I’m often asked about the story behind the logo…

I was out hiking alone one day, more than 20 years ago – walking, processing, deep in thought. I found myself in unfamiliar territory, carrying both a sense of newfound freedom where I could finally begin to breathe, as well as an oppressive weight of grief that I have never known. 

After fourteen years, I had just filed for divorce. I found myself as a single mom of four daughters – 4 months to 13 years old – working full-time for the first time as a mother, and enrolled in school as a full time student. It was a disorienting season of uncertainty. 

As I walked along a now-familiar trail, I took a seat at a lookout point and began talking with the Lord. I brought everything I was carrying into that moment – my despair, worry, fear and also a quiet sense of unexplainable joy and peace. I remember asking if there was still hope for my life as I wrestled with a deep sense of failure.

The weight I was carrying felt immense. And yet, after years of struggling through marriage, it was different – quieter, almost minuscule in comparison. I had learned to endure, embracing resilience, fortitude and resourcefulness as if they were badges of honor. Quietly, I held my breath, wondering if I would ever truly live again – dream again – hope again.

That was the moment everything shifted.

I looked up and saw this glorious evergreen tree beside me. How had I missed it? There it was -heroic and fully alive – growing straight out of the rock ledge beneath it.

Even in the hardest places, life comes forth. 

I knew that the Lord was meeting me here and that I was going to be ok – I was going to live again. 

That was the day that I began to understand the power of AND. 

No matter what life throws – AND – is always close by.

Stories do not need to end. Hope does not need to retreat. Life does not need to yield.

In developing Hope and Healing Pathways, It was important for me to honor that truth – the quiet, steady reality that life can emerge even in the hardest places, and that what feels like the end may simply be where something new begins.

AND…