Today I’d like to share a highly vulnerable story with you in the hopes of getting one very important message across: You are NEVER at fault for your sexual assault. EVER. Shortly before I met my husband, I met another man through online dating. He was from out of...
Freedom Day 2020 Five years ago today, I began my journey out of a cult. I walked into a counselors office for the first time in my life and asked for help. I didn’t fully understand what kind of trauma I had endured; after all, it was my “normal.” I began the...
We’ve been preparing for the today for months. Actually, 40 years is probably more accurate. And finally, it is finished. After abandoning my mother six years ago and leaving her financially destitute, bruised, and broken, my father finally decided to file for divorce...
"Triggers are our teachers." ~ Dr. Nicole LePera A Gentle Parenting Blog that I follow on FB (Flourishing Home's and Families — check them out!!) shared this quote today. I instantly thought, "Wow, this is SO true!" My husband, Joshua, and I were in our counselors...
1,604 Days That’s how many days I have been fighting in a court for legal justice against my ex cult leader, Bill Gothard. One thousand, six hundred and four long, exhausting, treacherous, grief-filled, gut-wrenching, heart-stopping, healing, redemptive, beautiful,...
“Your courage was not wasted or in vain.” Today I received this beautiful, hand-crocheted lavender lap blanket and encouraging letter from a woman I have never met. Her sentence quoted above instantly brought tears to my eyes. This is not the first gift I’ve received...
One year ago today I gathered every ounce of courage I had and did something that would forever change my writing and public story. I went live on NPR and for the very first time, publicly named my second sexual abuser — my father. Until that day I had been very open...
The Year of Gratitude New Years Eve 2009 I was approaching deaths door step due to a Crohn’s flare and was being prepped for emergency surgery. Tonight I am toasting in the New Year with the love of my life. ? When I choose “Gratitude” for my word of 2019 it was...
October 20th, 2015. Yesterday was the four year anniversary of the initial filing of the lawsuit against my former cult leader. Four years. Who knew one’s life could completely change in just four short years? Today I sit back in awe of everything I and my fellow...
I feel restless today. I’m itching to be somewhere where I’m not yet. I’m yearning for a place of healing where I have not yet reached. The last several weeks I’ve been going through a rough patch in my healing journey. Some dark memories have been resurfacing a lot...