“I cried every day for a month because I was so scared that it wasn’t going to work out,“ Shara Chapek told Newsweek.
, when both Shara Chapek, now 41, and Matt Chapek, 40, were laid off from their jobs within weeks of each other.Newsweek ."But we decided to start having conversations about what we wanted our future to look like.
We started dreaming together and really asking ourselves what we wanted in life. Were we happy? What were our priorities? Where do we want to end up?" The couple had been living in Alberta, Canada—where Shara was born—for six years. Matt worked as a worship pastor at their church, while Shara was an office manager at a wealth management company. Although they had close friends nearby and most of Shara’s"The thing we hated most about living there was how cold it is," Shara said."The temperature can often drop to—40 degrees Celsius, and the winters are so long and dark. We both don’t really like doing winter sports, so being that cold all the time wasn’t fun." When pandemic lockdowns hit, isolation compounded those challenges. The couple worked from home, stopped seeing friends, and spent months inside due to the harsh winters."I’m an introvert so I didn’t mind it as much," Shara said."My husband had a harder time than I did." Their layoffs forced difficult questions—and unexpected freedom."Losing our jobs almost felt like a relief in a way, because it allowed us to have a clean slate," she said."We could literally start over anywhere." The idea to move surfaced suddenly—almost impossibly."The crazy idea of moving to Hawaii popped into my husband’s head one day, and he just couldn’t let it go," Shara said."I thought he was crazy. People don’t just sell everything and move to Hawaii." But, after months of discussion, prayer and reflection, the couple felt compelled to take the leap."We honestly felt called to go there," she said."I cried every day for a month because I was so scared that it wasn’t going to work out." With encouragement from her father—“that’s OK if it doesn’t work out. Then you can just go on your next adventure"—Shara began to reframe the risk. They eventually relocated more than 3,200 miles to Oahu, drawn by its job opportunities and Shara’s prior connection to the island.For a decade, the Chapeks had tried unsuccessfully to conceive. Despite extensive testing, doctors diagnosed them with unexplained infertility—offering no clear cause or solution. "There was nothing physically wrong with us; we just couldn’t have a baby," Shara said."This was extremely frustrating to hear because this meant there was nothing the doctors could do to fix us." Over time, the emotional toll became overwhelming."That’s a long time to wish for something and never have it come to fruition," Shara said. Eventually, the couple let go of expectations."I wouldn’t say we ever stopped trying to have children; we just stopped expecting that we ever would.""I had never been pregnant before," Shara said. After feeling unusually emotional following her grandmother’s death, she took a pregnancy test—assuming it would be negative."When the result tested positive, I’m pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a couple of minutes." Matt was stunned."He didn’t believe me," she said."We both just kept saying over and over, 'There is no way this is real.'" Their first daughter, Haven, now 2, was born soon after—and, less than three years later, they welcomed a second child, Chloe, now 6 months old. Chloe’s arrival felt almost incomprehensible to a couple who once believed parenthood was out of reach. "When I found out I was pregnant with our second baby…I have never cried like that before," Shara said."It was like we had won the lottery at life." Motherhood also reframed how Shara views their move."Originally, we thought we were moving there for us," she said."When I got pregnant, it completely rocked our entire world." What once represented escape and reinvention became something deeper—healing."We are so happy we took that leap of faith," Shara said."We have found so much healing here.""Our dream life now completely revolves around our babies," Shara said."The normal, ordinary, exhausting, beautiful days. What an absolute honor it is to be raising these children and have the title of Mom and Dad.""A year after we moved, we got pregnant with our miracle baby. I just delivered our second miracle baby in September. I still can’t believe this is real, but we are living our dream life in Hawaii with our two beautiful girls," she wrote. One commenter, Jessica Flores, responded:"Oh how I love this! All your stressors were let go of and you allowed your soul to just guide you. What a magical story!"For Shara, the message she hopes others take away is simple:"You are not broken," she said."Your life has so much value, even if you never get your miracle baby." Today, the couple say they are worn out."We are exhausted," Shara said with a laugh."And we are loving every second of it."
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