From an early age, I have been someone who approaches life with an uncommon zeal. Maybe it’s because I’m the youngest of three, maybe it’s because I was the only girl and I always wanted to do whatever my brothers were doing, but I have never wanted to miss out on an experience.

I’ve also always had an insatiable curiosity about others and a drive to experience as much of “life” as I could, and the past four decades have been filled with truly rich experiences. I worked for ten years as a professional actor (I’m still a member of SAG-AFTRA), then turned my attention to international travel and volunteering. After trying on a job in corporate America working for two years in the C-Suite of an international prestige beauty company in New York City, I joined the staff of a non-profit arts organization as Director of Global Community, where I spent time connecting with artists and creative catalysts, producing events, and hosting a podcast, where I interviewed artists and creative catalysts from across many disciplines. From there, I worked as a freelance writer and producer for organizations including Christianity Today, Fuller Theological Seminary’s Max DePree Center and Brehm Center, and several other non-profit organizations. But it took spending time in El Salvador at a wonderful ministry called La Casa de mi Padre to discover my calling to be a mother to children not born to me. In 2013, just two years after we were married, my husband, Karl, and I became foster parents in Seattle, Washington. Over the next seven years, we would care for many children who came and went from our home, ultimately adopting our two daughters and three sons.

Right after our first children were placed with us, I became painfully aware of the dearth of resources for new/inexperienced foster parents. We found ourselves facing challenges with no idea where to turn. So, in 2014, just six months after our first children arrived in our home, I started a YouTube channel in order to share some of the hard-won lessons I was learning on the fly, and A Fostered Life was born. With over 5,000 followers on YouTube and thousands of subscribers to A Fostered Life’s blog, I have built a body of free resources that are now being used by foster parents and foster care agencies around the world.

In 2018, I started offering mentoring and coaching to foster parents through a private online community I created called The Flourishing Foster Parent. For two years, I hosted weekly Coaching Calls and welcomed professionals from throughout the world of foster care to speak to my group of foster parents. I recorded over 100 hours of content to help foster and adoptive parents. When the pandemic hit in 2020, like many working mothers, I had to pivot to homeschooling and working to create a flourishing environment 24/7 for my own kids.

The Flourishing Foster Parent came to an end, but my interest in coaching was just getting started. In 2021, I started training and began working toward accreditation with International Coaching Federation (ICF).

My client base includes artists and entertainers, entrepreneurs, stay-at-home parents, clergy, professionals in career transition, non-profit start-ups, adolescents crossing the bridge from high school to what’s next for them, and—yes—foster and adoptive parents.

In addition to my work as a life coach, I am a student of theology (Fuller Theological Seminary), a worship leader and musician, and passionate about proactively seeking the flourishing of my family, neighbors, church, and community.