It’s Not All About the Houses..
*I would like to give a trigger warning, this blog is deep but also surface on my life and how I grew up. Sharing it, I pray helps more people that connect with childhood trauma.*
Before the houses.
Before the contracts.
Before the closings.
You should know my why.
I didn’t grow up with much.
My mom struggled with addiction and passed away before I was 20.
My dad came here from Mexico doing the best he could with what he had.
There were seasons when we didn’t have food.
When the water didn’t run.
When the electricity didn’t either to the point we didn’t have a place to sleep.
I learned early that survival wasn’t dramatic.. it was quiet. It was figuring it out at 8 years old. It was not telling people. It was adapting.
I started working at 13.
By 16, I dropped out of high school. Something I felt so shameful of.
Not because I didn’t care.
Because life didn’t wait.
In order for me to have what I needed, I HAD to work. and I am so grateful for that family owned business.
Later, I earned my GED. I enrolled in nursing school at LCU. I kept moving. Because even when you don’t have much, you still have choice.
I Was the Kid on the Angel Tree
Growing up, teachers, first responders, and friends’ families protected me.
I was once the kid whose name hung on an Angel Tree at Christmas.
So when I give now, it’s not branding.
It’s not strategy.
It’s not optics.
It’s memory.
Giving is something deep in my core because I know what it feels like to be the child someone else chose to care about.
Lubbock Became Home
In 2012, I moved to Lubbock, a place I visited as a little girl that always felt different. Safe. Hopeful.
It finally became home.
And that matters more than people realize.
Because when you’ve grown up without stability, “home” isn’t just a place. It’s security. It’s safety. It’s belonging.
That’s why real estate isn’t just buying and selling to me.
It’s about stability.
It’s about breaking cycles.
It’s about helping someone else plant roots they never had.
You Don’t Choose What Happens to You.
But You Do Choose What You Do With It.
I didn’t choose addiction in my home.
I didn’t choose poverty.
I didn’t choose instability.
But I did choose:
To work.
To go back and finish school.
To not let my past become my identity.
To build something different.
Pain can harden you.
Or it can refine you.
It can make you bitter.
Or it can make you intentional.
I decided I would not be defined by what I lacked but by what I built.
You’ll See the Real Me Here
That’s why my website isn’t just houses.
You’ll see fashion.
You’ll see décor.
You’ll see blogs about being a working mom in this modern world.
You’ll see faith.
You’ll see motherhood.
You’ll see the real-life me.
Because I don’t want to sell you a polished version of success.
I want you to see what’s possible.
Not because it was easy.
But because it was chosen.
If you’re reading this and you didn’t grow up with much…
If you were the kid on the Angel Tree…
If you learned how to survive before you learned how to dream…
Please hear me:
It’s not where you came from.
You are in charge of what you build next.
And sometimes the most powerful thing you can do with the pain you were handed…
is build a life that looks nothing like it.
I believe deeply in a God who restores.
Not just circumstances but identity.
Not just provision but purpose.
“I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.” — Joel 2:25
And I am living proof that He does.
XOXO,
Your Friend in Real Estate-Elizabeth
Photocred: Lane Gray Photography
