For many years, My Ashleah Foundation was born from one of the deepest hurts a family could ever experience—the loss of our daughter, Ashleah.

What began as a response to unimaginable grief became a journey of remembrance, outreach, healing, and love. Through the years, we shared her story in hopes that others would know they were not alone in their pain. We have cried with families, prayed with the broken, stood beside those battling addiction, and walked through grief alongside people searching for hope.

But healing has a way of changing you.

Over the past three months especially, Lorraine and I have found ourselves in a spiritual battle unlike anything we have experienced before. Yet through that battle, God began surfacing something hidden deep within me—suppressed trauma I had unknowingly been coping with by simply doing more.

• More events.
• More outreach.
• More striving.
• More building.

What I believed was passion and perseverance, God revealed was often a mask of pride hidden within ministry.

One afternoon while driving past the My Ashleah billboard, I did what I have done countless times before. I looked up at Ashleah’s face and quietly said the same words I always say:

“I love you and miss you, My Ashleah.”

But this time, before the moment passed, I heard the Spirit of the Lord speak gently and clearly into my heart:

“She is not your Ashleah… she is Mine.”

In that moment, something inside me broke.

God exposed a truth I had not fully seen before. So much of this mission had become centered around making sure her story reached the world so her memory would stay alive. And while the heart behind it came from love, I realized I had still not fully released her into the hands of the One to whom she has always belonged.

That moment changed us.

We realized that letting go of a loved one does not mean forgetting them. It means releasing them fully to God, trusting that they were never truly ours to hold onto forever.

Ashleah’s life, love, and memory will always live on in our hearts and in the hearts of those who knew her. But we now understand that our mission was never supposed to become about preserving a name—it was supposed to point people toward healing, freedom, and ultimately toward Jesus Christ.

We have also learned a difficult but valuable lesson:

Just because something is a good thing to do does not always mean it is the right thing to do.

As a result, My Ashleah is entering a season of transition and scaling back many of its operations. While some things are changing, our calling to help others heal is not ending—it is evolving.

Lorraine and I now feel called into a quieter, deeper, and more personal ministry centered around what we have come to call The Process of Healing.

This process was not created in comfort.

It was forged through grief, trauma, failure, repentance, forgiveness, restoration, and the overwhelming grace of God.

We believe healing begins when we stop hiding from our pain and allow the Lord to meet us in it.

Our heart moving forward is simple:

• To help people discover their identity in Christ
• To help marriages and families find restoration.
• To walk beside those struggling with grief, trauma, addiction, shame, and hopelessness.
• To encourage honest confession, true repentance, forgiveness, and healing.
• To point people not to a foundation, but to Jesus Christ—the true source of healing.

We are not stepping away from ministry.

We believe we are stepping more fully into it.

Thank you for walking this journey with us.

Thank you for your prayers, your love, and your support through the years.

As we move into this next season, our prayer is simple:

“Lord, guide us, equip us, prepare us, and send us wherever You desire.”

With love and gratitude,

Mark & Lorraine Richards