Embarking on the path of motherhood came as a surprise for Heather. She did not feel ready for the commitment, but with a little one growing inside of her, she accepted the challenge and faced the curve of life. She always knew she wanted to be a mother “someday” and even envisioned a large family (like Cheaper By the Dozen, you know?), yet she wasn’t prepared for the unexpected timing of beginning the journey. 

Heather wrestled with growing a “Mother’s Heart.” She was raised by a narcissistic and dangerously religious (using religion as a weapon and control mechanism) mother, which led to many fears about her ability to be a “good” mother. She desperately wanted to not repeat the methods her own mother had used, but had little support or guidance to learn new and healthier patterns of parenting. 

Less than two years into her mothering journey, Heather’s husband was killed tragically in a mid-air collision between two small aircraft, leaving Heather with a toddler and infant. The following year, she struggled through depression and learned to discern the difference between the “voices” in her heart: her own questioning voice, the loud and repetitive voice of the adversary, and the still, small voice of the spirit. She experienced a transformational “bottom of the barrel” moment in which she asked Heavenly Father to covenant with her to never let her go and she dedicated the remainder of her life into his loving care.

Soon, Heather relocated, remarried, and began a new life journey. At first, life with her second husband was grand, better than anything she had experienced before! With him, she bore 5 more children. She had a passion for pregnancy and birth advocacy, birthed all 7 of her children at home, and made homeschooling and homemaking a full time career. Heather occasionally attended births as a labor doula, studied midwifery, developed her “Mother Heart,” and invested time and money into gaining skills to run her own business, all the while blind to the narcissistic abuse of her husband. 

After 16 years of suffering physical and emotional abuse, Heather’s 2 oldest children worked together to report their family to the Department of Children and Families. In a dramatic and scary move, DCF came late one night and removed the 5 remaining minor children into custody. When Heather discovered the depth and nature of the abuse, and began to realize that she had been mentally manipulated and controlled, she realized she needed to fight for her children and worked diligently with DCF and a therapist to learn about domestic abuse. She was able to obtain permanent sole custody of her children after a remarkably short 4 months, and continues to maintain healthy relationships with the foster parents who cared for her children while she learned and healed. She studied and continues to study good, safe parenting methods, and together the family is healing and growing.

Suddenly a single parent after being a stay-at-home and homeschooling mom for 18 years, Heather applied for a position as a cashier at a local retail store. She magnified her skills, highlighting areas of marketability, such as team leadership, the art of motivation, and sales experience through self employment and business training, and was hired on the spot with her first interview. In less than one year, Heather was able to move into lower level management, and is currently on an individualized development plan to continue to move up in her company. 

Additionally, Heather is now using the skills learned through several trial-and-error attempts at business to expand her fledgling company as a second stream of income and support for her family. 

Heather loves to teach and, having overcome many challenges, also has a passion for assisting mothers through childbearing as well as navigating the transition from stay-at-home mom to employment. She believes that when a mother applies herself to personal growth and development, those skills can be honed and marketed to the workplace environment successfully. 

Kay was born in Kawakawa, New Zealand on Nov 5, 1953. She was the oldest of 6 children of Harry and Muriel Kehoe, who ran a dairy and dry farm in Maromaku, New Zealand. Kay learned to work hard early in her life, and it is one of her strongest abilities. She did all the duties of a farm – milking cows, herding sheep and cattle, and all of the other chores. She went to primary school in Maromaku, and was active in sports and other activities.  She loves new experiences and is willing to try anything.

When she was 13 or 14, she began her high school years (called college in New Zealand) at the Church College of New Zealand, where she was a boarding student.  She was there for 4 years, and developed independence and social skills.

After finishing CCNZ she moved to Auckland. She then felt the prompting that she should go on a mission, so she moved back home, and worked as a telephone operator in Kawakawa, so she could save up for her mission. She was called to serve in the New Zealand South Mission, later named the New Zealand Wellington Mission, where she served faithfully in a number of areas. She was loved by all of her companions and the people she worked with.

Prior to finishing her mission, she began to write to a missionary in the NZ North mission, and they shared missionary experiences and their love of the gospel. When their missions were completed, they continued writing, and their love and desire to be with each other grew strong. Mark flew back to New Zealand in January 1977, and they were married in the NZ Temple on Feb 9, 1977.

She exercised lots of faith, and the couple flew back to New Zealand, where her husband  Mark continued in his university studies. Kay got a job at American Paper company as a receptionist until it was time to give birth to her first child, Aaron. While Mark finished school, she had two other boys, Sean and Kyle. They moved to Cheney, Washington where Mark finished his graduate degree. She served as Primary President while being a remarkable mother and supporting her husband as he completed his degree. During this time, Kay’s mother Muriel had a fatal heart attack and passed away.  

Just as her husband Mark was finishing his degree, an opportunity to work for the Church back in New Zealand presented itself, and they accepted the job. Kay was pregnant with her 4th child, and the young family moved back to New Zealand to live and work. Shortly after arriving in New Zealand, Kay had her first daughter, Rachel. Subsequently, she had two more daughters, Celeste and Sarah, and Kay proved to be an exceptional mother. While doing this, she served in a number of different callings in the church.  She was loved by all she came in contact with.

