A Letter from Carissa Pluta

My dear sisters,
A few weeks after finding out I was pregnant with a little girl, I woke my husband up in the middle of the night in tears. I was so happy to see the wiggly little babe inside me, and was so excited to have a name to call her by. She was so loved and that made me afraid.

A son, I felt, I could be a good mother to; I knew I was capable of teaching him how to be soft, how to love and respect women. I didn’t intimately know the struggles faced by young men. But a daughter? I knew those struggles and I was afraid for her. How was I supposed to teach a little girl about what it means to be a woman when my own womanhood was muddled in all the temptations and lies that we are bombarded with daily?

Watching her little life unfold has been an incredible gift. Watching as she’s figured out how to hold up her head, grab my hand, smile, laugh. And, in the midst of late night feedings and diaper changes, I found myself pondering this mystery that is my child, wondering who she will become. But before she becomes a wife and mother, friend and sister, she is first a daughter.

Before she opened her eyes, before takes her first steps, before she will ever even know her name, she is a daughter. Everything she does stems from the truth that she is a daughter unconditionally loved and utterly delighted in.

Her daughterhood is foundational for who she is, and for who we are.

It was the very thing that Satan attacked in the garden. He made Eve question the Father’s love for her and the uncertainty of her identity not only caused her to fall, but Adam as well. Without our identity rooted in our daughterhood, we are more susceptible to lies about who we are, more tempted to believe that we are are nothing of consequence.

Sisters, at the very heart of who we are as Catholic women, in the most sacred fabric of our being, is the heart of a daughter.

A daughter molded by the very creator who formed the Earth with His hands, who painted the stars we see at night, who breathed life into man. A daughter of the One who calls the sun to rise each morning and set each evening, and the One who commands armies of Angels. A daughter of a Father who created you to love and to be loved by Him, of a Father who suffers alongside his children and who triumphed over death.

I pray you rest easy, my dears, like my daughter, in your Father’s arms, knowing that you are loved and knowing that you are delighted in.

Vivi d’amore,
Carissa

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Hey! My name is Carissa Pluta. I am 26-years old and am a Long Island Native currently living in Birmingham, AL. I am the wife of a FOCUS missionary and the mother of a little girl with eyes as deep and blue as the sea. I am a bibliophile who enjoys hiking, Paul Simon, and drinking copious amounts of herbal tea. I am drawn to beauty and write about it on my blog--themythretold.com

What does your vocation look like on a day-to-day basis?

That’s a good question; I feel like I am still figuring out what a normal day looks like, ha! It primarily consists of early mornings, baby-feedings, cleaning up messes, and laughing a lot.

What effect has parenthood had on you and your husband?

It has made us see ourselves more clearly for who we are--both the virtue and the sin--and thankfully has made us much better people. I thought I was a decently selfless person, but parenthood has a way of pulling up selfishness by its roots and planting some beautiful seeds in its place.

What’s been the most surprising aspect of marriage? And of motherhood?

So far in two years of marriage, I’ve been the most surprised by how fun little everyday chores, like grocery shopping or cleaning the kitchen, can be when you do it with your spouse.

And as for motherhood, there are moments where I am struck by the mystery and reality of who my daughter is. She is her own person, with her own soul and her own thoughts, opinions, and desires. And even though I carried her in my own body for nine months, there is still so much I get to learn about her.