Prescott roots. A childhood around the world.
I was born and raised in Prescott, Arizona. My parents were in ministry and on the mission field, so our life also took us around the globe. Faith has been part of my story from the beginning.
I got married to Eli at 20. We moved to Southern California, where he served in the Marine Corps. I was a military spouse, and we lived in military base housing for three and a half years.
Military life, a deployment, and our first baby.
Eli was deployed for seven months. During his deployment, I renovated a fifth wheel. After he returned home, we decided to try for our first child.
Before and during that pregnancy, I began having severe reactions. We had dug up our backyard in Southern California, and the reactions around that time landed me in the hospital several times. During pregnancy, I became sicker, and the illness continued after our first baby was born.
Looking back, I can see red flags for mold in that base housing that I did not recognize then. You don’t know what you don’t know. At the time, I did not understand what my body was reacting to. Now I think of that season as the beginning of my bucket becoming too full and starting to tip over.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
A fifth wheel, then a home we thought was ours to build.
When Eli got out of the Marine Corps, we moved into the fifth wheel with our six-month-old baby. We lived there for about six months before purchasing our first home.
We had no idea that house was riddled with mold. We lived there for nearly three years. I had our second baby at home in that house, still unaware of what we were living in.
That home became part of a season of remediation, refining, healing, and hardship. What we had hoped would be a new beginning became one of the hardest chapters of our lives.
The days that felt like my deathbed.
There was a stretch of roughly six months to a year when I was bedridden and deeply miserable. At my lowest, it felt like I was on my deathbed. It was the longest, hardest journey, mentally and physically.
I could barely keep up with everyday life or care for my kids the way I wanted to. My marriage was crumbling under the weight of what we were going through. Illness touched everything: motherhood, our home, our relationship, and the way I saw the future.
My mom helped so much. Thank the Lord for moms. Her support was a huge part of how we made it through, and I want that part of the story remembered too.
The first turning point.
In April 2024, my first sinus procedure finally helped me begin turning a corner. I had been dealing with a sinus infection for more than six months, and multiple rounds of antibiotics had not cleared it.
During the procedure, a severe fungal infection was found, and I needed antifungal treatment right away. That was an important turning point in my experience, but it was not the end of the journey.
Several doctors, three surgeries, and a long road forward.
It took several naturopathic doctors, several conventional doctors, three surgeries, and thousands of dollars to get to where I am now. There were many therapies, treatments, and decisions along the way.
I am still on my healing journey. I do not want to tell this story as though one procedure, product, or protocol fixed everything. Healing has taken time, effort, help, and a lot of learning.
There were hundreds of hours of research, late-night Googling, and frightening answers that left me trying to sort out what might apply to me. I know what it feels like to be exhausted, scared, and searching for a place to start.