About Me

I was adopted when I was 9 months old, born on the railroad tracks in the Philippines. My biological mother was a bar girl trying to get through the rough patches of the Vietnam War and she had no means of raising a child in that era. So, she did the hardest and yet the most courageous thing a mother could do, and handed me over to the orphanage.

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My adoptive mother worked for the Red Cross and my adoptive father was an active duty military soldier. I lived a good life as a military child, becoming a full US Citizen in 1983 and enjoyed moving around for 17 years until I married my high school sweetheart at 18. Life as a military child was so different than as a military spouse and I never understood the struggles my mother endured until it was me. My husband was a Flight Engineer so he was deployed 6 months out of 12 and I raised three babies, 17 months apart, with two on the Autism Spectrum, During the time we were military, I lost two other children and my marriage was a bumpy road due to my husband's absence and his lack of empathy and communication when he was at home. After a few counseling sessions with my children, it became apparent that my husband was also on the spectrum, which explained a lot of our relationship struggles. 

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One year while attending a special needs briefing for military families, I realized how much we lacked in school to family relationships and I started a non-profit for military families that worked with school counselors, educators and the families together as a joint effort so that we were all on the same page. That same year I wrote a book to help children learn more about their military parents work and it became the best selling Military Family Book, backed by Lockheed Martin.  Over the years, the non-profit was welcomed in 18 schools and I was non-stop busy raising my three children, writing books, speaking, and trying to hold my relationship together. I started suffering from Anxiety Panic Disorder and I lacked sleep for months on end.

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When my husband retired from the military, it was a transition of the most difficult struggle. He had to find a job that would work with his two decade long military life, and we had to find schools that would work with my kid's special needs, and when we did, my daughter was bullied to the point she was on the verge of self destruction so we made the choice to save her mental health over her education. Worst of all, I was started developing mobility issues that were disregarded by medical physicians and handled as stress and anxiety, until one day I could barely pick my coffee cup up and I thought I was having a stroke. That week I found out I had Degenerative Disk Disease that had gone without care for so long, it was a matter of time before my neck and spine would deteriorate to the point of nerve damage and immobility and since I refused surgery due to a traumatic experience with anesthesia and going into a coma with the birth of my first child, I was not going to recover.

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For years, I devoted myself to nurturing my children’s self-advocacy, helping others through my non-profit maintain a balance, and strengthening the bonds within my marriage. I poured my heart and soul into these relationships, often putting my own needs and desires on the back burner. But then, after realizing I was going to have to start depending on others for my mobility at times, I found myself at a pivotal crossroads, a moment filled with both uncertainty and promise. It was here that I realized the most crucial journey of all was the one I needed to take within myself. I understood that to truly uplift my family and cultivate the love I wanted in my marriage, I had to first embrace and celebrate my own worth. It was time to embark on the transformative journey of self-love, a journey that would not only enrich my life but also inspire those around me.