Her Story
Reese and I grew up in the same neighborhood. He is 5 years older than me so we didn’t interact much as kids or teens. I always thought he was smoking hot though ;) Ya know the normal little sister crush on your brother’s friend.
In Spring of 2016 I found myself doing a lot of soul searching, I was actively seeking a spiritual experience. I had started meditating and trying to find strength after a traumatic few years of horrible decisions, followed by very intense consequences (but that’s a story for another time). I wanted to try a sweat lodge and I knew my brother and some of his friends went to one in Atlanta. I had done a sweat one other time in Arizona while on a church mission trip, when I was about 14 years old. It was life changing and the closest thing to a positive spiritual experience that I could remember. My hope was that I could re-create that previous experience. Well the universe had much bigger plans for me. My brother was "busy" that night so Reese came and picked me up. I had never felt more comfortable with someone, than I felt that night with Reese. I still laugh when I think about it because most of what I remember from the actual sweat was super uncomfortable for this extreme introvert. There were sweaty, half naked hippies singing and making animal noises, I kid you not!! That didn’t seem to matter to either of us, the universe was already at work.
At the time, Reese’s daughter Everley was 3 years old. My son Rylan was 1.5 years old. One of the first times we all hung out together, we took the kids to a strawberry farm. Everything just seemed to fit almost too well. The kids loved playing together and my school girl crush was quickly evolving!! It was so nice to finally have a friend for Rylan, but also to have a friend myself, someone who understood the daily struggles of single parenthood.
We spent the better part of the next year bond with each passing day. Each adventure took us just a little further away from single parenthood and closer to a perfectly blended family.
In August 2017, we shared the most exciting news of all with our little loves. The kiddos had been promoted to Big Bro and Big Sissy because, Nose Picker No. 3 was on the way.
Murphy Lane arrived on February 13th 2018!!
He was welcomed with so much love by his proud brother and sister!! Mommy and Daddy were over the moon in love with our little peanut!! Those first few days with Murphy, as a family of 5 will always be some of my favorite memories. Watching our kids fall in love with their baby brother the same way we were, bound us in ways I never thought possible, as a blended family.
We tried to figure out every way possible that I could keep my full time desk job and our two incomes. The goal was to try and work from home as much as possible and use my mom as a part time babysitter. Well after months of back and forth and budget analyzing, I took a leap of faith and left my job to become a full time stay at home mom!
Just a month after Murphy was born, Reese and I closed on our home. As single parents, we never thought it would be possible to own a home. Never think never. Together we were able to get a home loan and finally put roots down for our family.
We weren’t in our house a week before my sweet hubby started in on our frontyard! We had raised garden beds full of yummy fruits and veggies before we had our boxes unpacked.
In July of 2018, just 5 months after Murphy arrived, and 4 months after moving into our home, Reese and I finally had some time to get married!! So we flew our kiddos and our closest family and friends out to Oregon. There we spent time with family and celebrated our love and excitement for the future. We were married by an old friend from our neighborhood, on my cousin’s breath taking property surrounded by so much love.
Oregon will always be a special place to our family.
This is our story and I am grateful for every second of it. Without each trial, along with the daily external struggles, we would have never found our strength.
This is just the very beginning of our story!! We have made it through good days and bad day, good chapters and bad chapters. Now we are ready for our best chapter! You know the chapter where we get to raise our sweet little humans in an environment surrounded by health, kindness, life, beauty, love, compassion, growth, forgiveness, nature and so so much more!!!
