Chemo & Chickens – Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities

You know, there’s books out there that, you know, if I knew now what I knew then, and pleasure, you’re in it. You don’t feel it. You know, I almost died twice. Once on the operating table with my hysterectomy and once after my chemo. And I wanna say it shooked me up, but it didn’t. It didn’t give me any more thoughts of I was already at peace with, okay, if I don’t make it, I’m already at peace so it didn’t shake my world. Welcome to the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast with DIY Healthy Lifestyle blogger Ahna, a former empowering you to transform your life. One imperfect day at a time. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I’m your host, Ahna Fulmer. Today we have Deanna Schultz on the show. Deanna is the author and owner of the website, one Step Woman. She is a breast cancer survivor, as well as one who lives partially blind. Her passion is to inspire women to create their best lives at home, regardless of the obstacles that they have to overcome. She also shares DIYs crafts, decor, and recipes from their super cute family farm in northern Arizona. Here to share her inspiring story. Deanna Schultz. Good morning. I hear you. Good morning, . Can you see me? Not yet. Well shoot. I’m not seeing anything shut off. You might be able to change down where it says video. There might be an option to change. Which video feed are you getting closer? No. Oh, good morning, Welcome. Thank you. This is so fun to have you. I, I enjoyed reading over your story more in your website and on your blog. One step woman, for everyone listening and. I love pressing the rewind button. You had mentioned that you, I mean you were a business owner. You were running a business for quite some time. Yeah, we actually, is that right? Actually owned two businesses in California. Okay. Oh, wow. I was a real estate broker and owned my own business and my husband. Okay. He had worked for the city that we lived in and when., you know, one of the recessions happened. He was laid off. So then he started his own home inspection, which is what his trade is. And so we ran two businesses until 2015 and I was kind of forced to close mine because I lost part of my eyesight. So, yeah. What a story. Ugh. Yeah. It’s been something, yeah. Now, how common is I definite. I mean, despite being in medicine, I have no clue what the answer to this question is. Share a little bit about why you’re partially blind, and then do you have any idea how common that experience is? Like the statistics. Oh, it’s actually not very common. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t think so. My stepdad was on hospice and my mom had to have knee surgery. I was actually at bootcamp, like an exercise. Class. Doing bootcamp. . and loving it. You know, my daughter was in college and we were, you know, running our businesses and empty nesters, and I came home and it just happened to be like when Clint Eastwood had gotten to his plane crash. And it was at the bottom of the television screen, the banner right. The little notification comes up and, yeah. Yeah. And honestly I thought , they were playing with the fact that he was in an airplane. Don’t ask me why. And it was very wavy and the, the letters were on top of one another. Like these newsroom are getting real creative Why is the news channel making fun of this plane accident or this plane crash? Yeah. So I asked my husband, he said, you know what the screen is. Mm. And I said, no, it’s, it was red too. And I said, no, it’s just so wavy and, and everything. And we had no idea that this kind of thing had happened. So he said, I think you’re just tired. You’ve had a long day. You know, maybe just go to bed early and we’ll see what happens tomorrow. So, you know, I went to bed early and everything, and I had to catch a flight to go. back to Indiana and help my parents. And so I didn’t think too much above it about it, but then when I got there, I had this rental car and I’m looking at all of these signs and they’re wavy and I’m like, oh boy, I, I’ve got to get there. You know? It was just, they kept overlapping so, Anyways, as soon as I was done helping them, and I flew back to California and I, it was getting worse. So I called, she can’t see, and she’s traveling. She’s Exactly. On a plane. Like what do you do? Yeah. And so I went into my. Ophthalmologist. And said, listen, you know, I’m having a problem with seeing maybe I need new contacts. And he says, oh no, you have a hole in your eye and your, your retina is detached. Oh. And I’m like, oh, no. I like, there’s no way I should have flown. I’m lucky to not have lost my eyesight. So I got into the, he goes, you need to go right now. And so he got me an appointment. I went over there and they said, you know, we’ve got to do surgery as soon as possible so you don’t lose your eye. So when they got in and scheduled me for surgery, my retina specialist was able to reattach my. Retina and we thought that that was going to work well with retina surgery. They put a, an air ball or a gas ball behind basically your macular to try to keep it in place so that the stitches and, you know, whatever they’ve done, they, yeah, I’m not sure if they’re stitches, but