Getting to know Chrystal Fude: Mother of six and Teacher at Our Lady of Sorrows Home School

There is a very important reason why choirs and bands have a director: because if everyone did their own thing, the program would fall apart very quickly. Chrystal puts a tremendous amount of work into teaching her family how to work together and serve as an example to others about how beautiful that can be. Whether waiting for her husband in a home improvement store or doing community service work, she always reminds her family to smile and fight the stereotype of big families—squabbling groups of noisy children.

Image Credit: Angelina Litvin

Chrystal Fude is a guest interviewee on The Young Catholic Apostle and the beautiful woman I have the honor of calling “mom”. A Catholic from birth, she grew up thinking she would raise and train horses. Fortunately, she followed the promptings of the Holy Spirit, married Joe Fude in March of 2000, and welcomed their first child, Logan Fude, a year later. Since then, they have had five more children. While she grew up with only one sibling, having friends with lots of big families inspired her to strive for a cohesive team of devout Catholics within her own family.

Chrystal has dedicated her life to accomplishing this mission by being a stay-at-home mom and teacher for all of her children from kindergarten on up, regardless of the challenges. Her dedication is obvious to anyone observing a normal school day. She nimbly juggles several different teacher’s manuals and fields questions on how to form letter shapes and how to solve algebraic exponents within minutes of each other. Not only does she handle the education of the family, but also handles all of the scheduling and housework (which is no small task with two dogs and 14 acres to track in on the rugs!).

In many ways, this dream has already borne fruit. Five out of her six children serve at their home parish, St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, in ministries such as alter serving, reading, ushing, singing, and distributing the Eucharist as an extraordinary minister. While every day has its ups and downs, the Fude family would not be the same without their wife, mother, director, and friend.

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Want to find out more about Chrystal? Read this interview on Mothers as Leaders!

Is there an extraordinary person in your life? Suggest them for interview and profiling! Please email me at youngcatholicapostle@gmail.com