Living Inspired and Free With Oola

My Oola story began in the Spring of 2017 but Oola changed my life in November of 2018. On November 20th, 2018 I found that my son, technically my foster son, had passed away in his sleep. He had been a part of mine and my husband’s life for 19 1/2 years and my world had just fallen apart. I didn’t know how I would go on living with out him because he was my everything and then it came to me, words that Dr. Dave had taught us, Be Grateful and Have Faith, even during the hard times. So literally hours after Matt passed away I just kept repeating, Be Grateful and Have Faith. With the help of friends we planned his funeral and Celebration of Life and 5 days after we had buried him we were attending our first Oolapalooza in Las Vegas. I didn’t want to go but friends lovingly pushed us to go and I am forever grateful they did because I got to be around so many amazing people and was able to set a very scary new goal for 2019, to open my heart and home to more individuals with special needs. When Matt passed away I told Todd I didn’t want to be a Professional Parent or Host Home Provider anymore because I didn’t want my heartbroken again but God had a different plan for me and it wasn’t just to be a Host Home Provider again. I spent every day trying to remember to Be Grateful for the time I had with Matt and to Have Faith for what God had planned for me. Boy did he have a plan for me! I told my friend who had been trying to get me to work for her to find me a job, just one problem, I hadn’t interviewed for a job in 23 years! I didn’t have a resume and didn’t know how to create one or a cover letter! Thanks to Google I figured out how to do both! After my fourth interview I was hired on the spot to work with at risk 8th graders in a junior high. I still worked on Having Faith and when I had my evaluation at the end of the year the principal told me I was a Godsend to the students. I knew I had found why God took Matthew from us, it was so I could help my sixteen 8th graders. Now they are 9th graders and my group has grown to twenty six! Because of the loss of Matthew I have regularly attended a weekly grief group where I have learned so much and in turn I am able to take those lessons to help my students because many of them are dealing with their own traumas and even got a grief group for the school started this year. In May I was able to fulfill my Oola one goal and we had an amazing young man move in with us for almost five months, and have had two other placements since. Todd and I have made it through a year without Matt but not without spending that year being forever grateful he was in our lives and having faith in what God’s plan was for us.