Meet Mary Severns

Hi, Waco Moms.  I’m Mary Severns.  I am honored and humbled to be a part of this Wacoan community of women.  I feel like I’m  in the minority as we are not from Texas.  We moved to Waco just over a year and a half ago from San Diego, California.  We left our ocean view rental in “Vacationland” in pursuit of a different, more affordable place to raise our family.  We never planned to move to Waco.  It just came about.  When people here ask us “what brought you to Waco?” I think they expect to hear the common answer of “Baylor” or “we grew up here.”  But we say, “God.”  Because the truth is that it didn’t completely make sense to uproot our family from where we had great friends, my husband had a good job, and our rental home that had an ocean view.  

I’m blessed to be married to my high school sweetheart Dustyn for 22 years. We grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and found ourselves in love with the Southern California coast when we were at Point Loma Nazarene College almost twenty years ago.  We bounced back and forth over the next eighteen years between California and Arizona where we still have family.  We have been raising (and being raised by) our 13 year old son Dylan and our soon-to-be 12 year old daughter Riley.  Most days, we find ourselves running between the kids’ 6-man football games, cross country meets, basketball games, volleyball games, or track meets.

I earned a Literature degree intending to be an English teacher and consequently spent a few years teaching middle school Language Arts and one year as a Jr High Dean and then decided to stop to be at home with my babies.  I spent some of their early school years teaching at a co-op type JK-8 school but never felt called to go back full-time.

Over the years I’ve toyed with the idea of working in real estate, interior design, and publishing.  Two years ago, I was asked to write a biography of a woman with an amazing story that touches on all the deep pains life can offer but still find redemption.  Six months later, we found ourselves in the middle of a move to Central Texas, and I had a dream that I started a blog called “Why I Moved to Waco, Texas” – so I did.  My blog started as a way to journal our adventure while explaining the answer to the question “Why Waco?”

My blog has introduced me to so many amazing readers who have identified with my story, I’m almost finished with the book project, and now I find this chance to write for Waco Mom’s Blog as another step in this role as Writer.  I can’t wait to share more about my family’s adventure – not adventure like jumping out of airplanes or being chased on safari – but the crazy adventure called life where God continually opens unexpected doors for our family to walk through holding hands.

That’s where we’re at right now – holding hands and living life.