that it stays attached and you have to lay face down for 55 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day for at least for me, it was 14. Wow. So it was similar to kind of being in traction if you have back surgery, huh? But I had to lay face down. They had these, these little specialty mirrors that you can watch tv and it was really mind boggling. But I did it cuz I didn’t want anything to happen. I. Didn’t wanna lose my eyesight. So after the 14 days, I went in for my checkup and the gas ball actually stays in your eye and it slowly shrinks, but it stays in for like two months. So I really didn’t have a lot of eyesight. And he said, listen, you have myopic degeneration, which is different than macular degeneration in. It’s genetic. Hmm. And your eye sh forms a football shape. And he said the hole is not closing. Hmm. So we have to schedule another surgery. Honestly, selfishly, I was like, dang it, I don’t wanna lay down for another. You know, two weeks. It’s horrible. I don’t blame you at all. I was get my businesses to run and, yeah, exactly. Yeah. So they ended up doing another eye surgery and of course I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t drive for two years. So, you know, my husband drove me. I couldn’t. didn’t really see anything at the grocery store, and it was just around the time that they started the pickup, which was awesome. I just order on the computer and . , you know, my husband got me a huge screen for the computer and . And things like that, but yeah, so they ended up not being able to close the hole, so I have a macular hole in my right eye, and then my left eye, they did surgery on it as, To try to reshape it back into a ball size so that the same thing didn’t happen. So it wasn’t from, it was just kind of the luck of the draw that I have this, and it forms that football shape until. it detaches. So it wasn’t like a physical activity that Yeah. Had the retina detached. It was more of a genetic. So yeah. So it was at that time that I was like, okay, you know what, if I’m not able to drive for two years, I really need to close this part of the business. We worked out of our home. Luckily it was. Low overhead for my husband’s business, and I just jumped in with him and did the accounting and answered the calls and sent the reports, and it worked out well. I mean, I was so grateful that I didn’t have to drive anywhere to . To work. So we did that for a while in the recovery, you know, it was a while, but it overlapped with my last surgery was in. February of 2016, and it was in April that I started having a lot of abdominal pain, severe, and they thought, well, it’s probably. your appendicitis, you know your appendix. So I went in and they couldn’t find what was wrong and I finally had to have exploratory surgery and they said, listen, you have a tumor that has to be removed because we believe that it’s pre-cancerous. And so I went in for my surgery and ended up having to have a complete hysterectomy, and they were able to get all of the cancer. But fast forward, literally two months, and I was moving my mom to California. . , my stepdad had passed away and I had to have a hysterectomy. And literally when we’re moving her from Indiana in October of 2016, that’s when I found like a dimple or a dent in my breast. After we were done moving, when we were traveling back, and went in the next day and found out that I had breast. Hmm. So it was like I dodged a bullet. I thought, oh my gosh, my eye surgeries, I’m adapting, which it is amazing how your body can react and adapt. Hmm. To something that’s happening to you as far as my eyesight, because yeah, although I, my right eye is pretty useless. I still live a full life. I still started my blog and I started to, I was actually just starting to share and fill my time and find something for me with my blog about the eyesight, and then who knows that all of these other things would happen as well. So yeah, I had a mammogram in April of 2016, and it was completely normal. And then October of 2016. , I had breast cancer. It was already four centimeters. So, yeah. What stage were you when you were diagnosed? Do you remember? When I was diagnosed, I was stage two. Yeah. Okay. They thought, well, we’d had caught it and I was so grateful cuz I was stage one for my ovarian cancer. It didn’t require chemo, it didn’t require, you know, they . Got it all with the surgery and then it was stage four and I, they scheduled me for surgery. I had never experienced a relationship with anybody that had had breast cancer. No one in my family had breast cancer, so I, I relied on the doctors and I was so grateful because I went to City of Hope and there’s like a team there. You know, they, they really research and talked to the doctors, talk to one another every week about every case. , so no matter what doctor or oncologist that I had, , they really did guide me. They all knew my story. And I ended up having surgery five days before Christmas in 2016. And it was a double partial mastectomy. And required like 400 stitches. And I’m gonna be honest, I don’t remember. a lot from that time period, but to jump back and five days after I had had my hysterectomy, I was still in the hospital and my dad died five days after. This was like a year in the books. Oh my goodness. Yes, absolutely. Which is so it happens all the time. I feel like it’s like when it rains at pores, , it sure does. Yeah. Yeah. It’s really. And go ahead and, you know, his death is a suspicious death. Oh yeah. I was reading that on your website. You had so many. