Control Chaos Daily Grind

Prologue: Becoming Her

I never planned to be a teenage mom.

If someone had told sixteen-year-old me that one day I would grow into a woman who spoke to crowds, comforted parents, and helped children discover their confidence, I would have never believed them. At sixteen, I was just a scared girl trying to survive in a world that didn’t believe I could.

Back then, I wasn’t thinking about changing lives or starting a mission. I was thinking about diapers, doctor appointments, and how to stretch a few dollars to the end of the week. I was a teenage mom, holding a baby boy named Devin, trying to balance motherhood with a childhood that ended too soon. People whispered, judged, and assumed my story was already written — that I would become another statistic.

But what they didn’t know was that strength was already forming inside me. Quietly, slowly, and through the hardest days of my life.

When doctors wouldn’t listen, I learned to speak louder. When people doubted me, I learned to stand taller. And when life pushed me down, I learned to rise — not because I wasn’t scared, but because my child needed me to.

Those early years were filled with lessons that came the hard way — heartbreak, loneliness, and exhaustion — but they also taught me something I couldn’t see at the time: that love has a way of turning pain into purpose.

Over the years, my family grew. I became a mother to six beautiful children — each one unique, each one a teacher in their own right. My days were filled with laughter, chaos, and countless challenges. And as I learned more about them — their needs, their strengths, their differences — I began to see the world through a new lens.

When my children were diagnosed with dyslexia, ADHD, auditory processing, and sensory challenges, I went from being a mother to being a fighter. I became their voice in meetings, their advocate in classrooms, and their biggest cheerleader at home. I researched late into the night, asked questions that no one else thought to ask, and refused to accept that they couldn’t succeed simply because they learned differently.

In the process of fighting for them, I found myself.

I discovered that advocacy wasn’t just something I did — it was who I had become. Every sleepless night, every tearful prayer, every hard conversation had shaped me into someone stronger than I ever imagined.

Eventually, that fire led me to Illuminations Center for Dyslexia in Meridian, Mississippi. What started as one mother’s desperate search for help turned into a calling — a chance to help other families find the hope I once searched for. I began working with parents and children, running booths at community events, hosting book drives, and raising awareness through conferences. I watched lives change, children blossom, and families begin to heal.

Somewhere along the way, I realized something powerful:
I had become the woman I once needed.

The journey hasn’t been easy, but it has been sacred. Every hardship carried a lesson. Every tear carried purpose. Every step — even the painful ones — led me closer to where I was meant to be.

This is my story.
It’s a story about faith, resilience, and redemption.
About falling apart and finding strength in the pieces.
About motherhood, love, and the power of understanding.

But most of all, it’s about becoming her —
the advocate, the believer, the woman who learned that even the hardest beginnings can grow into the most beautiful stories.