Hi there.

Thanks for stopping by. My name is Marina — I was born and raised in Russia, graduated from college in 1997, and moved to the United States to pursue my American dream.

In 2005, I became a mom. My firstborn, Will, now a young adult, was diagnosed with profound autism at the age of two. His diagnosis changed my life’s trajectory forever. I suddenly found myself alone and uncertain, with a beautiful child who seemed just as lost in this world as I was.

Reading other autism blogs — and eventually writing my own — became my lifeline. Sharing my story gave me strength, helped me become a better parent, and taught me to see beauty through the mud. The lotus became my guiding metaphor, inspired by a line from Roy Richard Grinker’s book:

“...the unexpected, even the beautiful, can emerge even from the undesirable, like a lotus growing out of the mud, its beauty and purity unsullied by its origin.”  

This belief — that light and growth can rise from struggle — became the foundation of everything I do.

My journey as a mother, data leader, and writer has now come together in my memoir,
🌸 The Lotus Whisperer: A Memoir of Faith, Data, and Becoming —
a story of resilience, transformation, and finding beauty in unlikely places.

This blog is for me, my three children, and for anyone searching for their own lotus — for hope, meaning, and light in the mud.