My Journey of Faith to Half Moon Lake Lodge

Half Moon Lake Lodge isn’t just a business to our family — it’s the result of a lifelong journey of faith, hard work, and learning how to welcome people well.

After years of raising four children, running small businesses, restoring properties, and even renting our own home to survive, God opened an unexpected door: a no-reserve auction for this Wyoming lodge.

We purchased the lodge in 2018 and opened our first season in 2019. Today, we run it with the same values that carried us through every season — faith, family, hospitality, and treating every guest like they matter.

Arial view of Half Moon Lake Lodge

A Story of Faith, Family, and Following the Door God Opened

I was born and raised in Oregon, where I learned early that family, hard work, and faith are the foundation of everything worth building in life.

Before I ever imagined owning Half Moon Lake Lodge, my life looked very different. When I was pregnant with my first child, I worked at Nike in a specialty department. The pay was good, and financially it made sense to stay. But my husband and I were young, and we shared a bigger vision for our family. He was still searching for a true career rather than just a job, and even though my income was needed, we both felt strongly that I should step down and focus on raising our growing family.

Not long after, our second son arrived just 14 months later, followed by our third son two years after that, and eventually our daughter joined the family two years later. Around that time, my husband found his career working for a city in water utilities, leading their water system and maintenance.

It was steady work, but raising four children on one salary was incredibly difficult.

We faced choices that tested us daily — choices like deciding between keeping a cell phone or paying the electricity. We debated whether to heat the whole house or gather around the wood stove and pretend we were camping just to stay warm. Still, we worked hard. I picked up side jobs I could do while caring for the children. We raised our own food whenever possible. And even in our struggles, we believed in helping others whenever we could.

Through those years, our faith carried us forward. We thanked the Lord for sustaining us and prayed for an opportunity that would allow us to build something more stable for our family.

Eventually, that opportunity came in the form of a guaranteed contract job — but it required a huge leap of faith. The job was four hours away, meaning I had to move with the children while my husband stayed behind nearly a year to train his replacement. Starting over with almost nothing was one of the hardest things we ever did.

Slowly, life stabilized. We bought a modest home in a very expensive city, but the only way we could afford the mortgage was to rent our home out on weekends through Airbnb. Every Friday we packed up our small children and left — sometimes to Grandma’s house, sometimes camping — while strangers stayed in our home and paid the mortgage.

We didn’t realize it then, but those weekends were teaching us hospitality, guest preparation, property management, and creative problem solving.

Years later, after continued contract work and longer rental stays, we eventually moved back to the area where both my husband and I had been raised. There we bought a very run-down equestrian ranch. I made it my mission to restore it while raising our children through their final high school years.

Bringing horses back into our lives brought tremendous joy. I had been raised on an equestrian ranch myself, and now our younger children shared that same love. Weekends were filled with horse shows, trainings, and long days building both the ranch and our family memories.

Looking back now, we can see that every one of these seasons was preparation.

Then came the moment that changed everything.

We had been searching for an investment property and thought we had found the perfect one just a few miles from home. When that purchase fell through, we searched all over Oregon and found nothing. Finally, in one last determined search, I typed every feature I wanted into Google.

There it was.

Half Moon Lake Lodge — listed as the #1 result — up for auction.

Even more surprising, it was a no-reserve live auction. That meant the property could technically sell for almost anything, and bidding would happen live on the steps of the lodge itself… in Wyoming.

Wyoming.

I had never imagined leaving Oregon. It had been my home my entire life. But with our children mostly grown — only our youngest daughter still at home — we felt a strong sense that maybe this was the door we were meant to walk through.

When we looked at our journey, it suddenly made sense. God had already been preparing us:

• Teaching us hospitality through Airbnb

• Guiding us through business ownership

• Giving me a degree in Biblical Theology that included counseling skills for working with people

• Training us to restore land and property

• Reintroducing horses and ranch life

And somehow, miraculously, providing the possibility of the finances needed.

We bid at the auction in 2018.

And we won.

Our first full season operating Half Moon Lake Lodge was in 2019.

Buying the property itself was another miracle. We certainly didn’t have one or two million dollars sitting in the bank. Our plan was to ask fifteen very specific people if they would each loan a specific portion so we could make the purchase.

One by one, they initially said yes.

And one by one, circumstances forced them to back out.

But because it happened gradually, each time we found another solution… another source… another unexpected way forward. Step by step, the path kept opening.

It was impossible not to see God’s hand guiding the entire process.

Today, Half Moon Lake Lodge is more than a business to us. It represents every season of faith, every hard decision, every late night, every prayer, and every lesson learned along the way.

What once felt like survival prepared us for stewardship.

And welcoming guests here isn’t just hospitality — it’s the continuation of the journey that brought us here in the first place.

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