Without warning, the man pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot Jon point blank in the chest. He then turned the gun on Erin and 11-year-old Olivia, shooting each of them once. All three went to the ground. Erin’s 5-year-old daughter Selah stood frozen next to her.”
Erin was shot two more times as she fled with Selah and Ezra. Her husband Jon and daughter Olivia were dead. The gunman then shot himself. He did not know any of the victims, including the first man he shot. His intentions, Ullmer says, “were to take lives indiscriminately, the last one being his own.”
Erin was badly wounded, but recovered from her physical injuries, and with God’s help, began to face a life without her husband and daughter. Because of her faith in Christ and the support of her community, she was able on that day, two years later, to reach out to Steve Ullmer in his time of grief and encourage him that he could go on, too. Her words, he said, brought him hope. After all, her husband and child were murdered. If she could forgive, which was her husband’s last wish, and go on, then he could go on without Wendy, too.
Steve and Erin kept communicating and encouraging one another via text, and then, a month later they met at a Christian music festival. Then, their kids met and totally bonded…and after that, it didn’t take too long for them to realize they were meant to pick up their lives and go on together...with Christ and their kids.
Ullmer says:
“Erin and I were married on June 28, 2018, one year after she reached out to me with a simple text. Every day we embrace the chaos that comes with a blended family of 8. It’s beautiful, it’s messy, it’s amazing, it’s hard. It’s life. Grief will always be a part of our story, but it doesn’t define us. It can drive you in 1,000 different directions, down 1,000 different roads – most of them toxic. The temptation to give in to bitterness, regret, and isolation is strong because so often, it’s the easier choice. Instead, Erin has taught me how to be open and honest with grief. She taught me to embrace the moments of joy when they come, to embrace the tears when they come, and they do still come. We have chosen to live with gratitude for the loved ones we lost, for the years we were gifted with them, and towards a God who made a way for us to see them again.”
One thing the Ullmers want to make clear is that just because they’ve found love again after tragedy doesn’t mean they are “ok.” Rather, Ullmer says, “We are not okay because we found each other. We are okay because we know Him. There are things we just won’t understand in this life, but we have to continue to trust that God is good – even when our world is falling apart. ”
Beauty from ashes, and the hope of seeing loved ones again in heaven. This is truly only a story God could write, and re-write. Congratulations to the Ullmers, and may you carry their story of hope with you today.
