Well, this gal will not be a stranger to you.  She spent time with us back in April for my Birfday Thursday festivities (yes, the one with the amazing red curls).  But, I’ve long admired her.  She speaks truth, she makes you laugh, she fights for the things she believes in, she is a great mom and has demonstrated how to be a strong woman.  Plus, she takes really fun Instagram photos.

Let me introduce you an OVERCOMER, Laurie –

• What have you OVERCOME? Grief
• What was your turning point? When my sister moved to Portland I lost my best friend and confidant – at least, I wasn’t able to spend time with her as often as I’d like. This happened shortly after I had left a good job, and while I was already at a crossroads about who I was going to be going forward. We had been running a “spare time” business that my mother and I started before she died four years earlier, and that business was keeping me busy and distracted and, looking back, it was a kind of tether to my mother.
  It was obvious that I had become stuck, and there were some
  feelings I needed to deal with to get unstuck. (And a lot of stuff in storage units!) I was no longer identified by the job I had held for five years, and it was becoming clear that the side business was going to be difficult to do alone, so the difficult feelings that those had kept pushed down were coming to the surface. I visited with a sweet friend who is a minister and counselor, and she suggested giving my mother a “gift”. We discussed what a gift for a non-living person might look like, and decided that my gift would be planning my sister’s upcoming wedding. It was something my mother would have done, and it would be a ceremony that could mark a date in time that would be memorable. It’s amazing how easy things felt after that weekend was behind me. Little by little, I have been able to move forward and de-clutter my home, my heart, and my emotional storage unit. I have enjoyed creating a new title and life for myself free of guilt and sadness, and with a LOT of “stuff” moved out of my house!!!    
• 5 word life mantra – Every day is an opportunity.
• Quote you live by – “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Elliot