In 2019, I came across a study from Mastercard stating that female founded companies were on an increase across the United States by about 22%. Except in North Dakota where we were declining by 1.5%. That inspired me to found She Overcomes, a nonprofit to support female founded companies in my region.

At the same time, Startup Nation released statistics saying that female founders identified their top three reasons for lack of growth in their companies were lack of access to capital, to authentic community and to mentorship.

With that, I asked my friend Jennifer to help me create a program that would answer those three problems and that’s where She Overcomes was birthed.

In Spring of 2019, I was invited to go to Chaing Mai, Thailnd with a team from my church. We had the pleasure of serving a farmer in the Northern region of Thailand, hospice care and at the Agape Home. When I walked on the property, the joy and hope that filled the air was tangible. Avis RIdeout, the founder of the Agape Home has an amazing story of serving her community and bringing hope to a generation of children. Many of whom, will never be adopted.

I was able to partner with Agape Home to create a line of pillows that supported their mission, but so much more work must be done. This place changed my heart, gave me hope and filled me with a desire to go back to see these children receive the unconditional love only a family can provide.

In 2017, I met Charmaine Hedding, founder of Shai Fund. She and I had a divine connection as roommates on a humanitarian trip we took to Jordan and Israel together. We became immediate friends and she felt like a long, lost sister. A long lost sister who single-handedly goes into warzones, retrieves women and children and restarts communities after genocide.

She told me about a 19-year-old woman who’d been trafficked by ISIS that year and how that child needed to get out of the country and find refuge. I knew immediately that I wanted to work with her, however that could look. A couple months later, she invited me to go into Iraq while ISIS was still in control to help a community take their land, livelihoods and identity back. The mission was to help one family return and rebuild to spur hope for an entire town. After the work was done, over 800 families returned. Can a city change in a day? When God is on the work and people see the need, yes. Yes it can.

In 2014 I heard the co-founder of Unseen speak at a local event, now known as Startup Brew. He talked about how gratitude can change your life. He introduced Unseen, which is a local nonprofit that accelerates the fight against human trafficking and its root causes. I’d just come out of a very dark season and I knew I was wasting my life and was immediately inspired to support this cause.

At the end of his talk, he dropped a casual call for a new position they just opened and I applied that day. He didn’t know, but years before this, I’d traumatically lost two children in the adoption process. While adoption didn’t become a part of my personal story, joining Unseen and supporting organizations that care for the orphan and the widow would.