My name is Maria Q. Stultz. I was born in Colombia many moons ago. That’s where I grew up, went to college, and got my first job as an Industrial Engineer. I am known as “Mafe” there.
Trying to escape from the job and other favorite things, I went to a top business school in the U.S. Got my MBA degree and a great job as a financial analyst in Dallas, so I moved to Texas, where I started dating a very cute and interesting gringo. A few years later, after many esoteric signs of celestial approval, I married my adorable quesito.
I enjoyed my career for several years, but at some point I realized that I was headed in the wrong direction. I was a successful senior analyst, but wasn’t excited by any of the jobs above me. So after some intensive soul-searching, I did the inconceivable and left my business job to begin training on a field that allowed me to CREATE tangible products; a field that combined my artistic inclination with my undeniably analytical ISTJ mind… And so, I became a Web Designer.
While I always thought that I would eventually have children, it took me a long time to actually make the decision to try for a baby. This site was an interesting outlet for me to document and discuss that process with friends (i.e. the doubts, the decision, the wait). And then, I got pregnant. And then, the baby came. And somehow, without any previous planning, I became a stay at home mom.
There are women who think of motherhood as their reason of being. I was not one of them. I loved my little boy to death and could never imagine my life without him, but I struggled with how limited my life turned after becoming a mother. In an unconscious attempt to save a piece of my individuality, I awakened one of my oldest passions: sewing, crafting, handmaking, and after setting up an Etsy shop, I quickly became obsessed with turning once more passion into my next career.
But somebody had different plans for me…
In the spring of 2010, I discovered that my precious little boy (2 years old at the time) has autism. Although day 1 was the most difficult and painful I’ve ever had to live, this wise “somebody” actually had a beautiful plan for me, and on the same night of the day my heart was broken, hope and joy was given back as I found out about the Son-Rise Program. I started applying its principles next day, and since then, have lived a miraculous, joyful, extraordinary life as our family goes through the life-altering journey of raising a special child, helping him develop and conquer his challenges, and I see myself slowly become a better mother and happier person than I would’ve ever been had this opportunity never crossed my path.
This site began somewhere around late March, 2006 as a personal experiment. My main purpose was to use it as a playground to help me keep the creative juices flowing. Years later, I can say that it has given me so much more than that. While my new occupation as a Mother Warrior often takes me away from writing, this blog keeps documenting and sharing the person that I am today. We live away from both of our families and all of our friends, and I am extremely grateful for any kind of human response I get through this site.
Sentimental Site Trivia
Birth: March 16, 2006. (A Pisces with ascendant in Sagittarius)
First comment: April 11, 2006, by Lorelle VanFossen on “Sticking my patita in the blogosphere”
Claimed in Technorati: April 21, 2006. Initial rank: 1,178,156
First feed subscriber: Chris and Petie DiPaolo on May 5, 2006
First blogroll link from an unrelated blogger: Mandarine on Oct 12, 2006
First coment from a personally admired celebrity: Feb 23, 2007. Internationally acclaimed tenor, Jerome Pruett, thanks me for my complimentary comments on “The Music Teacher”
First blushing praise email from a stranger: Mar 3, 2007 by Tracey
First client request driven by this site and not my business portfolio: Jul 23, 2007, by a gentleman who I hope will write a certain great story some day
First comment from my mom: Aug 12, 2007 on “One”
First two minutes of fame: On Feb 22, 2008 Apartment Therapy’s Ohdeedoh features my baby’s nursery mural and the tutorial I wrote on how I painted it. Five months later, Cookie magazine does the same on its nesting blog