about

My name is Jennifer Stankovits and I was born in San Clemente, California. I am the second-born of five children and I enjoyed a wonderful childhood centered around Capo Beach Calvary where my dad was the senior pastor. God impressed Himself upon me at a very young age and I have never walked away from Him.

I married Sid Stankovits in October of 1996. I was one month shy of 19 years old.

In March of 2001, I conceived our son, Jonny. I was attending community college at the time, getting ready to transfer to Cal State Fullerton to major in Art. That was after “searching” for years in community college for the right major for me. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I wanted to use my gifts, strengths and talents, but I wasn’t sure what they were. I wanted my career to be meaningful, something worthy of all the time I would be giving. Nothing seemed to match my criteria, so I settled on Art, but after I learned of my pregnancy, I was so distracted that I dropped all but one class. I figure I would stay home with my baby anyway, so meeting all of the general education requirements didn’t seem so important anymore.

Even throughout my childhood, I battled with mild anxiety. In my young adulthood I was very anxious whenever I had been inside a hospital, so the thought of giving birth in one was terrifying. I immediately started to imagine trying an alternative. I quickly learned of a midwife in Irvine, Lorri Walker. I went to a consultation at her office and decided that I would have a homebirth.

I gave birth to Jonny in November of 2001 at home. Then in May of 2004 I had Aveline at home. And finally, in May of 2007 I had June at home.

Raising my children is the worthy and meaningful pursuit I had been searching for. I truly love being a mother. It is my hope that I can share my experiences and my heart regarding childbirth and mothering and hopefully spread the joy that God has given to me through these things.

I hope you’ll poke around my website and find some inspiration that will embed itself in your heart.

I have such struggles and I blow it every single day, so I would love to hear of your joys and inspiration too, I find sharing those things to be encouraging.

If you’d like to contact me, for any reason at all, my e-mail address is bouquetofparentheses@gmail.com

Here are my girls and me, savoring the final moments that Sid's bike was still Sid's.