Hey, I’m Ava. I’m a wife, a mom, and the creator of The Living Table, a space for families navigating real life, not the filtered version.

I didn’t start this blog from a place of having it all together. I started it in the middle of unraveling. I was walking through one of the hardest and most disorienting seasons of my life, and it felt like no one wanted to talk about the real stuff. The mess. The confusion. The anger and grief that come when life doesn’t go the way it was supposed to. I didn’t need a curated answer. I needed connection. I needed someone to say, me too.

My journey hasn’t been easy or tidy. I grew up in a complicated home where I wasn’t protected and where healthy relationships weren’t modeled or nurtured. Those wounds didn’t disappear when I became an adult. If anything, they became louder, especially after I became a mother.

My daughter’s birth was unexpectedly chaotic and traumatic. What followed was a storm I didn’t see coming: severe postpartum depression, anxiety, and moments that left me questioning everything. I questioned my ability to parent, to be a wife my husband needed, my faith, and even whether I had the strength to keep going. There were days when brushing my teeth and keeping my child alive was all I could manage. I felt deeply disconnected not just from the people in my life but most importantly from the Lord.

But here’s what I’ve come to know in the depths of it all. God never left me. He was there, steady and unshaken, even when I couldn’t feel Him. He didn’t ask me to pretend I was okay. He understood the depth of my pain and showed me that He never wanted those things to happen. He didn’t love some polished version of me. He loved the real me. The undone, sobbing, exhausted me. And slowly, gently, and powerfully, He began stitching my heart back together.

Through therapy, through setting boundaries, and through surrendering the pressure to perform or please, God walked with me. He gave me glimpses of hope when I felt hopeless. He reminded me that healing is not a betrayal of my story. It is a reflection of His redemptive power. He showed me that the broken places are often where His light shines the most clearly.

The Living Table was born from that season. It is for people like me. People raising kind and resilient children while still learning how to heal from things they never should have had to carry. It is for those who believe faith should be a shelter of growth and healing, not shame and doubt. It is for those who want to build homes filled with authenticity, tenderness, and real support instead of perfection. It is for those who are rebuilding their faith, not on performance or guilt, but on the unshakable love of a God who sees, knows, and redeems.

Here, you’ll find encouragement that points to Jesus, parenting ideas rooted in grace, activities that help you connect with your children and show them the Lord’s steadfast love and faithfulness, and resources that meet you right where you are. No pretending. No pressure. Just a place where you can breathe, be real, and know you are not alone.

If you’re in a season of sorrow, doubt, rebuilding, or rediscovery, you belong here. God is not finished with your story. He never was.

Philippians 3:13-14 (KJV)
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.