Hi, I am Katie.

On October 3, 2023, I lost my other half, my mom. Anyone who knew us knew I was attached to her hip. We were a package deal. She was my safe place, my sounding board, my biggest advocate, and the person I called for everything, big or small. Losing her did not just feel like losing a parent. It felt like losing a part of myself.

My mom was a single parent by choice. She already had my older brother, but she felt a deep pull to grow her family again. She chose adoption and committed herself to the long, emotional, and complicated process of finding me. She flew to China with her sister to bring me home. On March 17, 2004 (yes, on St. Patrick’s Day), we landed in San Francisco and eventually made our way home to Idaho. That was the moment I was united with my family. She chose me. She crossed an ocean for me. That is how my life with her began.

Growing up, I never doubted that I was wanted. I never questioned whether I was loved. My mom made sure of that every single day. She was strong, fiercely independent, and not afraid to carve her own path. She poured that same strength into raising us. I was especially close to her, probably to a fault. I relied on her for reassurance, advice, and comfort well into adulthood. She was the first person I wanted to tell good news to and the first person I ran to when things fell apart.

When she passed in October 2023, my world shifted overnight. Grief has been messy, unpredictable, and deeply personal. Some days feel survivable. Other days feel impossibly heavy. In the beginning, I started writing short reflections on Facebook as a way to process the pain and keep her memory alive. It became an archive of my grief journey, small snapshots of what life looks like after losing your person.

Over time, I realized those posts were becoming more than updates. They were pieces of my healing. So I decided to turn them into a blog. This space is where I will gather those thoughts, expand on them, and continue documenting what it means to grieve deeply while still learning how to live fully.

Soaring is not just about loss. It is about love, identity, resilience, and the complicated beauty of carrying someone with you even after they are gone. It is about being adopted and chosen. It is about being a daughter who was fiercely loved. And it is about figuring out who I am now, in this next chapter, without my other half physically beside me.

If you are here, thank you for taking the time to get to know me and a little bit of my story.