Who We Are
Bonnie’s Story: I was born & raised in a medium sized town in Bradenton Florida along the gulf coast. I went to Manatee High School where I was part of the marching band, playing the flute and sang with many choral groups. I was a member the Baptist church since I was very young. I can’t even remember a time when I wasn’t involved in church. My Dad was a deacon and my Mom was very involved with the women’s groups. My Dad was an auto body man and opened his own body shop when I was a senior in high school. My Mom did the bookkeeping and other paperwork involved with the business. I believe I got my entrepreneurship from my parents. I have an older brother and I was the youngest in the family until I was 10. My parents adopted other children, so I became the 2nd oldest in the family.
I met my 1st husband, Dave when I was 19. We married when I was 20 and we had 3 sons within quick succession. My sons were all born in the same hospital that I was born in. When we were in our early to mid 30’s we felt the call to become missionaries. We served under Child Evangelism Fellowship for 5 years. It was this organization that brought us out to Colorado. Towards the end of the 5 years in ministry, I went to work for UPS as a delivery driver to help support 3 growing boys. I worked there for 10 years and really enjoyed the job. It was extremely physical and demanding. I ended up with a work injury that ended my time there in 2007.
Before leaving UPS, I started working in investment real estate. I started “flipping houses” before it became in vogue in 2004. I also bought rental houses when the market tanked and continued to flip houses & buy rentals. I was turning between 12 -15 houses a year in the “flipping” business. It was very profitable and rewarding to take complete disasters and turn them into something beautiful that someone would be happy to call home. I got my real estate license and my general contractor license in 2014. It has been very beneficial to have both and has allowed me to do things I would never have been able to do before.
In the year 2021, my 1st husband, Dave, ended up with quite a few health issues and at the end of that year, covid took him to his eternal home with Jesus.
I met my new husband, Darren, through a mutual friend. Having so much in common, being of an older age, we decided to take the plunge and married shortly after. It was clear to us that it was God’s will. Darren had lost his 1st wife to breast cancer. So, we were 2 widowed people that God brought together.
Our journey has been at times difficult. Blending 2 families at any age would be hard. Thankfully, we’re at the age where we don’t have children living with us and don’t have to figure out how we’ll make a living or where we’ll live. We have really enjoyed traveling and look forward to many more trips across the country in our class A motorhome. If you’d like to follow along with us on our journeys and see more about our experiences, click here.
Darren’s Story: I believe that most folks think that their stories are dull and boring so why would anyone be interested in hearing mine? I suppose that can be true (at least to us) unless we take a moment to understand and look back at how God shows up throughout our lives and we can see it so clearly in our rear-view mirrors and share that story with others for encouragement to them and for reflection for us. That is the reason I’m writing this, so that you might take the time to look in your rear-view mirror and discover just how many blessings the Lord has given you over the years.
I was born in 1959 in Bakersfield CA. My mom was a corporate secretary and my dad a mechanic and newspaper route delivery man. My early family life was difficult since my brother died of valley fever when I was 5 years old, and my parents struggled to deal with their grief. They were always supportive of me though and showed up to all my concerts, scouting events, tennis matches, drum lessons and more. They held awesome birthday parties for me throughout the years and spoiled me way too much. I was in tennis in high school and college, and I remember them in the stands for all my games. I was quite the emotional man and they had to put up with me dating one girl after another until I finally settled down and started dating a girl named Trisha. I somehow talked this girl into marrying me and I spent 37 years with her raising three children, until cancer gave her an early graduation to heaven. As long as they were with us my mom and dad were a blessing in our family’s life. My parents bought the house that I grew up in before I was born and later, I helped my mom sell it and move her, alone, to Tehachapi after my dad passed away. I was 32 years young. My mom helped us raise our kids and was a true blessing to us all. We lived in Tehachapi for a total of 14 years before moving to Colorado Springs. The Lord showed up again throughout that entire journey as He does today.
An important part of my journey was and is music. I have played drums since I was 9 years old, and the Lord used this in my life in so many ways. I met Trisha, my 1st wife in college playing the drums in marching band. I played everything percussion. Tympany, drum set, marching tri-toms, snare, etc. Being in so many different groups kept me out of trouble growing up. In my 30’s I started to play drum set in praise teams worshiping the Lord and have ever since. Looking back, I can see how drumming gave me a purpose and focus and confidence in life that helped me in my career and everything else I have done. This was and is the Lord’s way of blessing me and blessing others through me with my music. After the passing of Trisha, I met a wonderful woman who watched me play drums at church and our story moves on from that point. Bonnie loves my drumming and I continue to play occasionally in the church we currently attend. Please see the “New Journey” pages for Bonnie and my journey and how our meeting and love story is no accident. I hope to be using my sticks for Jesus as long as I am able.
I have a degree in business management and have found it useful throughout the years of working for myself both as a loan officer and Realtor®. My career in real estate began as a loan officer for Norwest Mortgage. It wasn’t my plan to work in real estate, but when it was offered to me, I jumped right in. After a couple of years, I opened a satellite branch with Mical Mortgage. The powers at be closed Mical down and I went into real estate opening my own company with a partner. Innovative Real Estate was truly innovative. I later joined forces with Al Crisalli of Cardinal Realtors and stayed there until our move to Colorado Springs. After moving to the Springs, I joined REMAX in a team with Ron Mast which later became Morning Star Realty. I moved to Sellstate Alliance Realty and happily stayed there for 12 years before opening Illumin8 Real Estate with my wife, Bonnie.
We love traveling and driving around the country in our Class A motorhome. I plan on staying in real estate and coming alongside Bonnie with her fix-and-flip real estate business. We have different backgrounds, and our clients can benefit from our combined experience.
Both of our hearts long to give back to those in need and who are fulfilling a purpose God would be pleased with, so we support several organizations and missionaries out of the abundance He provided to us. I will share more about this on our website. I would love to share how Jesus came into my life and changed the direction of my life long ago with you. Just drop me a note. My life has been blessed with 3 children, 3 stepchildren, 5 grandchildren, and 8 step grandchildren at this point. I’m a blessed man and I am excited about what the future holds for us all. Our new journey is unfolding, and we look forward to sharing it with you.