About
Hello my name is Valerie. It’s only fair that if you’ve come here to get encouragement that I let you in on why I am passionate about encouraging you to live the life God created you for. There have been a lot of circumstances that have contributed to much of my life feeling desperate. I don’t want ANYONE to feel stuck in hopelessness. For many years I was the queen of seeing everything through the lens of “why me…AGAIN?“. I won’t go through all the ragged details, but here is a glimpse of why I believed this. My parents suddenly divorced when I was 10, which led my mom to enable some self-destructive behaviors in my sister and left me to figure things out for myself. My answer to being able to “figure things out on my own” was entering into a relationship at the age of 14 that became verbally and emotionally damaging to me for the next 25 years. Those were very difficult years to navigate because I could not believe that God could possibly have a plan in the chaos. Spending the large part of 30 years in some level of depression and confusion means I know what utter hopelessness feels like.
Eventually though…..I quit being consumed by being a victim. The fog lifted. The scales fell. I surrendered EVERYTHING & God redeemed my story….slowly. He has shown me that there is purpose in every trial I endured. I have been strengthened by every burden I carried. When I see hopelessness in others it breaks my heart and I want to encourage them to trust that God has a plan in it and that they can trust God through ANY circumstance.
I am a 47 year old Christian, wife, mom, business owner and aspiring blogger. I have two biological children, a son and daughter, ages 18 & 20. I have four step-sons, ages 15, 19, 25 & 28. I am also recently a grandma to our first grandchild. From ages 14 – 39 I was in what was largely an emotionally and verbally abusive relationship/marriage. In 2012, I filed for divorce after years of utilizing every resource I could to save this marriage and knowing that I would never be able to save it all by myself. I remarried in 2014 to the most incredible man and we are passionate about doing what the Lord guides us to. We have so many challenges with a blended family and previous divorces, but God always shines through the muck.
I live in Washington and I will always be praying for more sunshine! My passion is helping women overcome whatever is holding them back in life. Stepping outside the fear and anxiety and trusting God. A big part of me overcoming the baggage of my life was the Codependency groups at Celebrate Recovery. I have also had amazing mentors and accountability partners around me that wouldn’t let me stay stuck in the gray darkness of my reality. I want the same for you! I want you to shine! I thank God for bringing you here and pray that you will be encouraged.