I was one of those "horse crazy" girls growing up, and I read every book and novel about horses that I could get my hands on. I was convinced that I was born to be a horse woman and a stallion tamer. At 10 years old I purchased a young filly, half Thoroughbred/half Arabian, and I had my rear handed to me time and time again as I tried to gentle her. She was truly my spirit animal.

It broke my heart when we had to sell her so we could move to Central America, and I've dreamed of owning another horse ever since.

My life was forever rocked when I witnessed my first live birth at 15, when my youngest sister was born. Getting to witness my mother in her vulnerability and in her raw female power was life changing. I believe that it's no coincidence that I was born in a birthing center with a midwife in attendance instead of a doctor, and that this planted the seed for my becoming a doula.

I taught 2nd grade in a Private Bilingual School in Honduras, Central America and worked as a freelance interpreter for medical "brigades" of dentists, surgeons, doctors, teachers, and ministers. I traveled extensively throughout Central America as an interpreter and cultural liaison. I spoke Spanish so fluently, people would mistake English as my second language. I am one of the very few foreign women to have traveled down the Platano River (think: the Amazon of Central America) by pipante (dugout canoe.)

I helped to begin the process of founding FEDEHVELA the Federacion Nacional de Vela de Honduras (national sailing team of Honduras) and had successfully competed in several regattas (sailing competitions.) In the annual international regatta between Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (my first "big race") I competed against the men as the only female competitor in the regatta and placed very well considering I had only been training for 4 months and my peers had been competing internationally for years. I also took home the trophy for first place in the women’s regatta.

By 25, I had healed myself of ovarian failure, an atrophied thyroid, adrenal burnout, chronic fatigue syndrome, sciatica, and piriformis syndrome. My doctors told me that the underlying cause was genetics, and that I would need to take medication the rest of my life to manage my condition. I called "bull!" and proved them wrong, doing my own research and relying on God to heal me through mama nature.

I was always a great lover of literature. I'll never forget my surgeons face in the ER (I had an appendectomy) when he walked in to see me calmly reading A Tale of Two Cities. He swore there was no way I could truly have appendicitis and read heavy literature, but the tests showed otherwise. He and I became great friends, and after a successful surgery, he offered to pay my way through medical school should I decide to become a surgeon! What the Dickens!