: Why I’m The Fruitful Mother
Over the years, identifying the good and beautiful people and circumstances in my life has been hard but not impossible. I might be a hot mess, but every day I have the same realization that my life is abundant. Seven kids—Zane, Tilly, Shep, Rogue, Bear, Vox, and Rush—fill my days with noise, messes, and love I can’t measure. I’ve stumbled through abuse, divorce, and diapers, but here I am, still standing, still growing. That’s why I’m “The Fruitful Mother.” Not because I’ve got it all figured out—ha, far from it—but because God keeps bearing fruit through me, even in the chaos.
John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” I spent too long thinking I had to do it all myself—perfect mom, perfect faith. But fruit doesn’t grow from perfection; it grows from staying connected to the vine. My kids, my messes, my mustard-seed faith—they’re the fruit, messy and wild as it is. God’s grace waters it, even when I’m blind to the lifeline He’s tossing me.
So here’s my promise: I’ll share the unvarnished truth of this fruitful, flawed life—tantrums and twins, tears and triumphs—with a Bible in one hand and a coffee in the other. I’m here to reflect, to encourage, to say you’re not alone in your dumpster-fire days. Stick around. Let’s bear fruit together—one chaotic, grace-filled step at a time.
What’s your mess today? Tell me—I’m listening.
— The Fruitful Mother
