Meet our featured beauty with brains Joanna Robbins, a respiratory therapist based in Forest Ranch, California (USA). Here is her story:
“I’m a married mom of 2, working full time as a respiratory therapist at a local hospital (been an RT since I was 21). Always knew I wanted to serve others in healthcare.
My husband an I are passionate about home design and decor (has always been a hobby not a professional business) and we self-built our first home when we first got married in 2007 (I was only 19 and he was 21, & we were high school sweethearts), we always had big goals and plans and we started early. We bought a foreclosure property in 2012 and over 7 years fully renovated our 2nd home ourselves, we had 2 kids while we lived there then we sold that home last year (real estate market was great) and we currently are living in a trailer while we build our next home.
We will probably live in a trailer for 2-3 years since we are doing every aspect of the home building ourselves as much as possible to save money.
Our goal is to be debt free. We have always had our sights set on big goals and planned our life as much as possible with our goals in mind (I actually had to convince my husband to do this last one) it’s an adventure for sure, not knowing the costs and it’s a lot of sacrifices to make in the meantime but I am very goal oriented and stay optimistic and can see the benefits in the end so I’m sticking with it. I know we can accomplish whatever we absolutely believe we can achieve.
I also started my own blog a few months ago, so that I can be able to share our home building journey and display the home once it’s completed and decorated. I hope to encourage others to set big goals and go for it despite the fear and setbacks along the way. It’s definitely a balancing act raising 2 young kids, working full time, supporting my husband behind the home building (I help him in his work when I can) and have time to grow my blog/online presence. But I’m persistent and excited to get to where I hope to be in a few years.
We’ve also had lots of setbacks in our lives together, 2 family members’ suicides, a cousin was murdered, and my husband battled with opiate and alcohol addiction for years, but that still didn’t stop us from making it through to where we are now. I’m stronger because of all those things.
As a lead/charge respiratory therapist at a level III trauma center, saying that work right now ‘is stressful’ is an understatement. Everyone’s emotions are high and I have some co workers coming to me in tears for different reasons. We are short on PPE like everyone else so we are having to conserve which makes people worry even more about the ‘what if’s’ of when/if we run out. We have good support from our hospital and community and we are also a rural hospital so everyone is praying and crossing their fingers that we will not be affected as much as larger cities. It’s a waiting game at this point.
At home on my days off I’ve been spending more quality time with my children and husband. The stay at home orders have forced me to have a much less busy lifestyle. It’s been kind of nice. I’m also making sure I have a little quiet time, detaching myself from the constant news and scary updates of the virus and trying to enjoy my life and stay positive. I’m focusing on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, staying connected to family & friends (we have zoom conference meetings with my friends some residing currently in the Cayman Islands & Ecuador). Also just having faith in God has suppressed my fear & anxiety greatly. You also have to just have good common sense and be safe, stay home, stay positive, love & support one another. We’re going to make it through this together.”
Feel free to check out her website, FB page and Instagram:
http://Www.facebook.com/injoannashouse
http://Www.instagram.com/in_joannas_house
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