SPECIAL GUEST: Christi Soileau

Christi Soileau was born and raised in Houma, Louisiana, but transferred to The Woodlands, Texas when her children were young due to a job opportunity for her husband.  She is married to her high school sweetheart for 26 years and has 3 amazing children, Garrett, Austin, and Meagan.  It was once she moved to Texas and took a job as a special education paraprofessional, that she felt she realized her calling.  She returned to college and received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and then went on to get certified to teach special education.  She has taught special education in the elementary setting for the past 7 years.  December 15, 2017, she tragically lost her first born, Garrett, in a car accident when he was 22 years old.  She hopes to use her experience of tremendous loss and grief to make a difference in other people’s lives.  She has written poetry as an expression of her emotions and to process her grief and has a self-published children’s book called “Hope for Tomorrow – Dealing with Grief’.  She and her husband started a non-profit foundation in their son’s memory, The Garrett Soileau Memorial Foundation.  The foundation focuses on providing opportunities for the youth through the sport of rugby, a game that Garrett had a huge passion for and one that allowed him to travel the country and make friends around the world.  The foundation provides scholarships for those who may not be able to afford the dues, it helps clubs with cost of equipment and travel, provides college scholarships based on positive character traits and leadership ability and honors youth who possess admirable character traits.  Recently, she has found a piece of herself again through her love of baking and has decided to follow that path that has brought her some freedom and joy.  She has decided to resign from teaching and bake from her home until she feels led to open a store front.  Just another way she has found that giving to others is healing to her own heart.