OUR STORY

Shion And Matthew Standing On Salt Flats At Dusk Broken Dreams Reborn Full Time RV Life Blog Vlog

Hey, y’all! We are Shion and Matthew and our lives have definitely not always been this way, far from it!  We absolutely love being nomads traveling full time and working while living the full time RV life.  We’re blessed with going to epic places, having amazing adventures and meeting lots of wonderful people!  Things we would have never experienced and people we would have never met had it not been for God blessing us with this full time travel lifestyle.  We even surprised ourselves and became RV life and travel vloggers and bloggers. 

Hold on a minute though!  As we said, life used to be very different for us!  Do you want to really get to know the truth about us? We have to take you back a few years to show you exactly when and how our lives changed forever.  This is our story.

Back to the beginning.

Broken Dreams Reborn sticks and bricks. This is our house we lived in before selling everything and traveling full time for the full time RV life.
Our Former House

The year was 2017 and we lived in the small city of Pearl, Mississippi in a little 1,000 square foot sticks and bricks (house) that was over 50 years old and in constant need of repair.  Our family included a big husky/lab mix dog and a huge fluffy orange Maine Coon cat.  

We worked in that house since both of us had online jobs working from home. Also, we even worked in the same home office only a few feet away from each other. We liked being so close. Also, we were dreamers! Oh, we had such big dreams, but dreams that just never seemed to come true. We had many broken dreams up until then.

By then, still 2017, Shion had already been having some serious medical issues off and on, including surgeries, for a few years. It got to where she was really worn out and tired of feeling bad so often and so consistently.

It’s important to interject here that through all the good times and the bad, we always had a certain amount of joy and peace that came through our faith in God.  Yet, with Shion’s seemingly never ending medical issues, we both still felt like we needed some relief! 

Why so nervous?

So, every once in a while on a weekend we would just drive out to our favorite place at the time, Lakeshore Park, right on the Ross Barnett Reservoir. We would just sit, relax and escape reality even if for only a little while.  We really enjoyed just sitting at a picnic table and staring out across the water at another park nearby, enjoying each other’s company and talking about lots of things including our dreams.  Did we mention we were dreamers?

Broken Dreams Reborn. This is Lakeshore Park where we first got the idea to live full time RV life.
Lakeshore Park

One day, while sitting at Lakeshore Park staring across the water at the other park, Shion suddenly got an idea! Did we mention that other park across the water was an RV park? Shion was a little nervous to talk about her new idea because, up until then, we would constantly look at that RV park and ask ourselves, “Why would anyone want to live in something like that? It’s so small!”

So, what was Shion’s idea she was nervous to discuss?  Well, we could move into an RV, she explained, and just stay someplace for one year.  After that, we could move on to another location for another year.  We both immediately agreed it would be something different and exciting and our new dream was born that day. 

They do what?

After driving home, thinking we had just invented something new, Matthew went online to see if people actually did this or at last talked about it. He came upon a YouTube channel of a family who RV’d. Perhaps you’ve heard of them, “Less Junk More Journey”. At that time, they were not only living in their RV full time, but moving about every three days!

We were both so amazed and excited that our wheels really started turning and the dream suddenly got much bigger. Happy day! So, we did what we knew we had to do and we prayed to Jesus about it, a lot! We prayed about a lot of stuff back then, and still do. We honestly wanted to know if it was God’s will for our lives. If it was, we desperately needed His help to make it happen.

It still hurts!

2018 came with no progress towards anything RV life or travel related. Then, we suffered another broken dream towards the end of the year.  This one really, really hurt!  Shion’s Dad suddenly passed away due to natural causes.  We had dreams of what we thought our life would be like with him in it as future years went by.  So, it felt as though he just got up and left in the middle of a conversation.  We knew his saving faith in Jesus meant he was in heaven with God and his forever family of believers. However, it still really hurt!

Broken Dreams Reborn. Our Cat.
Our Cat

As more time went by, our dreams of travel slowly crept back into our minds. Those dreams included having our big fluffy orange cat be our RV cat.  He was such a precious part of our little family!  Well, in 2019 he suddenly got sick and passed away.  We really didn’t see that coming!

Jumping ahead to 2020 came the realization that God had started blessing us with everything we needed for our dreams of travel and full time RV life to start coming true!  We also felt a strong desire to do something really scary and completely out of character for us which was to share our lives and adventures with the world as Broken Dreams Reborn.       

Love and pain.

Our dream was about to come true … and that’s when it hit us.  Our big strong dog with such a tremendously loving and playful personality was suddenly getting old. He was on plenty of pain meds by then also.  He really loved his fenced in back yard and at that age with his health as it was, we knew we weren’t going anywhere.  So, we put our dream on pause so our big old sweet fur baby could finish out his days on his terms and in comfort.  In 2020 he passed away at home.

