Always & Furever Midwest Animal Sanctuary

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Our Story

Life sure has a funny way of changing perspective. I've told my (well really our) story before but not everyone has heard it so I figured it was a good time to share again. I'm just an ordinary person like everyone else. Going from a large firm in Boston, Massachusetts to Overland Park, Kansas I knew there had to be a reason I took a new job in a state I'd never been to, knew nothing about, and didn't know a single soul in. So after I accepted a new in house position with Waddell & Reed I decided, if I was going to live in KS, I would buy a farm and start a dog rescue. I've only ever lived in big cities, am completely terrified of all things bugs and nature related, and I have no special background in rescuing or training dogs. So all makes perfect sense right? Maybe I'm a little crazy, at least that is what everyone told me when I first told them my idea, but I really just love dogs. I remember I was standing outside a GNC and was like “I need to do something to give me a reason to want to wake up in the morning, to be a better person”, and the idea just popped in my head. I had two rescue pups of my own, both seniors who slept most of the day, and I knew seniors were overlooked in shelters so I figured the focus would and should be on them. Growing up I was like everyone else and always said when I won the lottery I'd buy a bunch of land and save a million dogs. Well I didn't win the lottery. Probably because I never played and I hadn't saved a single dime. In fact quite the opposite. I put everything I had into buying the farm and took a huge pay cut going from Boston to Kansas, but I had a dream I wanted to come true and knew that when you want something bad enough, no matter how impossible it feels, you can either make excuses or find a way. I had no idea how to raise money either, I'm not good at fundraising; however, I'm excellent at spending. So, I figured I'd take out loans to make this dream a reality. I had great credit. A great job. And debt didn't scare me - not for saving dogs. So I went into a bank and asked for a ridiculous loan for a non-profit with zero donations or collateral to convert an old horse barn into a home for seniors and was literally laughed at. I was told no bank would lend me any money without collateral or having been established. I can't say it wasn't disheartening to hear but it was just one bank. After all, not everyone believed in me my entire life. I had one professor in law school tell me I should drop out, that I'd never be a good lawyer and couldn't write, and I proved her wrong. It’s always a challenge to prove someone who doubts me wrong; so challenge accepted. I figured I'd try another bank. After the fourth bank turned me down my stomach started to sink. Self doubt is easy, especially when it comes to taking risks, but the fifth bank gave me the $100,000 to begin. What was once just a childhood dream finally took a step towards becoming a reality. The goal was always to use only that loan to complete the process but like everything in life there are always surprises. Anything that could've gone wrong with respect to construction in fact did and the $100,000 budget went literally p**f within a few months. When that loan ran out I took another. When that loan ran out I took one more. When I couldn't get another loan I used my credit cards. When the credit cards were maxed I mostly cried, worried beyond belief, and prayed. At the end of the year I received a promotion at work, and one year after the simple action of taking an astronomical risk to do something beyond anything I've ever done before: our doors opened. Two years later we have now saved over 475 dogs lives (and 20 cats). While I did say everything that could've gone wrong with construction did, on the flip side of that, everything that needed to happen to make this dream come true also did. God put the right people in my life at the very right time and continues to do so every day so that together my one dream has become the dreams and reality for so many. It takes one person to take a risk. To say hey, I know this feels impossible but the reward of knowing one single life will be saved or even just loved for a single moment makes all the sacrifice worth it.

And now here we are today. A senior dog sanctuary filled with the most wonderful people who dedicate so much of their lives to make the lives of the neglected, abused, and completely abandoned seniors lives better. The other thing about this was that they couldn't live in kennels, that is no life. Everything about the barn needed to be a home. A real home with couches, beds, a kitchen, and tv, and more couches and beds. So that if this was the only home they ever knew then so be it, they would be loved.

So if you're still reading now there is actually more to this story, way more than I can write in one post but everything about this farm is connected with love and truly heaven. I had just lost someone I loved with my whole heart when I was in Boston. I moved here to start again. When I moved here the position I filled at my new company was open because they had lost a beloved employee to cancer. A friend who lost her son, through another nonprofit I run for those who have lost a loved one to addiction, referred me to a realtor who was friends with the family who sold me the farm; whom in fact had lost their young daughter to cancer, and subsequently their son to complications with addiction. This beautiful little farm never even went on the market. So many hands in heaven led me here to a place where so many people and pups with broken souls can now find peace. The family that sold me this farm named it the Ever After farm and in her wonderful note to me the first day I moved in reminded me that it will be hard work but to always remember it's never too late for happily ever after and that is where our motto began.

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