About After the Ashes

Life doesn’t always unfold the way we imagined.

Sometimes it breaks apart slowly, through years of disappointment, exhaustion, and survival. Sometimes it changes in an instant — through loss, grief, betrayal, financial collapse, or circumstances we never would have chosen. And sometimes we find ourselves standing in the ashes of what used to be, wondering where we go from here.

After the Ashes is a space for honest conversations about rebuilding after loss, and learning to begin again when the future looks nothing like you planned.

I’m Leah — twice widowed, a solo mom to a blended family that includes four adopted children with special needs, someone who has had to rebuild more than once. I’m not writing from the far side of all this with everything figured out. I’m writing from inside the work, one ordinary decision at a time.

Here’s how I hope to help you:

• Real steps out of despair. Not a formula — just what actually helped me start moving again when I couldn’t yet see a way forward.

• Goals you can actually reach. The unglamorous work of turning a someday dream into something you can begin this week.

• Solo parenting, honestly. Running a household on your own, taking a family trip without a co-pilot, finding real help for neurodivergent kids, and the hundred smaller things nobody warns you about.

• Hope for fellow believers. Encouragement to hold on when your circumstances give you every reason to let go.

This is not a space for pretending life is easy, or for tying hard stories into neat little bows. It’s a place for honesty. For rebuilding. For the slow, stubborn work of beginning again.

Here’s what you can expect from me: new essays every Monday and Thursday, and two or three short notes most days — small, honest check-ins meant to encourage you and, if nothing else, to remind you that you are not alone in this season of rebuilding. A weekly newsletter is coming soon, with After the Ashes updates, practical tips, and news on what I’m building next.

I write from my own Christian faith because it’s the ground I stand on. But you are welcome here no matter what you believe. If you’ve walked through loss and you’re trying to find your footing again, you belong in this space.

Because even after the ashes, something new can grow.

Welcome. I’m grateful you’re here.

— Leah

Subscribe below, and I'll send you my free guide, 7 Truths I've Learned About Rebuilding After Loss, as a welcome gift.