When I first moved to Atlanta 25 years ago, I was young and in love—with a city of 6 million people. No kids, late nights, and the freedom to explore every wild career path I could dream of. I worked with animals (as a zookeeper), filthy animals (at an improv theater), and jumped from bar to bar (as a beer & wine rep). It was fun. It was wild. But none of it gave me the sense of purpose or connection that becoming a Realtor eventually did. 

I know firsthand how much your environment can impact your life.

Atlanta was home for 25 years—plenty of time to build friendships that became family, launch businesses, and even start a school. We thrived in the rhythm of seasonal festivals and found joy in an ever-evolving restaurant scene. But over time, the big city life started to wear us down. The longer we lived there, the further we had to move to afford space. Suddenly, getting to our favorite coffee shop or hanging with friends felt more like a chore. A quick grocery run? Yeah, we could’ve walked there faster than it took to drive three miles.

Then came spring of 2024. I was wrapping up home tours for an out-of-state couple, driving all over Metro Atlanta. When I finally plugged my own address into Google Maps, I saw that the 30-mile drive home would take… 2.5 hours. On a Sunday. I cried the whole way home. The whole reason I started my business in real estate was to be there more for my family and here I was spending an entire Sunday mostly driving. Was this *really* the life we wanted for the next 25 years? Was “good enough” good enough anymore? I grew up in Battle Creek. I’m an MSU alum (SPARTY ON!). My heart always had one foot in Michigan, with summers spent at my grandfather’s place in Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore. As Atlanta’s traffic, cost, and pace of life got heavier, Michigan started calling louder. 

We started dreaming out loud:

**What if** we could walk to our favorite coffee shop?
**What if** we could find a house we love in a community that fits our lifestyle—and it’s comfortably within our budget?
**What if** we didn’t spend our vacation time driving 15 hours to visit the most beautiful place on earth? (IYKYK.)

The big question became: *What if we just did it?* What if we took a leap and left Atlanta behind to chase the lifestyle we’d only been dreaming about?It wasn’t an easy decision. 25 years makes a city feel like home. But it became clear that Atlanta wasn’t where we wanted to raise our kids. Not really. Our hearts were in Michigan. So we made the leap—and it didn’t take long to realize we hadn’t just moved to Grand Rapids. We’d moved to paradise. This is home. This is where we were meant to be. 

Now, my focus is on helping families in that same in-between space—where something just doesn’t feel right anymore. Maybe it’s the house. Maybe it’s the neighborhood. Or maybe it’s deeper than that. I’m here to help you figure it out—part therapist, part mediator, and 100% focused on getting you relocated and settled so you can start living the life you *really* want. Because “good enough” isn’t a destination—it’s a signal that something better is waiting.