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, literally for five years now they’ve been collecting evidence. Mm. And trying to move forward. I can’t talk. Too much about it, but sure. It was very shocking for one to be in the hospital and find out your dad’s dead, you know? And you’re well, and it’s so traumatizing to add on top of the idea that there’s suspicion of revolving around a loved one’s death, it like adds a whole layer of pain to the loss in the first place. So you’re going through your own personal loss. Did you experience any sense of grieving when you lost some of your eyesight? Because I feel like that would’ve been. A grieving process too. Okay, good. Yeah. I really didn’t, when I was told, Hey, there’s nothing that you did. , this is just, I, I was very, very faithful. I know that things happened for a reason. Yeah. But I had the incredible support of my family. Mm. So it wasn’t like I felt alone. It wasn’t like . I was completely blind. , you know, and my husband was like, I like having you here every day. Yeah. And we focus on this business, so we’re, we were very fortunate in that regard. Yeah. And it just kept, it really did just keep doubling up. You know, when I found out I had breast cancer, it took the sting away from, my dad’s death. Hmm. I knew that there was something suspicious that had happened. , and I thought, I’ve gotta set that aside and save my life at this point. Yeah. How can I find out what happened to his life if I didn’t live my own life? Yeah. Yeah. And so the recovery was brutal. For breast cancer, I had 13 rounds of chemo and I had 33 rounds of radiation. , you know, I had the surgery. And the surgery. They literally started my chemo two months after my surgery. And you know, your body really doesn’t recover from surgery that quickly when you have 400 stitches. Right. And so it just was a constant state, I think, of numbness. Hmm. But, Oddly enough, everything else kind of goes away. Hmm. In the same time period, there were several friends that we had and two of them died from breast cancer, and that just kind of stabbed me in the heart and I was like, what can I do? To save myself. And you know, I kind of took a, of course, just like when you’re having a baby, everybody has an opinion. Oh, always. Always on what you should do. Always. Yes. , you know, even if they’ve not had cancer, they’re gonna tell you what you should do. Yeah. So I kind of took a holistic approach. I listened to my doctors, you know, I prayed and I said nothing else really matters. The relationship issues. They kind of lessen. Mm. You know, I just, I wasn’t getting into the, the little drama, the little . , like it just kind of went away. Yeah. It’s like when you have this sudden you are based in a very real way with. The end of your life on this side of eternity. It is sort of a forced perspective shift, really. And it’s like how, so if you could answer this question for somebody, what advice would you give to somebody who may not be facing an imminent sense of end of life? You know what I mean? For those of us that don’t, we’re all dying. You know, I always laughed. I didn’t laugh, but inwardly when patients would ask me in the er, am I going to die? I always wanted to say, well, yeah, we all are like . Yeah, we all are. We’re all dying. Some of us is faster than others and so we don’t always have that opportunity to be faced with an end of life diagnosis or a terminal scenario or you know, you’re driving a car and you almost get killed and it does. Shift your perspectives, but for those of us who aren’t in that place, what advice would you have from your perspective for those of us who want to live life to the fullest and and be able to glean from some of that worldview that you. Had and, and have. What advice would you give? Well, I actually was very faithful and prayed, and that’s not the answer that you’re looking for, but when I was. Praying about this. It’s using my head. I was saying, you know, just ignore all this noise and just live and try to survive. But I also, I either read it or someone had told me that no matter what, you’re going to be healed. And when I was in that, honestly, I came to the conclusion of is if this is my time to die, I’ve got to be comfortable with it. I have to, to deal with it. And it wasn’t something that I consciously had to think about or, but God is in the healing business and you’re gonna be healed on Earth or on. And that actually gave me comfort because I thought, no matter what, I’m not gonna suffer. , but all this other stuff goes away. But you know, there’s books out there that if I knew now what I knew then, and yeah, you know, all this, unless you’re in it, you don’t feel it. And I almost died twice. Once on the operating table with my hysterectomy. and once after my chemo. And I wanna say it shook me up, but it didn’t, it didn’t give me any more thoughts of, I was already at peace with, okay, if I don’t make it, I’m already at peace. So