I was born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin in a family of six children. I was the third oldest, but the first girl and a follower of my two older brothers. Growing up a “tomboy”, I loved playing football, playing tag, building forts, riding my brother’s mini-bike and being competitive with the neighborhood kids in whatever game was being played at the park. Outdoor and indoor competitive games in my childhood set the stage for participation in a wide variety of middle and high school sports, eventually having one of the fastest times in the state for the 800-yard dash in track. I played a year of women’s basketball at Valparaiso University where I received my Bachelors of Science in Education with a French minor.

Following graduation from Valparaiso, I was married in December of 1984 to Daniel Sumnicht. While he was finishing his doctorate at the Institute of Paper Chemistry, we had our first child, Stephan, in 1986. Following Stephan, in approximately two-year increments, our family grew to four, including Julia, Johanna and Andrew.

Out of my love for my children, desire to instill values and educational background, I decided to homeschool. With no regrets of their home-schooled years, my husband and I then decided that it was time for them to attend high school in preparation for college. Most of our children were introduced into the school system in eighth grade.

As the kids started going to school, one after the other, I began to pursue both personal interests and teaching positions. I became a substitute teacher in the same school district as my children. Then, I became the fourth-grade teacher at a new school called The Wisconsin International School, an IB (International Baccalaureate) school in 2008.

In the early 2000’s, I met some women who were as equally interested as I was in running competitively. We began training together, and most of us became elite marathoners after a few years of hardcore training. One of my running partners qualified for two Olympic Trials.
Life seemed to be going well with the exception of the emergence of a disorder in my oldest daughter Julia.  She was diagnosed with OCD and depression at age 14. Most of her childhood appeared fairly normal, but the signs were minimal until her first day of eighth grade when her symptoms became acute.

With the severity of her symptoms, a stressful journey for me began and lasted up until her death on March 15, 2010. As many people are aware, complete cures for most mental illnesses are rare. After two unsuccessful attempts to get help with local psychologists, we finally received some help at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc in the summer of 2002 after her eighth-grade year.
I taught at the Wisconsin International School (WIS) from 2008 until 2014 when its doors closed unexpectedly due to financial problems. It was on the evening of March 15, 2010, during the end of my second year at WIS, that two Green Bay police officers came to our door to announce that the Miami Beach Police Department had found Julia’s dead body.

My life went from being stress-filled to an unimaginable nightmare on that night. The second chapter in my life began as I grasped for understanding and comfort.

After about 5 years of ongoing pain and grief from loss along with doggedly pursuing justice for Julia, I became involved in an entrepreneurial business opportunity that contained the elements for the personal growth and change I so desperately needed and wanted.  I learned the power of life principles through reading and mentorship.

It is this “new” life journey that I wish to share with you in my book, Beyond Broken. I believe that God has laid it on my heart to share these truths and give hope and freedom to many.

Grief is a part of loss and it makes total sense to have deep grief, but when you come to the point when you’ve had enough there is an escape from.. Or a way out to live with peace and victory over peace.

If you make a choice to climb out of darkness/grief there will be light.

People are missing that there are no quick fixes… everyday choices.. Time is critical.. Habits that are in place to help you stay on track towards freedom from grief… Self-awareness.. It takes time.. Due diligence daily.. Fight the despair that overwhelms you.. How can you go on living? Focus on what will make you go on living.. Put aside everything you believe and be open to the truth as you are meant to live in freedom.

I used to think hard times were moments like losing a job, going through a divorce, losing a race, getting injured, or having financial difficulties. I didn’t realize that the death of a child was an unimaginable nightmare that literally made me want to die. The weight of the pain was suffocating and I literally didn’t know how I was going to go on living.
The words “finality” and “we found your daughter’s body” were concepts I wasn’t able to wrap my head around; but determined not to be a victim, I fought relentlessly to understand her death and do what I could for her justice. While experts declared that losing a child is the most painful thing a parent will experience in their adult lifetime, I chose to believe that I wasn’t meant to live with this unbearable suffering the rest of my life.

Small shifts
I started my journey of change by tenaciously reading everything I could find that spoke truth about loss, God, life and death. I was driven to understand and make sense of life.  I had always believed since I was 16 that God was loving, that He had a plan and a purpose for each of our lives, and that, through faith, we were forgiven. Yet, my daughter’s death tore such a deep hole in my soul that it shook by faith and left me shattered. As I groped for answers, I found bits of truth, hope and light from reading others’ stories of loss.  But could I ever feel the way I used to feel before Julia died? I didn’t see any solutions at the time.

I maintained my running regimen, with the encouragement of my friends. I trusted somehow that the daily exertion on my body would release stress and help with depression. And on the days I ran with friends, it forced me to connect with people even if I didn’t feel like it.
When I look back, choosing to go back to teaching just a few weeks after her death was a very important decision. It was inspired by a critical “life-saving” thought, “What am I going to do if I don’t go back to my classroom? Would I stare at the walls of my home in misery the rest of my life?

The relationships with my students are important to me. I have to finish the school year with them.” Placing myself in an environment of positivity and emotion challenged me every day, yet most days I came home feeling what I call a “fatigued fulfillment”, feeling tired, but at peace. It was also challenging because Julia’s death had taken a toll on my processing abilities. I felt “slow” and had to “reach” for the words at times.

After 5 years of struggling with despair and the closing of my school, I decided I needed to do something different.  I noticed that whenever I was out doing something for someone else, I was temporarily distracted from my own pain and felt a little better about life in general. As I began reading books on character and leadership development, my heart yearned for the principles written out by the authors. How could I get to the place where these principles were “planted” in me so as to be the driving force in my life?

My Mission