Our Shared Story
About Johanna
I am a mother who carries the love and loss of a daughter who now lives in heaven.
My husband and I have been married since 1998, and together we have been entrusted with eight children — four by birth and four through the beautiful gift of adoption. Our family story is deeply marked by both joy and sorrow, by the ordinary faithfulness of daily life and the sacred ground of profound loss.
Our daughter, Gianna Lilyfaith, was adopted from China at the age of two. She was born with half of a heart and lived six beautiful years on this earth before moving to heaven. Her life, though far too short, displayed God’s miracles, beauty, and glory in profound ways.
Losing Gianna broke me in places I didn’t know existed.
It also became the soil where God began to gently teach me that healing is not about moving on or getting over what was lost.
It is about learning how to carry love and loss with Him. It is about being met in the valley. It is about discovering, slowly and tenderly, that He is still near.
And it is about hope. Not the loud, shiny kind. Not the kind that bypasses pain. But a quiet, hard-won hope. The kind you cling to when everything in you wants to give up. The kind you breathe in one moment at a time.
There is room here to both honor grief and to believe in God’s goodness. To sit in the pain without rushing it. To bear witness to what has been lost. To speak the truth about how devastating it is. And also, over time, to begin looking for where God is quietly redeeming all things.
Not because the loss was good. Not because the pain makes sense. But because God is faithful even in wastelands.
I believe God is still able to make the desert bloom like a wildflower. Sometimes that blooming looks like a deeper compassion. Sometimes it looks like a softened heart. Sometimes it looks like a clearer sense of identity, purpose, or calling.
We don’t force redemption. We don’t assign meaning. We walk gently toward it, together.
Out of this same soil, Wildflower Hope Soul Care was born — a place where the brokenhearted are not rushed… where grief is honored… where stories are held with compassion… and where Jesus is trusted to be the Healer and the Guide.
I now walk with brokenhearted women who are carrying grief, trauma, and deep heartache and who long for a gentle, Christ-centered path toward healing, integration, and post-traumatic growth.
In addition to my coaching work, I am the author of Hope’s Garden Song and have spent more than 25 years as an educator and teacher, walking closely with children, families, and individuals through seasons of growth, struggle, and transformation.
*I practice within a trauma-informed, faith-based coaching and spiritual soul care framework and do not diagnose or treat mental health disorders.
Training & Credentials
I am a trauma-informed Christian healing coach, board certified with the National Association of Christian Counselors (NACC), a Certified Christian Trauma Care Provider – Level 1 (CCTCP-1), and trained in the Immanuel Prayer Approach through Dr. Karl Lehman. I practice within a trauma-informed, faith-based coaching and spiritual soul care framework and do not diagnose or treat mental health disorders.