it didn’t shake my world it, yeah, excuse me, anymore than finding out I had it or you know, anything like that. But I would say, I wanna say something insightful. About, about that. Yeah. But it is, it just kind of comes over you that all of these other things don’t matter as much in the scheme of things because I was right there at the finish line going, okay, do I see more road ahead? Is this it? , but I’m gonna be perfectly honest. When I say after I was told I was in remission and you live your life, you go back to the little things matter. Yeah. As in an argument, or you go back to feeling the same way and I have to say no. , I didn’t dwell in. Is this the in for me and nothing else? No. I went back to after the initial shock and then you live your life, life goes on and relationships still have hills and valleys and someone’s gonna upset you on the road and you know, somebody says something to you and upsets you and you still have relationship problems and all of that. It’s not so insightful except for when you’re at the very end and you’re like, am I gonna get up tomorrow and say, they didn’t catch it, it’s not treated, and you’re, well, there’s nothing more we could do for you. . , or the other scenario was, you’re gonna be perfectly fine. So the night before I went into the doctor to find out I was, I was in remission. I’m literally laying on my bed going. Which direction. It’s not under my control. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, well, and something that I hear that you haven’t specifically said, but I’m, I’m hearing it just by the way that you communicate, is I also get the sense that you have very much approached life with. Gratitude. I mean, you’ve mentioned the blessings in your life multiple times and Right. I think you have said a lot. That is insightful. Insightful. But I also think there’s probably that element to it that you may not even be realizing that you’re communicating, but I, I see gratitude in your words and in your life, and the ability to pivot in those moments. Right. And to do it with success. I think. Probably stemmed from that sense of, well, I get to spend more time with my husband. I get to work from home. I get to fill in the blank. And so I also have so much respect for the way that you have. Also, it sounds like consciously chosen. To see the blessing in the burdens, and that’s something I think we can all, myself included, take note of and figure out how we can do that in our own lives. We are going to take a quick break. Well, we come back, stay tuned. We’re gonna play a speed round of this or that with Deanna and we’re gonna dive a little bit more into her. Really from website, her farm, and really just her expert advice from her own life of creating your best life, even when life throws you some pretty significant obstacles. Right? When we come back from this break, you have tried it all, worried you will never lose the extra weight or reclaim the energy you once enjoyed. Want to achieve fat loss without spending hours in a gym or eliminating entire food groups from your diet. Well, now you can in the virtual faster way to fat loss. With Ahna, my six week fitness nutrition program, you will learn how to pair effective 30 minute workouts with all natural evidence-based nutritional strategies to leverage what you eat. And when you eat to reset your metabolism and burn fat fast, even that stubborn belly fat. I am a dual certified nurse practitioner, passionate about teaching sustainable strategies to promote fat loss and prevent disease. I have cheered on thousands of clients who have done just that with the Faster Way program. In my six week program, the average client currently sheds seven inches of body. 93% report more energy and 89% state that their mental health has improved. 100% of clients report. They feel this program is sustainable. Curious to try the program, but not sure if the strategies will work for you. Try the faster waste strategies for free. Head to www.hammersandhugs.com and sign up for. Free seven day fat loss accelerator course today and start your own transformation story. We are back here with Deanna. All right, this or that? Two options, no stress. Whatever comes to mind first, would you rather garden with vegetables or flowers? Flowers. What’s your favorite flower? All flowers, to be honest. Like, I like hydrangeas. I like sunflowers, but I love, I’m actually building a, a flower garden or a cutting garden is Oh, so fun. My goal. So do you have hydrangeas on your property? I do. I have about four fi hydrangeas in the back because it’s so shady. But yeah, we are in Arizona. I was gonna say, you guys are in Arizona, so a very different. What is the, what is a really common flower to grow in Arizona? I don’t even know. Besides cactus Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we’re actually in northern Arizona. We’re about, we’re in between flag stuff and Phoenix. Yeah. Which is two very different worlds in fe, in, in Arizona. Phoenix is so definitely hot. And. Flagstaff gets snow for the bulk of the year. Yeah. So we’re kind of right in the middle, which isn’t too bad. They’re actually known for cotton, for growing cotton, so, oh, interesting. So I’m not gonna try it. I’m not a cottoner. That’s Deanna’s. Next