I am so glad that you are here… We are entering into a fun new season with our Stories with Kori. And we feel like the best way to talk about where we are headed is to talk about where we have been.

In 2019 it was a wild, crazy, incredible and hard year for us. We are so thankful for our local community that loved us so stinking well. Stories with Kori came out of this place where we wanted to be authentic in our struggle and authentic in this place of what we were going through. In February of 2019 I was in a big accident and I fell off of my horse and I broke my neck, skull, nose, eye socket, cheek, and jaw in two places and I was wired shut with plates and screws with the works. During that season we were a little quiet as we tried to figure out if I would be ok. Will I be able to return to life as it was. To walk and talk and be a wife and a mom. Part of the reason we were quite was because we needed to make sure that I would be able to honor the commitments that we made to our wedding clients. We started sharing a little bit as we learned that I would be ok. That’s how we started sharing stories. The very first story I ever shared was the story of my accident. And it’s painful to look back and see that story. Literally, I was talking awkward and it’s wild to see where we were at and how far we have come. We wanted to be authentic in that struggle and what it looked like to take the next step forward. That story unearthed a passion and idea of how important our next steps forward really are.

I think back on that first day when I was cleared to drive after my accident and I headed for the Culture Coffee Bar at Get Fit and someone came up to me and we chatted… I remember saying to her “I didn’t have a choice, I am a mom, and a wife, and a business owner. I didn’t have a choice I had to get back at it.” And this friend stopped me and made me pause and she challenged me and said “Kori, you absolutely had a choice! You had a choice every time you got up. Every time you got out of bed. You had a choice!” It was an ah-ha moment!

We have a choice every single day! Every time we take that next step forward!

I have been so hard on myself this last year. If you have done real life with us this year you have seen how much I have struggled this year. You have seen how hard I have been on myself. I have been hard on myself because I’m not as physically strong as I used to be. I have been hard on myself because I’m tired a lot more than I used to be. And over the last year as I have struggled for both physical and mental strength I have had to fight for it. Even in the last few months people have asked me how I am doing…  they will say “you look good, like nothing even happened.”  You can’t quite see the outward signs of my accident and because you can’t quite tell I think it may have made my healing journey a little bit harder. People have expected me to be ok. They have expected me to be who I was. And thankfully I’ve been able to honor the things that I have committed to but they have taken a lot more of me. I’ve had to work a lot harder at things that came easier to me before my accident.

I think its ok to have seasons where just life takes hard work. And that has been our year last year.

With the heart of sharing my story, I came to this project to share stories of other people working hard to take their next steps forward. And that next step forward has looked so different for each of our storytellers. I want to take a moment and say thank you to each of our storytellers! Each person who sat down to tell their story with us. We have talked about joy, and grief, and so many life lessons! We learned that people have really wanted to listen to each of the stories! YAY!

I am really good at throwing stuff to the wall to see what sticks. I did what I could with what I had. The camera equipment that I had which can also shoot video, even though the video is not my strength we set it up and got rolling. With the heart to continue telling stories, I was challenged this year that there are people who can do things better than I can and we worked to find a video editor and we are working to build a team to help support us sharing these stories! (Dance party!) I have been feeling like we need to create some consistency, launch them on a weekly basis, make sure they look the same and add some things to scale our stories. 

We have a passion to encourage you to take the next step forward. 

Just like taking the next step forward in our daily lives we have had to take some next steps forward in this project.  

Coming back to the story of my accident … when I was broken… if I think about my literal and physical steps, those first steps that I took where steps where Jared held me. The whole way to the bathroom and back to my hospital bed. For weeks. Slowly I worked hard to shuffle around the fourth floor of the hospital knowing that if I worked hard enough I would earn my way out of that place. I was determined to get home and prove to the nurses that I was strong enough to be home. Then once I was home there was still work to be done. I needed to keep building that strength. I took those next steps to the first orchard. It was all I could do before we turned around and walked home. The next walk Jared and I walked two orchards. And I just remember that it was spring which means Almond Blossom around here and the blossoms made me sneeze. When you sneeze and your face is broken and you are wired shut it hurt so so so bad. I started crying and we walked on home.

I think that is a lot like life. Even though we are building strength and we are making process we still have bumps that remind us of our brokenness. For me, it was that silly stinking sneeze on the corner that reminded me that even though I am moving forward it still hurts, and it’s still painful, and I still have a lot of work to do.

In the following weeks, I kept walking. I expanded our circle. I walked more orchards. I walked with more people. I didn’t walk those steps alone. I walked with our family, friends, my mentor, or my dad, or my brothers. I just had to keep moving. 

That is what this is about. These stories are about sharing with you the encouragement to keep freaking going. Keep going. We find encouragement from others when they continue to press on. There is so much value in that.

We have already filmed quite a few stories and we are committed to releasing them to you over the next few months! We have started filming more stories as well!  But we want to be open-handed with this project so if you have a burning passion to share your story with us we want to connect with you! We have added a form on our website to apply to share your story with us.

We are committed to bringing you more stories. We wanted to share with you where we have been. Say thank you for listening to everyone you have listened to. It has been an honor to share them with you and we can’t wait to share our next story with you.

We are so thankful for our incredible community and this story is supported by our friends at Culture Coffee Bar. Check out their Instagram for all of their coffee stops. https://www.instagram.com/culturecoffeebar/ We can not wait to share our next story with you!

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