From Fixer-Upper to Ashes

After becoming parents to baby Ember, we moved from town to the countryside when we were able to purchase a little bit of land. The house was not the greatest. In fact, it was in horrible shape and was only a thousand square feet (even less than our first house in town). But we planned to slowly renovate it and add on in time. The valuable part of this place was the land. There was enough room to bring my horses home for the first time ever, and still enough for our daughter to run around on.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve read about the fire that came through only months after our escrow closed on this property (if you missed it, check out the first of the series here). On October 6, 2017, Emmy turned one. We celebrated at our new property with family and created some wonderful memories. But just a few days later on October 9, 2017, a wildfire swept rapidly through the valley and burned down our home, all of our belongings, and nearly claimed our lives. 

Rebuilding Our Home & Our Lives

Although this was an extremely traumatic event, we had a baby girl who depended on us and was watching our every move. We allowed ourselves some time to mourn the loss of our previous lives and deal with the shock, and then we picked ourselves up and worked toward our future. We had hoop after hoop to jump through, hurdles tossed in our path, and the road was bumpy. But we fought our way through, remaining a team, choosing to love one another through it all. We were finally able to rebuild a new home of my own design. But make no mistake, we would give it all up in a heartbeat to rewind time and avoid the fire altogether.

Eventually, we moved into our new home and worked on building a new life together. On April 6, 2019, we welcomed Emmy’s little sister, Karissa Brooke. She brought new light into our dark world and together, our girls encouraged us to place one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward one day at at time.

And the hardships continued to come. On June 1, 2020, we lost my father-in-law to suicide (if you missed that post, check it out here). In December of the same year, one of my most dear friends lost her battle with cancer. And more hardships will continue to come, I’m sure. No one ever said life would be easy. We jokingly tell our kids all the time, “Don’t grow up. It’s a trap.”

But we also know that we are survivors, we are resilient, and we will always remain a team, supporting each other through the good times and the bad. We will choose to love through it all and leave a positive legacy for our daughters. Spread kindness with a smile, show sympathy for those who are hurting, and be sure to take care of your own well-being as well.

To be continued… (You can find “Choose to Love, part a” here.)