leg is gonna be a cotton grower. Oh, that’s so interesting, huh? I could not have said that. Yeah. Cotton. Mm. So we can’t grow citrus here, but it grows well in Phoenix because we have snow on the ground right now. And yeah. It isn’t that so fascinating. It’s amazing. When we were considering moving to a different state, Arizona was one that came up because we wanted a, a warm weather like most of the year. And. But we still wanted a little bit of change in the winter, and Northern Arizona was one of the places that we looked at, and it was blowing our mind that there were places in Arizona that still got snow and were cold. I just ignorantly had no, I didn’t know. Yeah. We’re literally, we have all four seasons. But of course we have those monsoons. Yeah, so the month of July is a complete wash, literally so, which is something I’d never experienced before with monsoons, and it just comes outta nowhere, dumps a bunch of rain, everything’s washed out, and next thing you know it’s sun. So it’s crazy. That is crazy. It is really interesting. Would you rather read a Kindle or an old Fashioned. Old-fashioned book. Do you have a favorite? What’s the most trans like favorite book that you’ve read? Well, to be honest, I really into finance. Okay. That encourages me. So yeah, I do read some of the, well, my mom passes on these books, her and her friends. Read these romance novels and they write their initials in the top, in the front, and then she’ll pass ’em on to me. And I think I have 10 of them to read, but I enjoy it. I just don’t do it enough. You’re, I don’t read. You like, give me a finance book, mom. Oh, . Exactly. Give me those and I’ll read it. Right? That’s so funny. Oh yeah. I don’t read enough, but if I do, I’d pick up. I’m a big Dave Ramsey fan. Yeah. When we were. Literally going through all of the closing my business and you know, living our, running our other business. , the thing that helped us out the most was being debt free. Mm. Which actually got us to the point where we could close our businesses in California and move to Arizona and start a small family farm. And I think we could not have done. If we had not been debt free and the height of the market selling your house doesn’t hurt either, but yeah. Yeah. Wow. So that’s what kind of, it inspires me to try to live frugally, and it was quite an adjustment because, . When we were in California, I thought we lived frugally, but when we, we watched, but we could also, we were literally five mi minutes from a restaurant and we’d go out whenever we wanted. So we were not so stringent, but I think that that was key for us. So I try to throw that in when I have conversations like, especially we didn’t know beforehand, but once you go through breast cancer, the expense of. Really that and the eye surgery is unbelievable. And so I think that that helped us relieve some of the stress from these events. So I always throw that in there, that being debt free is helpful when these things happen in your life, life events. Yeah. I love that you, this is such a cool part of your story and, and we’ll talk a little bit about your farm here. I have so much respect when I hear couples. in more of like a midlife season. You know, it’s not like you have young kids and you’re still sort of figuring out like where are you gonna settle? Where are you going to that forever home, right. Type of a concept. And you’re willing to literally drop what you’ve known for how many years and pick up something brand new. I have so much respect for that. I think that is the coolest, coolest thing. So talk to us a little bit about. You’re family farm. It’s so cute. Y’all need to check it out. One step woman.com. It’s the cutest little farm. So like what made you decide to go to a family? In, in like a midlife. My daughter, we have one daughter who’s grown and she was going to college at Northern Arizona University and through all of this, my husband and I were really without my mom alone as far as family. My dad had passed away. My father-in-law and my stepfather both had passed away within a year of my dad. So we lost all three of them. And so we kind of were longing for that connection with my daughter. And you know, she graduated and she lived here, and we were always coming here. And so after that season, my husband had also, he’s 100% disabled veteran. Hmm. And it was years and years and years of just getting him treatment. Hmm. For things. And he started to fall a lot off of his ladders and he was hitting his head and they finally diagnosed him with muscular neuropathy. And so, , it’s where it affects the nerves in your hands and feet. And that’s what he did for a living was use his hands and feet. . So once they diagnosed him with that, we literally sat down and took stock. Of what was ultimately most important. And thankfully, we were debt free except for our home. . And we could sell the home, make a profit, and we thought, you know, honestly, are we gonna die? And we didn’t get to really let loose and start a new life. Closed. That chapter opened a new one. ? . My mom was on board. She’s like, oh no, you’re not leaving me here by. So she had her own home. Sh We sold it. We sold our house and we sold a lot of our possessions and we went, it was so hard to