There is still hope after the ashes.
If you’re here, chances are you’ve lived through something that changed you or someone you love. Maybe life didn’t turn out the way you planned. Maybe grief found you unexpectedly. Maybe you’re rebuilding after loss, heartbreak, failure, or a season that left you wondering who you even are anymore.
This is a space for honest conversations about grief, faith, resilience, and finding hope again—especially when life looks nothing like you expected.
Hi, I’m Leah!
Over the years, my life has been marked by devastating loss, unexpected detours, hard decisions, financial struggle, solo parenting, adoption, special needs parenting, recovering from my own mistakes and choices, and learning how to keep going when everything familiar seemed to fall apart. I’ve buried two husbands and learned to parent four adopted children through grief and secondary trauma—none of it on a timeline I would have chosen.
And yet, here I am. Not untouched by the fire. Not pretending the ashes didn’t exist. But slowly discovering that God still creates beauty from broken places.
That’s what After the Ashes is about. Through my writing, the podcast, and practical resources, I want to help you find hope again, just as I have. Because starting over does not mean your story is over.
If you’re in a rebuilding season too, I hope you’ll stay. Welcome. I’m grateful you’re here.
— Leah
New Here?
Subscribe for honest writing on grief, faith, and rebuilding after loss—and I’ll send you my free guide, “7 Truths I’ve Learned About Rebuilding After Loss,” as a welcome gift.
Leah’s Latest Release
After the Ashes: A 30-Day Devotional for Rebuilding Your Life After Loss
When loss burns through the life you knew, rebuilding can feel impossible, and even prayer may seem out of reach.
After the Ashes is a 30-day devotional for anyone beginning again after grief, divorce, hardship, or a change they never saw coming. Each day pairs a passage of Scripture with a short, heartfelt reading and a Reflection prompt for your own thoughts. The days unfold across four movements that follow the slow, unhurried work of healing.
Leah Stirewalt has been widowed twice and is raising four adopted children on her own. She doesn’t offer tidy answers or easy clichés. Instead, she writes as a friend who has sat in the ashes herself, found God near in places she never expected, and watched Him begin to bring beauty from what was lost.
You don’t have to rush, and you don’t have to be fine. You only need to open the first page.
From the Blog
-
The Book Launched. Life Didn’t Stop.
Last Tuesday was supposed to be a big day. After months of writing, rewriting, editing, questioning myself, and wondering whether I would ever actually finish the thing, my new devotional book, After the Ashes: A 30-Day Devotional for Rebuilding Your Life After Loss, was finally being released. I had envisioned a fairly quiet morning. What…
-
What Shame Tried to Silence
Much of this past month has given me reason to reflect, in part due to my mom’s recent passing. As my siblings and I shared funny stories and favorites about our mom and childhood, we laughed when tears could have taken over. We needed that laughter. Privately, though, I kept thinking about how much my…
-
Let Me Know If You Need Anything
“Let me know if you need anything.” I’ve heard it a hundred times, in the worst weeks of my life, from people who meant it with their whole heart. And I never once knew what to do with it. When the floor falls out from under you, you can barely name what day it is,…
