Cara Brookins is the author of Rise: How a House Built a Family, an extraordinary true story of a woman taking the greatest risk of her life in order to heal from the unthinkable. After escaping an abusive marriage, Cara had four children to provide for and no one to turn to but herself. In desperate need of a home, but without the means to buy one, she did something incredible. Equipped only with YouTube instructional videos, a small bank loan and a mile-wide stubborn streak, she built her own house from the foundation up with a work crew made up of her four children. Together they designed the house, framed it, ran the plumbing and gas lines, and mortared blocks with their hands. It would be the hardest thing she had ever done. With no experience nailing together anything bigger than a bookshelf, she and her kids poured concrete, framed the walls and laid bricks for their
Together they designed the house, framed it, ran the plumbing and gas lines, and mortared blocks with their hands. It would be the hardest thing she had ever done. With no experience nailing together anything bigger than a bookshelf, she and her kids poured concrete, framed the walls and laid bricks for their two story, five bedroom house. She had convinced herself that if they could build a house, they could rebuild their broken family.
Building something big enough to change the way she and her kids saw themselves gave Cara the idea that other people could do exactly the same thing. While their big thing may not be a house, taking a leap toward a better life is exactly the right move for everyone.
Cara is a computer analyst and social media marketing expert and the author of seven middle grade and young adult novels. She continues to build new things through her fiction. She motivates businesses, writers, and parenting groups to take enormous leaps toward their goals and to build impossible things.
Cara grew up in Wisconsin and now lives in Arkansas with her four children, Hope, Drew, Jada, and Roman.