find a house. We were so not knowing where we were gonna live. We knew that we wanted to live close to our daughter, Hannah, and we found a house that was. On a piece of land, of course, we were thinking let’s go buy at least five acres. Then we started thinking, what are we doing ? Who takes care of those five acres? Exactly. We’re not in a position physically to be taken care of all of this. So we scaled down and we found this just blank piece of land, and builder had built a small farmhouse on it. , we downsized about a thousand square feet, but we were like, This is a fresh, like clear the slate. And so we bought it site unseen. We never, we just put the offer in and within 20 minutes we’d sign the papers and it was like, okay, this is a god wink for us. This is what we need to do. Yeah. We started doing our research on farms and things like this, and we wanted to leave something for our daughter, so it’s an acre and a quarter and we’ve just brought everything pulled in. and, oh, so this is our house. You know, of course we’ve seen pictures, but we’re like, what are we gonna do? So we pulled in, started moving in, and it was honestly not, it was not sunny days The first year. Yeah. . It was not sunny days. You know, it’s a blank slate, which is great. But it’s a learning. I mean, we’re learning so much. Yeah, yeah. You know, and now, , obviously we need help. And luckily we have neighbors that live behind us that we met on the very first day and they were like, oh, great. They’re moving from a cul-de-sac in California. What? Oh, great. Right, right. But from the very beginning, they were. So helpful. Well, they’d lived in their house for 30 years and they’re somewhat homesteaders. , so they have chickens, goats, and all this. And we’ve never had a chicken . We’ve never, I’ve planted flowers, but I’ve never planted trees. I’ve never. So they literally are empty nesters, a little bit older than we are, and they have created this family farm of theirs that’s Mm. So anytime we need, had no idea on the chickens. Seriously. Yeah. We have no idea on. So do you have chickens now? We have chickens. , cul-de-sac to chickens. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And we’re growing nuts and fruit trees. And my husband with a little bit of help from our family, we built a workshop and we are just getting our bearings and my daughter said, Hey, I’m getting married and we wanna have the wedding in your backyard. And I’m like, no, there’s nothing there. It’s dirt rock. You may not, sorry. Do you have pictures of that on your website? Of that. It’s actually going up on Monday of the wedding. Oh, we had it October 30th. So fun when we said, are you sure? And they’re like, oh yes. You know, we’re absolutely sure. Oh, that’s so special though. Like, what a cool, I mean right there. Let’s just pause there. I love how you took a risk, you left. Could she have done that in your cul-de-sac house in California? Absolutely not. So let’s just pause right there for a second because I think this is an important thing to highlight. I love what you said. You took stock of your life despite the fact that at the time you were relatively comfortable and you said, okay, is this it or is there some, is there a dream we would still like to realize? And this is one of my favorite. Like story moments that needs to be pointed out because I have a lot of women in a similar position in your life who listen to this podcast, and so I want you to hear right now what Deanna has just said. She and her husband took a risk, like the story wasn’t over. She wasn’t just going to like sit down and get comfortable, and she said, you know what? Forget midlife. Like this is the beginning of the next chapter, and you can do that too. What is it that you. To see happen, take some risks, and then because of that, her daughter gets to have this amazing experie. In your backyard. I think that is the coolest. The coolest thing. Sorry. It is. Had a moment there. I love that. Honestly, I thought it was so challenging with the breast cancer, and believe me, it is my husband’s disability. All of these things happen we’re just, we were just normal people raising a family, going to P and living our life. Yeah. Right. And then literally I had 10 surgeries in 18. And then this happened to my husband. And then six weeks after we moved in, my daughter got into an almost fatal car accident. She was t-boned and thrown into like a water well. Mm. And she was life flighted into Phoenix. Mm. And it was the same kind of revelation that I had after I was in that night trying to find out if I’m in remission. I’m not gonna live it. Everything else just did not matter. And for us, it’s a an hour and a half drive and they, we could not go into the helicopter, obviously with her. . So we drove and it was very evident the different it, our personalities were really brought out. And that my husband said nothing. The whole, even when I tried to talk to him, he said nothing. And I am just all over crying. All the feeling. And it was really the longest drive ever. And so we get to the hospital and I had made the mistake looking back of calling and saying, I’m just checking on my daughter. Well, she’s over 18, so they said they got somebody else on the line. Well, that in