After just over 12 years in New Zealand, the Church asked Mark to come back to the US, and the family accepted the position and moved back to New England, where Mark was the Agency Director of the New Hampshire agency. Kay continued to serve and became trained in radiology and worked for a time for a local dentist.

After about 4 years, Mark was asked to come back to Utah, and worked in the Sandy office, and finished his career at Headquarters in several administrative positions. Kay went to work with Costco, where she loved to work and was there for over 20 years. She and Mark moved to West Valley City and retired at the same time.  She continues to serve in the Church and is willing to do whatever the Lord asks.

Kay has many talents and abilities, most of which are based around service – service to the Church, her friends and family, and to the community. She has a pleasant disposition and is loved by all she meets.  She is kind and nurturing and loved by her children and grandchildren. Over the last year, she felt prompted to go back to school and enrolled in BYU Pathways. She never considered herself a good student, but as she continued her education, her confidence grew, and now she is in a calling helping others choose to further their education.

It is hard to find words to describe such an phenomenal woman! Her husband loves her very much.  He says he counts himself blessed to have her as an eternal companion.

Her children also count themselves blessed to have her as such a wonderful Mum.

She truly sets the bar at its highest when it comes to motherhood. Her son Kyle often recalled a memory when he knew his mother was the most beautiful and strong mum in the whole world. At a scouting activity, Kay’s zip line broke and she went crashing to the ground. Her son was so worried but said he had never been prouder to have anyone in the entire world be his mother. She handled it with beauty and grace. The strength she emulated was something he said he would never forget.  

Her daughter-in-law, Diana, who submitted Kay’s name to the Wall of Honor, says she is a perfect example of being Christ-like. She is the most kind-hearted woman with the cutest accent you could ever meet.  She is fun and full of life and offers the best advice. Her smile can light up a room. Marrying into Kay Duke’s family was the best thing Diana ever did!

FORMER DIRECTOR TO INNOVATE

Sarah is a firm believer that one can have their cake and eat it too. In fact, cake decorating is one of her favorite hobbies! She also loves to sew, knit, read, write, play violin, and dance. Sarah started her first business as a daily money manager when she was a junior in high school. She has run a successful tax practice for more than 16 years. During the last 12 of those years, she has also been raising and homeschooling her two sons.

She is very active in her church where she has served in a leadership capacity for more than 7 years. Sarah believes that her secret to success is first and foremost having an amazing spouse who partners with her in business, child rearing, and home responsibilities. The second thing is that the different aspects of her life are integrated. She brings her kids to the office with her and helps them with school in between client phone calls and emails. The kids work with her by scanning, shredding, and preparing mailings. Lastly, Sarah’s faith is part of who she is and it affects how she interacts not just with those at church, but her family and clients as well.

​Sarah is looking forward to supporting and educating companies and families about the value of mom friendly work environments and using her talents and experiences to help reframe our cultural perceptions of what it means to be “just a mom”. She hopes to improve the lives of moms and families everywhere through creativity, service, and innovation.

Former Director of Unique Circumstances

Stephanne moved to Oregon as a young child from Haiti. As a first-generation Haitian American, she loves living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and calls it home. Stephanne is a single mom of three kiddos, ages 13, 11, and 5, who are the center of her world. During the day she works for a government agency in Human Resources. She loves to serve the citizens of her community to support underrepresented and marginalized groups in her county. She is also an active participant in philanthropic work and an avid supporter of the American Heart/Stroke Association (She is a SURVIVOR),  a Camp Counselor/Counselor Supervisor with Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp (outdoor recreation program to support individuals with developmental, intellectual and physical disabilities); and Haitian Roots to educationally sponsor children in Haiti to have access to education. During her free time, she enjoys spending time with her kids, reading, game nights, practicing her violin, camping and all summer shenanigans! She is GRATEFUL and HONORED for the opportunity to serve as a Board member on the Momivate team.

After Barbara’s death at age 86, her husband gave this lovely tribute to her at a worldwide general conference of the church where he served as an apostle. Bolded portions seem particularly relevant to Momivate’s mission.

“I suppose most of us fail to fully appreciate what others do for us until they are gone. I knew Barbara was always busy, but I did not fully understand the constant family, Church, and community demands upon her time. There were daily consecrated efforts repeated thousands of times through the years that kept our family functioning. And through it all, no one in our family ever heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word.

Floods of memories have washed over me this past year. I have thought about the physically demanding choice she made to be the mother of seven children. Being a homemaker was the only career she ever wanted, and she was in every aspect a consummate professional.
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Often I have wondered how she kept track of our children and me. Meal preparation alone was a truly daunting task, not to mention activities such as doing the mountains of laundry our family generated every week and keeping shoes and appropriately sized clothing on the children. We all turned to her on a myriad of other issues that were important to us. And because they were important to us, they were also important to her. She was, in a word, magnificent—as a wife, as a mother, as a friend, as a neighbor, and as a daughter of God.
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Brothers and sisters, please do not miss an opportunity to look into the eyes of your family members with love. Children and parents, reach out to each other and express your love and appreciation. Like me, some of you may wake up one day to discover that the time for such important communication has passed. Live each day together with hearts filled with gratitude, good memories, service, and much love.”