07/22/2026
Long post alert….
This week’s Testimonial Tuesday looks a little different today. ❤️
Instead of sharing what a client has said about my service, I wanted to share a little of my own story.
One of the things I wrote in my gratitude journal this morning was that I was grateful for stability.
Growing up, we moved almost every single year. I never really knew what it felt like to stay in one home for long. Because of that, one of my biggest goals as an adult was to give my children something I never had—a place to call home.
When I was 21, we bought our first house. We had no idea what we were doing. We were excited about things like having a backyard and hosting pool parties. Unfortunately, when the market crashed, we lost that home in foreclosure.
It was one of the hardest seasons of our lives.
Years later, while pregnant with our fourth daughter, we had outgrown our small three-bedroom apartment, and the rent was rising again for the 2nd time that year. After losing our first home, purchasing another home wasn’t even on our radar.
Then everything changed.
We visited a new home community, and although I had earned my real estate license four years earlier, I had never used it. At the time, I was with a different brokerage. The loan officer at the new home build gave us a simple game plan and showed us exactly what we needed to do to qualify. It wasn’t overwhelming—it was just one step at a time.
We purchased our home, I negotiated $8,000 towards our closing costs and I was able to use my real estate license for the first time, and received my first commission check. What I didn’t realize then was that this purchase would also become my very first real estate transaction.
This year, we’re celebrating seven years in the same home.
Seven years of birthdays.
Seven years of Christmas mornings.
Seven years of family dinners.
Seven years of watching our girls grow up in the same place.
For some people, a house is just a house.
For me, it’s stability.
It’s healing.
It’s answered prayers.
It’s memories.
It’s something I once thought might never be possible.
And here’s the part that still amazes me…
Two years after buying everything came full circle when I joined Realty Concepts.
This August, I’ll be celebrating:
🏡 7 years in our home.
💙 5 years with Realty Concepts.
🔑 10 years as a licensed real estate agent.
📚 2 months as a Broker Associate.
It’s been quite the journey.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that your story doesn’t have to end where it started. A foreclosure wasn’t the end of ours. It became part of the testimony that shaped who I am today.
If you’re reading this and think homeownership is out of reach, don’t count yourself out too quickly. You may not be ready today, but with the right plan and the right people guiding you, it may be closer than you think.
Today, I’m simply grateful—for God’s faithfulness, for stability, for second chances, and for the opportunity to help other families create a place to call home.
Sometimes the best testimony isn’t about where you are today—it’s about how far you’ve come. ❤️
