AM Collective, Stokes Family
Hollie Stokes
Season of Motherhood June 2023 Rooted
Season of Motherhood June 2023 Rooted
AM Collective, Stokes Family
Hollie Stokes
Artifact Motherhood May 2023
Artifact Motherhood May 2023
AM Collective, Stokes Family
Hollie Stokes
Artifact Motherhood September 2022
Artifact Motherhood September 2022
AM Collective
Hollie Stokes
A Mother's Prayer

One of the hardest lessons I learned as a young woman is to never put people, especially those you love, on a pedestal. For years as a child, teenager, and young woman, I held my mother in such high regard that I thought she could do no wrong. She was absolutely perfect in every way. Unfortunately, I was setting up our relationship for failure. When I discovered her brokenness, the glass house I meticulously built around her in my head shattered. It was devastating to find out she had flaws that ran very deep and parallel to my own. Oh how my pride and vanity melded into anger. It took a long time to accept the person, the mother, I discovered in the wreckage. I now realize how unfair it was to put her up on that perch in the first place. This is a lesson I certainly learned the hard way, and one I desperately want you to avoid.

A Mother's Prayer
Stokes Family, AM Collective
Hollie Stokes
Wonderfully and Perfectly Made
Wonderfully and Perfectly Made

Motherhood Photography

,

Radical Trust

,
Radical Trust

My family and I have been quarantined at home for 34 days. I have left my home only a handful of times to pick up groceries or prescriptions. I must confess, I was very optimistic when this all started. I thought it was going to be an opportunity to slow down and really weed out the daily hustle. I would get quality time with my family. I would get a lot of stuff done. I would document our days showcasing the beautiful chaos. While this is true, I didn't anticipate the deep emotional and mental sufferings I would endure. Grieving for how life used to be and accepting our new reality.

I’ve been wandering in my own Garden of Gethsemane, right here in my home. I’ve been agonizing and lamenting over the cards my family has been dealt, and I failed to see it as an invitation. An invitation to accept the road that lay before us. An invitation to dive deeper into my faith. An invitation to radically trust.....

, ,

Ray Summer Story Session

, ,

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of documenting a dear friend and mother of two. This is Jessica and she is as  beautiful inside as she is out. One of my first Artifact Motherhood sessions (link to her AM session here), she has since welcomed another son into her sweet family. We’ve been discussing, on and off, of doing a similar session with her newest addition. A few of my favorite moments from her motherhood summer story below.




,

Pretty Is As Pretty Does

,
Pretty Is As Pretty Does

I’ve been surrounded by boys all of my life, and I never imagined I’d be blessed with two pretty daughters. I truly thought my fate was sealed as a boy mom. Now that I have you two,  I can't help but reflect on how the prettiest, most influential women in my life instilled important values and morals--purity, kindness and patience.

, ,

Byrd

, ,
Byrd

I look at my hands and I see my mother’s hands. My mom is very youthful, but her hands are a dead giveaway to her age. Miles women’s hands age in a way that the rest of them doesn’t. It's reflective of who they are. They’re providers. The Miles women--it’s a definitive trait of theirs. They’re hard working women. When I look at my hands I definitely see that nurturing, selfless quality that my mother, my aunts and grandmother’s hands have. I think it’s easy to think you’re not a selfless, nurturing person, but in the last few years it’s definitely something I’ve learned. I will do things for other people until I have nothing left to give. My son, Rockne, has given me the opportunity to be more selfless. I have to practice everyday--putting his needs before my own.