Cara Brookins, single mom of Hope, Drew, Jada and Roman, left a marriage where she was a victim of domestic violence, and Brookins and her kids felt broken.
“We lost ability to laugh together,” she told TODAY Home. “We had spent so long being beaten down.”
Needing a place to live, Brookins found a home destroyed by a tornado. "I thought, 'I bet I could put this back up if I really tried,'" Brookins said. With a little help from YouTube, that's what she and her family did.
Her advice to others coming out of a difficult situation? “Set goals impossibly big — look at the big picture.”
To read more about Brookins’ inspiring story, pick up her book "Rise: How a House Built a Family," out Jan. 24.
