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Hey, I'm Stella
- Faith-Based Relationship Coach & Your New Friend
Let’s Turn Your Lemons Into Lemonade, Together.
I help faith-filled wives who love Yahweh but feel exhausted, resentful, or disconnected in their marriages. You pour out for everyone else, yet the fruit of your marriage and family isn’t matching your beliefs. I know that desperation — I lived it. I believed Yahweh’s truths about love and marriage, but I didn’t know how to live them out practically.
After many years of trying a lot, Yah showed me a better way. His way. Through Laura Doyle’s 6 Intimacy Skills™, I learned how to practically connect my beliefs in scripture to the way I showed up as a wife and mother. I learned how to take responsibility for ME by nourishing myself again, learning how to truly tap into gratitude , and letting go of inappropriate control. His peace, passion, and joy started to flow through me again. Slowly, my marriage shifted from hopelessness and frustration to refreshment, connection, and the kind of joy that feels like sipping a cold, sweet lemonade on a hot day.
Now, through Nourish Her, I walk alongside women who feel that same desperation I once did, helping them align their faith with their actions so their marriages can flourish — full, vibrant, and overflowing with Yahweh’s love. 💛
Let's Get Personal
Surrendering Story: From Lemons to Lemonade
The first night I met Elijah, I leaned over to my friend and said, “I’m going to marry that man.”
Three years later, I was walking down the aisle, convinced Yahweh Himself had handpicked him for me. But let’s just say… the honeymoon phase never really showed up.
The days before our wedding were chaotic. Every time I turned around, I was discovering something new — and not in the cute, “oh he’s particular about folding his underwear” kind of way. My trust was crumbling before the vows were even spoken.
Still, I pushed forward, thinking if Yahweh brought us together, everything would “work out”. Spoiler alert: that’s not how it went.
Control in the Name of Fear
I started our marriage with a death grip on control. I micromanaged, manipulated, and gave ultimatums like my life depended on it. I told him to choose between me and his dreams — and when he chose me, I thought it was an answer to prayer. But really, I just signed us both up for years of exhaustion and resentment.
Underneath all that control was a scared little girl who’d never really healed. I had so much past pain, so much fear of abandonment and disappointment, that I tried to control everything to feel safe. And when he struggled (like all humans do), it lit up every one of my old wounds.
I wanted a Kingdom marriage — I really did — but my faith and my actions didn’t line up at all. I prayed for peace while speaking words that destroyed it. I asked Yahweh to change him, while I was too prideful to see how much I needed changing.
Therapy, Retreats, and Running in Circles
We tried everything. I mean everything.
Therapy. Marriage intensives. Counseling with pastors. Weekend retreats that cost more than our honeymoon. Thousands of dollars later, we were still stuck in the same painful cycle — him drowning in shame, me seething in anger. Both of us questioning our faith and everything we thought we believed about love and each-other.
We were committed for life… but I was miserable and hopeless.
A Flicker of Surrender
By my first pregnancy, I was so consumed by anxiety and anger that I feared losing my baby at every appointment. When I became pregnant again, I knew something had to change — I just didn’t know how. That’s when my cousin, who had been open about her own messy marriage journey, introduced me to Laura Doyle’s work. She challenged me to try something totally against my nature: to let go of control.
She said, “Tell him, ‘I can’t handle being your accountability anymore, because I can’t show up as the respectful wife I want to be.’”
That sentence felt like swallowing glass. Everything in me screamed, “This can’t be right! I’ve been taught to “help”, “fight for”, and “save” the ones I love most. But I was desperate to be a safe space for my baby to grow, so I tried it. And suddenly, things softened. My second pregnancy was peaceful. Joyful. The first real breath I’d taken in years.
The Breakdown That Changed Everything
Of course, being human, I didn’t stay surrendered for long. Control crept back in (fear’s favorite disguise). After yet another meltdown where I threatened to separate, my cousin’s husband walked in — yes, the same one who’s wife had introduced me to these “skills.”
He calmly shared how these principles had completely turned their marriage around, and gave all the credit to his wife. Then he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Before you make any drastic decisions, go all in for a few months. Join the program. Give it everything.” So I did.
Every day I got on a coaching call, devoured The Empowered Wife book, and faced the truth: I had been the architect of my own misery.
Within a week, I wrote my husband a long, heartfelt apology — for the years of disrespect, control, and fear I had poured into our home. Along with it, I made a list of every single thing I was releasing control over.
When I read it to him, he took the deepest breath I’ve ever seen. Tears welled up in his eyes. It was the first time in years that we both felt hope.
Surrender, for Real This Time
Remember those dreams I’d made him give up? Once I let go, he picked them back up. Pregnant with our third, we moved across the world so he could play basketball again — in the very country I grew up in. It was wild, uncomfortable, expensive, and completely illogical. In other words, it was pure surrender and walking by faith. But when money ran out and we couldn’t pay for my coaching anymore, fear started whispering again. I fell back into old habits — threatening, controlling, manipulating. This time, he didn’t budge. He just said, “I’ll see you when the season’s over.”
And that was it. My manipulation had officially lost its power.
Once again, Yahweh stepped in through my cousin’s wife (because apparently, she has perfect spiritual timing). She asked me a few powerful questions, and something inside me shifted. I stopped living on the fence, one foot in and one foot out. I decided to fight for my marriage instead of in it.
Faith, Healing, and Finding My Purpose I realized my pain wasn’t wasted. Yahweh was using every bit of it to prepare me — to help women who feel just as lost and afraid as I once did. Someone generously offered to sponsor me for the Laura Doyle Relationship Coach Training, and I jumped in headfirst.
The first skill that changed everything was gratitude. It melted my resentment, one piece at a time.
I began to see the beauty I’d been blind to — how my husband quietly served our family, how deeply he loved us. I became his biggest cheerleader, sitting court-side at every game, kids on my lap, cheering my heart out. I started expressing my desires instead of my complaints. And slowly, our marriage transformed — from distant and tense to warm, connected, and fun. He started pursuing me again — cooking steaks, making homemade granola, planning date nights. When basketball season ended, he chose to step away from the sport to build a beautiful life for our family. Now he works hard every day, and I finally see how Yahweh’s hand was in all of it — even the mess.
From Lemon to Lemonade
I used to beg Yahweh to change my husband. Now I thank Him for changing me. By shifting my focus from what is broken to what is blessed, I found Shalom. Confidence. Freedom. Joy. I show up *most* days now as the woman I’m proud to be — the wife and mama my children and husband get to watch every day. Our marriage isn’t a lemon anymore. It’s the sweetest lemonade — overflowing with grace, laughter, faith, and forgiveness. Our safe place to land and recharge. And sister, if you’re reading this feeling hopeless, angry, forgotten or alone, I promise you this: Yahweh is not done with your story. Joy and intimacy are waiting for you, too.
