Karissa Sherwood is a devoted mother on a relentless mission to "fix" her developmentally delayed daughter, Marley. With no clear diagnosis, Karissa pours her energy into countless therapies and medical appointments, determined to help her daughter thrive. Beneath her fierce resolve, however, lies a hidden current of grief and resentment—emotions she cannot admit, even to herself.
When life-altering events shatter her carefully constructed world, Karissa is forced to confront her deepest fears and unspoken truths. Through heartbreak and revelation, she embarks on a transformative journey of acceptance and self-discovery, one that reshapes her understanding of happiness, peace, and contentment.
Mothering Marley: Wounds to Wisdom is an inspiring and deeply personal story of love, resilience, and the power of rewriting your own narrative. Karissa’s journey reveals that healing begins within and that the pen to craft a meaningful life had been in her hand all along.
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I was a young wife in the thick of mothering three small children when my daughter’s life presented circumstances that were completely foreign to me. I felt overwhelmed, powerless, fearful, and completely alone. I didn’t know anyone in my shoes. I didn’t dare speak my thoughts and feelings about it out loud. It was too painful, too incriminating, and I didn’t think anyone would understand. I didn’t even understand what I was feeling within myself.
I stood in front of my mother one day and pleaded through agonizing streams of tears, “Do you have any journals from any of the women in our family? Anyone on either side? I need to know that someone went through something really, really hard and that they made it through!” Sadly, she said she had nothing. The tiny flame of hope I’d held onto flickered out. My broken heart shattered into a million more little pieces. I really was all alone.
I felt safer to ask for wisdom from mothers who had passed than to look to those who were still living—the living who would judge me and my child. This was the only way I knew to ask for help. I was a desperate mother. I craved the wisdom of others that I didn’t have within myself.
This book is the story of my greatest battle: my struggle, strategy, and ultimate victory. I didn’t find the remedy I was seeking from a journal like I had hoped I would, but I did most definitely find it. My lived experience has molded me into the wise women I desperately sought all those years ago.
It is my hope that this book will be that journal for you. I invite you to read these pages with an open mind and heart, keeping your own journal close by. Curiosity invites introspection, introspection invites awareness, and awareness invites change. When we know better, we do better. We can’t unlock the chains if we don’t know they are there.
GRAB YOUR BOOK NOWACCEPTANCE OF OUR CIRCUMSTANCES STARTS WITH ACCEPTANCE OF OURSELVES.
Karissa Sherwood is a passionate advocate for healing and spiritual transformation. Her personal journey has led to certifications in yoga, sound healing, life coaching, and Reiki, which have helped her cultivate and share her unique spiritual gifts. As a mother of four, including a daughter with special needs, Karissa dedicates her life to fostering wholeness and guiding others on paths of self-discovery and acceptance.
Through her deeply relatable and authentic storytelling, Karissa hopes to inspire a powerful ripple effect in the special needs community—encouraging love, unity, and acceptance between parents and children by first embracing all parts of themselves. Her heartfelt presence on social platforms offers an honest glimpse into life with her daughter Marley, making her a trusted voice for those navigating similar journeys.
Driven by a mission to empower others, Karissa provides tools to break free from ingrained patterns and create legacies of love, connection, and intentionality. She has an extraordinary gift for making others feel supported and seen, walking alongside them even as she leads. Karissa believes that if sharing her story shifts even one parent’s perspective, it will have been more than worth it.
I don’t think there is a work more challenging than motherhood. There is no clocking in or out. So often we are spinning our wheels, trying to catch up. Or we are buried between the covers of our sheets, drowning in the responsibilities we carry. When our child hurts, we hurt. Their pain is our pain and their joy, our joy. Quite honestly, their pain strums our pain and even deeper than that, they strum our pain. Motherhood uproots our deepest pain because our children are our mirrors, constantly reflecting back to us all of our unhealed parts—places within us that are asking for more love and attention. We move about life carrying hidden and unhidden pain, often unaware of how these wounds shape our behaviors, choices, and presence in the world.
The lessons and wisdom I share serve as a template that can be applied in many different circumstances of motherhood, not just in mothering special needs children. The pain you feel is not about your child, it is about you. It all stars with you. When you can change your lens you will change your world As you integrate these concepts, you too, will be able to transform your deepest pain into your deepest wisdom. You are a math for your mountain. I see you. I feel you. I am you.
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