For decades, I have been the closest of friends with Lane and Stacy Soukup, as we have raised our families alongside one another in Mustang, Okla. I'll tell you more about them in a moment -- but, right now, I just have to tell you this: They lost their home to a tornado 10 years ago and, about a month ago, they lost their home again to a fire. On top of that, they find themselves unexpectedly uninsured. I've set an ambitious goal for this fundraising campaign because my dear friends need all the help they can get and, when you read the details of their story below, I know you'll feel just as I do and want to help in any way you can!

Lane and Stacy are the kind and generous parents of 10 beautiful, earnest, and friendly children – and, within their church and school communities, they’ve always been willing to open their home and their hearts to the needs of others. Several years ago, they accompanied me through the heartbreaking death of my husband and, last year, through my happy remarriage. I’m far from the only person they’ve loved in and through the small and large trials of life.

 

They’ve been this selfless and benevolent even though – or perhaps because – they’ve had their own fair share of hardship. As I mentioned at the outset, a little more than 10 years ago, they lost their first home in the 2011 tornado that devastated many parts of the Oklahoma City metro. They lost everything they owned at that time – but retained their incredible faith and love for the Lord and even channeled that disaster into a rare and wise perspective that holds things loosely, but people closely.

 

Improbably, on March 21 of this year, Lane and Stacy again lost the home and life they spent the last decade working so hard to rebuild when a fire consumed every corner of their house and all its contents. Two loving parents and seven trusting kids still living at home – once again without a roof over their heads and no clothes except the pajamas on their backs through no fault of their own. Two days after the fire, through tears, Stacy shared: “Every step is so hard right now.” Enduring the loss of all they owned once was traumatic enough. But twice? For most of us, a prospect like that is unthinkable.

 

Navigating the aftermath of the tornado came with a bewildering amount of paperwork and the coordination of assistance from family, friends, and a trusted insurance agent who has since retired. In the intervening years, as they gave themselves wholeheartedly to building their business (Lane’s a small-business owner) and raising their family (to look at lovely Stacy, you’d never believe she’s had 10 kids!), several practically inexplicable insurance complications occurred. Now, when they need it most, they find themselves unexpectedly uninsured.

 

Many of us assume we can depend on impersonal insurance policies to survive the worst moments of our lives, but it’s precisely in times like this, when an impersonal system proves faulty, that a personal God and personal connections can prove their capacity to provide. Lane and Stacy would give their last penny to friends in need – but, right now, they need us to rub our pennies together to help them recoup the equity they lost in a house that’s burned to the ground and, eventually, apply that to a new home.

 

It is my fervent hope and prayer that, through this GoFundMe, all those who know and love the Soukups – as well as all those who have a heart for home and family life – will rally around them in the most gracious way imaginable and put to rest every anxious, insecure thought of the future, so they can once more gather their precious children around a warm and stable hearth in the beautiful home they deserve.