Broken Dreams Reborn. Our Dog.
Our Dog

Okay.  By now, y’all feel like you need some good news, right?  Well, here it comes.  After all the praying, waiting, hoping, planning and dreaming, it really started happening!  In September of 2020 we sold our sticks and bricks and almost everything we owned in Pearl, Mississippi and moved in with Shion’s mom in Louisiana.  Okay.  So, what seemed like another delayed start was still good progress!  She was gracious by letting us stay with her so we could wrap up our old life and get ready for what was next! So, what was next?

Dreams of RV life.

On March 8, 2021, we drove down to Pensacola, Florida to pick up our dream truck! It was a brand new shiny black 2021 Ford F350 Lariat. 

Then, it all finally came together on March 22, 2021! We drove down to Lazy Days near Tampa, Florida and moved into our brand new 2021 Grand Design Reflection 337RLS fifth wheel RV. Praise God this dream had come true! We were actually starting our RV life.

Broken Dreams

Wait, let us really put this all in proper context so you understand just how momentous this was, and still is, for us! We’ve had so many broken dreams over the years it’s hard to explain. These include losing loved ones including Shion’s brother and father, our inability to have any children, businesses we started that failed, places we wanted to live, things we wanted to do, life changes we wanted to make and much more.

So, who are we really?

Broken Dreams Reborn, the name, came from our own perspective of our lives. We’ve had so many broken dreams, dashed hopes and failed ambitions that have all seemed to be sort of reborn, at least in our minds, into one big dream that actually came true! It only came true because we happened to be praying and dreaming about something that was actually in God’s big plan for our lives.

Broken Dreams Reborn Full Time RV Life RV Living Blog.  Standing in front of our RV as new RVers.  Grand Design Reflection 337RLS Fifth Wheel RV.

Why is this God’s plan for us? We’re still not entirely sure to be honest. However, when every single door, and there were many, each opened wide at just the right time, we found ourselves absolutely in awe of getting to see God work in our lives! Honestly, we’ve seen God at work many times in our lives and are always in awe of Him and this time is no exception!

So, who are we? We’re a couple of people who love each other so dearly that life just isn’t life without each other! We do everything together. We’re a couple of very imperfect people who love Jesus and get peace, joy, guidance, salvation and so much more from Him! We’re a couple of people with a strong passion for exploring, traveling, experiencing new things, meeting new people and being totally nomadically untethered! We’re a couple of people who love community and love sharing our lives through our videos and blogs on Broken Dreams Reborn. We’re a couple of people who still have more big dreams and ambitions! We’re a couple of people who hate being stuck and are so excited for what new experiences await us around that next corner and we really hope and pray you’ll join us!

Our Adventure Continues

If you want more of our story, you can start here with our first episode on YouTube. If you want to see the more recent YouTube episode in our RV living travel adventures, start here. Also, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and on our blog!

14 thoughts on “OUR STORY”

  1. So sorry for your hurting heart due to the passing of your G-Mom. How sweet that y’all returned in time to say farewell for now and comfort her with Scripture. I’m not sure we’ve ever been so touched by a YouTube blog! What a sweet testimony. We too know the power of our Savior Jesus Christ! May y’all find comfort in knowing others care and have prayed for ya’ll.

    Together in Christ,
    Susan and Jackie

  2. Been watching you guys from the start, so glad to see you’re happy. God gives us strength to do the things that people think are crazy, however your freedom of the past and your witness is a blessing for so many. See you in the mountains of W NC someday!
    DK and KD White

    1. We really do appreciate y’all and thank you for what you said! God definitely gives us strength and blessings and He deserves all the glory! We love the mountains of W NC and definitely pray we get to meet up.

  3. I am both glad and sad while reading your story! Definitely a higher power at work in your lives. Everything has a reason though we may not see it for years! You are two of the kindest people I know both to others and each other! That kind of love is not often seen now-days! Please keep the videos coming and i await your newest every week and am slowly catching up on the past ones! I’m a fairly new follower and you are truly an inspiration!

  4. I have always wondered where your channel name came from. Now I know. Thank you for sharing your story. Life isn’t always easy but it would be a lot harder if you didn’t have the faith that you hold so dear. God has great plans for you both. It’s a pleasure knowing the two of you and we hope to have the opportunity to spend more time with you both this coming year!!!

    1. You’re right about faith in God being such a huge blessing! Through it, He makes this part of life, and eternity, immeasurably better! We really enjoyed the time we got to spend with y’all already and look forward to seeing y’all again!

  5. Y’all~ WE have been following you for a couple of years now. Though we have never met, we feel like we are long-time friends. After reading this blog, we just want to hug you both and pray in THANKGIVING that God gives us obstacles and challenges in our lives to help us grow and to see the plan He has laid out for us. The two of you are an inspiration to Chris and I. We love you both and can’t wait to meet you! Just be prepared…the hug is gonna be long and tight!!! The tow of you are proof that God doesn’t make mistakes!
    All the best,
    Ken & Chris McCafferty

  6. Thank you for sharing your story! We are so grateful this lifestyle has given us the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people while continuing on this journey. We too started full time in 2021.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top