itself put me in a tizzy. And I said, why is somebody else getting on the line? So then the nurse got on the line and she says, first of all, We’re not gonna have her name listed. She needs to be remained anonymous because she was hit by someone that they think was texting or drunk driving, and she’s not gonna have, it’s not, she’s not listed under her own name. The social worker will come get you when you get here. . And I lost it. Oh. So we get to the hospital and her boyfriend at the time was behind us driving and we get there and I thought, they’re gonna tell us that she didn’t make it. . So everything else doesn’t matter. But truly, like there’s, so she had a. A year of rehab. Yeah. But it’s those moments that just keep happening and happening and happening. , and I was very sad, but oddly enough I was never depressed. , it’s almost like this positivity, light switch comes on to where you’re like, truthfully, I didn’t die. She didn’t die. Yeah. My husband didn’t die. It’s gratitude, again, you’re choosing gratitude. You’re choosing to basically focus on, it could have been worse. Yeah. It, it sounds like such a negative thing to say, and yet the reality is when you live in that mindset, it truly does change. You know, you come back to your farm then, and the struggles that existed seem a little less important because you’re. my daughter’s alive. Right. And then she got married on to a year later running a marathon. Yeah. Like that was her journey. I love that. I learned a lot from her in that. And she goes, oh no mom, I learned this from you. Like, no, to keep going. And I thought, wow, you know, the wedding pressures were something for sure, but I was also just so grateful to be. That it does change your perspective a lot. I’m not wishing that on anybody to change. . But it gets to the point in your life where you’re like, at least I’m not dead. Yeah. Yeah. And then you start living and you really start living and you really start living. And she went through her rehab and I kind of put the blog on the back burner because we just needed to focus on life. And so now, you know, the beginning of the year I was like, okay, we’re gonna put our story out there more. Not just of life on the farm, but it is a leap of faith to leave everything and start new. Yeah. And I was so grateful that if she was gonna be. in that position in her life that we were close by. She literally lives 15 minutes, which is my ultimate dream in life, was for her to live 15 . I wanted her to live next door. That didn’t happen. . But literally having our only child be so close, she ended up getting married and now we are grandparents. To a cute little eight year old boy. No. Cause she married a single father. And so our life’s feeling pretty complete. Yeah. And we got through it. Yeah. So it’s such a beautiful story and I love, it’s a real life story. Which is the reality is a lot of our stories, it’s just like the gritty behind the scenes. It’s not necessarily the like pretty highlighted reel that we see. Right. You know, so frequently. And I, I love the fact that you’re willing to share it and you’re inspiring women to get out there and do the same. And we need more. We need. Deanna’s in the world to share their story. It’s real. But you are living by faith and you, I think you’re living fully, which is a beautiful thing. Where can people find you? Where can they follow you? You, me? We’ve mentioned your website, but just tell people where they can look for more. And these wedding pictures, you wanna see these wedding pictures? I’m always at one step woman. So on Instagram, Facebook, I’m starting a YouTube channel for life here on the farm. . So everyone can see. It’s not just, it doesn’t just appear because it is horrible digging in that I can’t imagine. It’s a lot of work, man. Chickens alone, God bless you. Yeah, chickens. But strangely enough, they don’t, in Arizona, or at least where we’re at, they do not lay eggs. In the winter because we do have a winter, pretty heavy winter season, and I’m like, are you kidding me? We got these chickens we have to feed every day and eggs are so expensive and we don’t even get to, oh, we don’t have the eggs, . Oh, that is hilarious. Darn chickens. Yeah. Well, one step woman is where you need to go. Check out Deanna and a follow along if her story resonates with you. Be encouraged. Your next chapter might be the best one yet. Live Life fully. Deanna, I pray God’s riches, blessing over your heart, your home, your sweet family, your thank you daughter and grandson. It’s such an honor to have you here. I appreciate you giving me the platform to tell my story, and I hope that I did encourage someone to take a leap of faith, but to also maybe put aside all of those little things that may not matter in the whole scheme of life, just because I’ve been through it. Let some of these things go so you can fully embrace your life and just try to find happiness. , it’s worth it. Amen. Amen. It is worth it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts from today, head to your preferred podcasting platform, and give the show an honest review and let me know what you think. Remember, you cannot be redefined, only redeveloped, one imperfect day at a time. Your story matters and you are loved.