#Unsettled

For those of you who are new to the UnSettled movement, let me start with our mission: UnSettled is about living out loud, unapologetically, and purposefully stepping out of your comfort zone.

To understand where we are going (hello, Soul Restore Inc.!), you have to know where I came from.

My name is Stephanie Wheeler. I’m a mom of three, and I grew up in a baseball family. My parents—high school sweethearts from outside St. Louis—instilled in me a powerful duality: my mom’s loud, loving Greek family connection and my father’s quiet, disciplined farmer’s work ethic.

My father’s career in Major League Baseball broadcasting had our family moving constantly. This journey was an incredible blessing—we saw amazing places and had experiences less than one percent of the country ever gets. I am profoundly grateful for that every day. But being raised by two Midwesterners who constantly drilled: “Be grateful. Be blessed. Do the right thing,” while navigating drastically different social climates sometimes left me feeling alone.

I was always drawn to the arts—dance, theater, performance—and I was perfectly fine being the “nerd at heart.”  However, growing up with a parent as a public figure taught me an early, harsh lesson about people who only want proximity to power. I had to learn how to deal with the inevitable friends who only wanted to say they knew me and then secretly mock me behind my back. It’s a reality many of us face, regardless of our parents’ profession or social standing: people use one another to get what they want.

For me, that thick skin didn’t develop until after high school. While I always had a small circle—I’m still connected with my first childhood friend from Texas whom I wrote letters to—finding those core people, my tribe, who had my back regardless of status or circumstance? That felt like searching for a needle in a haystack until my mid-20s.

I married a professional baseball player, a decision I’m sure my childhood “friends” assumed was calculated. It wasn’t.  My husband was different from the athletes I grew up around. He came from a large, New England Irish family, prioritizing Sunday dinners and family first. We shared the same deep, quiet core values.

We were lucky enough to play in Houston for a portion of his career, and I truly believe it was divine intervention because that is where I met my tribe.

These girls—my soul sisters—now live all over the country, yet we fly across state lines at the drop of a hat to be there for one another. We bonded over early motherhood, a fierce commitment to gratitude, and an undeniable urge to help others.

That core value was cemented during his time with the Astros when we hosted an annual gala that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for women and children’s crisis shelters in the Houston area. That commitment didn’t end when the season did. My friend Christi recently ran the rim of Lake Tahoe, dedicating her monumental effort to a crisis center. We give back because we are blessed, and karma is real.

This past year, writing UnSettled and connecting with women has amplified that urge to do more, do it better, and do it bigger. When a reader recently told me my articles are “food for her soul,” I knew I couldn’t stop at just writing.

How do I take this connection to the next level? How do I harness the bond of sisterhood and transform it into tangible positive action?

Over the last year, my soul sisters and I have formed a nonprofit: Soul Restore Inc.

Our Mission is clear: To help women and children in crisis by using the funds generated from our women’s retreats to partner with organizations that are already doing the life-changing work but desperately need funding. We can raise money, and being able to make that donation to a cause so close to our hearts is priceless.

This year, we’re focusing on retreats in the Clearwater Beach area, with plans to expand into the Carolinas, Georgia, and eventually Lake Tahoe in California.

We are inviting you into our tribe and into this vision. Being part of something life-changing for others will be life-changing for yourself. It gives you a whole new perspective.

I believe that by putting that positivity into the universe, we are healing women, children, and people one connection at a time.

Join us on a retreat. Help us heal those wounded souls, and you’ll find your own soul being restored at the same time.