The Drive That Changed Everything

The day I became an author wasn't the day life got easier. It was the day I found purpose in the middle of chaos.

People sometimes ask me how I became an author.

Most assume it happened after I had an idea for a book or finally found the time to write.

The truth is, it happened during one of the hardest seasons of my life.

Josh and I were driving to Pueblo, Colorado to visit my cousin. He was visiting from Taiwan for work and opportunities like this are incredibly rare. We rearranged everything at the last minute because we couldn't pass up the chance to see him while he was so close.

At the time, I was recovering from a miscarriage. I was waiting for calls from the hospital and trying to schedule follow-up appointments. We had also just signed paperwork with our bankruptcy attorney because we were doing everything we could to keep our heads above water.

During that entire drive, we were listening to Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Sometime during that drive a thought hit me that changed everything.

I realized that if I was going to walk through one of the hardest seasons of my life, maybe I could create something meaningful from it.

What stood out to me wasn't just the grief. It was how Josh and I communicated through it.

I was able to tell him what I needed, even when neither of us had any idea what we were doing. He didn't always understand what I was feeling, even I didn’t always understand what I was feeling, but he listened. He trusted me. He showed up the best he knew how.

That's when I knew I wanted to write two books.

One from my perspective.

One from his.

Not because either of us could ever fully understand what the other was experiencing, but because we could understand the role we each played in supporting one another through it.

When we got home, I started writing.

Those became my first two books in the Lucky the BYRD series.

At the time, I thought I was writing about miscarriage.

I wasn't.

I was writing about communication, love, grief, and learning how to survive together.

What I didn't know was that life still had more chapters waiting for me.

The months that followed brought financial rock bottom, career uncertainty, bankruptcy, and more questions than answers. Yet those same challenges became the beginning of something unexpected.

Josh started exploring every resource available to us. That journey eventually introduced us to veterans who had built meaningful lives overseas on social media, opening our eyes to possibilities we had never considered.

At the same time, I realized massage therapy, the career I had loved for years, was no longer where my heart was leading me.

I had found something else.

I had found the writer in me.

For the first time, I saw a career that could travel with me anywhere in the world. Writing wasn't just becoming my profession. It was becoming part of the life Josh and I were dreaming of building together.

As the months passed, I realized the story wasn't finished.

The miscarriage had become only one chapter.

The rebuilding, the healing, the rediscovery of who I was, and the hope that slowly returned became the heart of my third book, Lucky the BYRD: Turning the Page.

Looking back, I never could have imagined that one drive to Pueblo would lead to three books, a new career, and a completely different vision for our future.

I do believe every painful experience happens for a reason.

I also believe we get to choose what we build from it.

For me, that choice became these books.

If my story has taught me anything, it's this:

Purpose doesn't always arrive after the storm.

Sometimes it quietly introduces itself while we're still standing in the rain.

Thank you for taking the time to read a little of my story. If you're walking through a difficult chapter of your own, I hope this reminds you that the chapter you're living today doesn't have to define the rest of your story.

And if you'd like to continue this journey with me, I invite you to explore the Lucky the BYRD series.

These books began with heartbreak, but they grew into something much bigger: a story of resilience, hope, and the courage to keep turning the page.