Katie Roper was invited to join the writing staff here at MightyMoms.club in August of 2017. I’m so thrilled to have her here! She is a fountain of creativity and comes up with article ideas that I never would have thought of, but desperately need to be written.

In fact, you can see all those articles by clicking here. Here are a few more things you should know about Katie Roper…

Detours Redeemed

Katie graduated college in 2008, just as the recession hit, and no one was hiring classically-trained opera singers. After months of job-hunting in multiple states, she finally took the first full-time opportunity that presented itself.It was a job in finance close enough to her parents’ home so she could sleep in their curtained-off family room until she could afford her own place (a year later). Obviously, that’s what every 22-year-old college graduate with a fancy music degree dreams of, right?!?

What she thought was an annoying detour turned out to be the right place at the right time to develop one of those never-advisable, usually-disastrous office romances. A few weeks after Katie started her new job, a young man named Robert was hired to work at the same branch. And nearly three years after their initial meeting,  the adorable office couple became the old married couple.

Family Achieved

After their first wedding anniversary, Katie and Robert decided they were ready for a family, but within just a couple of months, it was clear something wasn’t working right. After 23 months of fertility treatments with a total 5 doctors, the prognosis was just looking worse and worse, and adoption became their new focus. Five days after paying a hefty, non-refundable fee to an adoption agency, Katie conceived with no fertility drugs!Her red-headed, blue-eyed miracle baby was only 8 months old when Katie achieved her second all-natural pregnancy – and couldn’t help but wonder if God was laughing at her.

Millie and Rosie (the new one with a wild, curly, blonde mop) are a whopping 17 months apart! While things are pretty hectic now, Katie is looking forward to the day when they can both play together. And when she no longer has two in diapers. And when she can make clothing choices NOT based on how “breastfeeding-friendly” they are.

Childcare was too expensive with 2 under 2, so Katie left the world of finance to stay home with her girls.

But she’s busier than ever! Besides writing for Mighty Moms, Katie also teaches private music lessons and promotes Fair Trade by selling items which are handmade by women artisans around the globe who are escaping the slums, sweatshops, and sex trade.

Dreams Believed

Katie’s big, scary, long-term dream is to get her graduate degree in college student development and take Celebrate Recovery (a Christ-centered, 12-step program) onto university campuses. She wants to prepare college students to handle life’s hurts, habits, and hang-ups BEFORE starting careers and families. CR was incredibly helpful to Katie during her infertility journey, and she wishes she’d had those coping skills sooner!

Useless (But Interesting) Trivia About Katie:

• Was in her first musical at 6 years old. Still occasionally wonders if she could make a living performing solely in Gilbert & Sullivan shows.
• Is the oldest of five sisters. Is the only one of her sisters to have kids. Has two daughters. #GirlsRule
• Invented her own language for her first full-length novel, complete with a unique grammatical structure that eliminates the need for prepositions. #NerdAlert
• Considers herself an ardent feminist.
• Was a National Merit Scholar Finalist in high school and thought that would be her ticket to a fulfilling, successful future. (Spoiler alert: That’s not how life works.)
• Is a board game enthusiast.
• Names A Wrinkle in Time as her all-time favorite book and Madeleine L’Engle, the author, as her role model.
• Claims her favorite vocal work in her repertoire is the I Hate Music! Song Cycle written by Leonard Bernstein, which she performed at her college senior recital. There may or may not be something rather Freudian about that.
• Credits any success she may have in the future to the Pinterest genius who suggested making twice the amount of coffee in the morning so you can have hot coffee in the morning and iced coffee in the afternoon. That person is a true scholar.

Now that you’ve gotten to know Katie a little bit, why not pop over and start reading through all her articles?