Kathryn Rombs and her husband Ron are raising their six children in Irving, TX.  She homeschooled for eleven years, and loves having children ranging from teenagers to toddlers in her care.  She has a passion for applauding mothers for their loving work and building them up in their private ministries of motherhood.  Kathryn is also an instructor at the University of Dallas where she teaches philosophy. Learn more about Kathryn by visiting her website.

Jolly, an East Coast native, pursued an Ivy League education before finding herself called to the mission field of Southeast Asia. The unveiling of God’s plan was realized when she met her Filipino-American husband. Her new mission came into focus - a life-long call to the vocation of family life. Together Jolly and Robb have pursued the sacramental call living in Dallas, Texas for the past 21 years. She finished her B.A. in Theology and English Literature and graduated just months after welcoming the birth of her first son. Jolly has experienced a continual conversion in her marriage and with each child God has given. She has spent a collective of seven years homeschooling her four children in grades ranging from Pre-K through 12th. She is now honored to be Director of Ministry at Mighty Is Her Call. Jolly is passionate about the call to feminine dignity, worth and holiness that comes with answering the call to embrace the genius of Catholic marriage and motherhood.

I spent the better part of my first twenty-five years as a Catholic foreign missionary.  Scattered throughout those formative years were several furloughs at home in Cajun country and a wonderful season at Franciscan University, where I met Mike. I married this godly man who is my best friend in a dusty Mexican mission post, dreaming of raising our own brood with nothing but dirt floors and Jesus. Now, eighteen years later, I find myself in a suburb of the bustling DFW metroplex with 4 all-American boys and a spunky girl to boot. It’s a picture oh-so-different from the one I dreamed up when I began my motherhood journey nursing twin boys in a Mayan village and expecting our third. Like some of you, I struggle to be detached from the past or the future and enter fully into the glorious mission of my own home. 

Although I have worn many hats, including homeschool mom, pro-life activist, theology teacher, and dyslexia practitioner - ultimately, I am a card-carrying Catholic mother whose life probably looks a lot like yours. In fact, Mighty is Her Call has given me a connection to a tribe of beautiful Catholic mothers who really get what it means to be in the trenches, clinging to Christ and serving him in our domestic church. I am blessed to share pieces of my journey on our blog, and I love the encouragement I get daily from MIHC posts. I am especially passionate about the Catholic Mothers Retreats we offer! Because I know first-hand the restorative grace God pours out every time we gather as mothers for prayer, sacraments and exhortation, I can’t wait to share our retreats with every mom I meet.  

Some might find this shocking. I do.... I have nine children- seven boys and two girls! Not only that - but I’m the mother-in-law and grandmother of two very special ladies! “You must be a saint!” some exclaim. “Are you crazy?” ask others.  Well, no and yes, but I have lived to tell about it and am a better woman for it.

 Often, I think people believe that one “has to be a certain way” to be able to do something extraordinary, but building a life, growing a family, and doing something beautiful happens a little at a time. 

As a twenty-one-year-old new mom, I was full of idealism and optimism, and I instinctively knew that the call to motherhood was a profound way to live a Christian life. My heart full of love for God, my husband and my son, I wanted to throw myself headlong into my vocation. My romantic notions of what my life would be - think homemade applesauce, a perfectly peaceful and organized version of me wearing Birkenstocks and long flowing skirts, perfect family life, sunshine and rainbows all the time - were altered when the daily and ongoing challenges of motherhood and marriage became real. This idealist had to learn that being a Catholic mother is not about doing and being a certain, perfect way. Rather, being a Catholic mother is about embracing the life God is giving me each day, each hour, and each minute with the very real grace he is giving me. Certainly, I use my unique skills and gifts, but no amount of creativity, flute playing, general athleticism, nursing skills, or applesauce quite covers all the needs. Not even the most skilled plate spinner among us has everything it takes.

Finishing nursing school with a baby and moving around the country multiple times (and even overseas), learning to navigate all the ins and outs of raising children at the various stages of development, weathering illnesses great and small, dealing with personal issues, living away from family, going back to work, and maintaining a marriage relationship have been more difficult than I could have imagined. And frankly, it’s more than I can manage - on my own. 

The remarkable thing about being a Christian, and specifically a mother, is that we are called to do and to be more than we alone are capable of doing and being. And why can we do it?  We can do it because we are not alone. We have the grace and power of a real, living, and present God who is with us more intimately than we can fathom. As a Catholic, I have grace from the sacraments as well as Christ present to me in my fellow Christians. He is as real and present as the faces of my husband and children and neighbors. 

I am excited to be a part of Mighty is Her Call because motherhood is so vitally important to build up strong members of the Church and the world. I value the opportunity to offer excellent mothers’ retreats, so mothers can find respite, encouragement, and grace to be fortified in their mighty vocation. I hope our blog is a place where mothers can connect with one another and find much needed support, inspiration, and community. 

I am a small town Southern girl, who grew up as a Protestant missionary, moved to the big city in her early twenties, came to the Catholic Church, fell in love with the kindest man I have ever met, and the next thing I knew I had seven kids, and a full, messy, noisy life full of more joy, tears, hope, and love than I could have ever imagined. When my youngest baby went to Kindergarten, I was facing a true identity crisis. I couldn’t have any more children (even though crazily enough I wanted more), and I began to cry out to the Lord to show me what he had for me in this new season in my life.

Slowly, he began to remind me of the talents that had been dormant for all these years while I was busy gaining and losing a total of 200 pounds, nursing some sixty-five months, and pregnant for the better part of a decade; saying nothing of the hours of sleep lost, the “Wiggles” episodes watched, and the pounds of food cut into tiny pieces. I love to write and had dabbled in blogging before, but it hadn’t stuck. Really, I just wanted to find a way to encourage moms in the trenches, to make them laugh, to make sure they knew they could survive the early years, and that regardless of the season of motherhood they were in, they were never alone. In God’s perfect love and providential timing, he brought me to Kathryn Rhombs; she shared her vision of Mighty Is Her Call with me, and I knew that this was what the Lord had been saving for me. It turns out that in all those years of surviving and struggling, God was teaching me countless things about his goodness and love, and about the beauty of this amazing and often misunderstood vocation. 

I am honored to be an anchor writer for the Mighty Is Her Call blog weekly, and my favorite thing to do is speak to moms at our retreats, pray with them, laugh with them, and encourage them in their vocation. Our world is hurting and lost in darkness. I truly believe that the great hope of the world is in the domestic church. We as mothers offer our bodies, our time, our talents, and our aspirations to the Lord, and he creates in and through us the Kingdom of God! Surely, there is nothing greater than this!

Hello there! I write from Irving, Texas, where I live with my husband and five kids and teach high school history. I was voted “most talkative” in my 8th grade class, and that still describes me well.

My involvement as a speaker and writer in Mighty is Her Call needs a bit of explanation, as the people who love me most would all agree that motherhood has NOT come naturally to me. During my first decade as a mom I worked and tried super hard, but I spent a lot of my time gritting my teeth in frustration and feeling guilty that I wasn’t doing a better job. During the summer of 2013, a clinical depression stopped me in my tracks and turned my world upside down. I wasn’t able to care for my family and was totally broken for about half a year. With a ton of support, God’s saving grace, and my own hard work, however, I not only got better, but set upon a path of unimagined growth, healing, and thriving that continues to this day.