I stood on top of the hill, looking down on all that I was soon to own, and felt as though I were part of a surrealist painting. If I looked straight out, my heart and eyes could barely contain the sweeping, uninterrupted view of the majestic mountains that carry the skyline of central Oregon. Lifting toward heaven, they rose before me like glistening, snow-covered teeth in a yawning canine jaw, soaring above valley and billowing clouds cast a leopard like pattern of light and dark spots that moved across the undulating green canvas far below. It was massive. It would never be changed or obstructed by feeble manmade attempts to tame the horizon. It filled my heart.
     I took a deep breath and placed my hands on my hips, trying to summon enough courage to look down. Directly below me and for several acres beyond, lay the obvious reason that my husband Troy, and I were able to afford such a spectacular property—we had just purchased our very own cinder pit.
     Sprawling in all it's cavernous glory, it looked as though a greedy giant had taken a monstrous three-acre bite out of the earth, leaving behind a gaping, red encrusted hole. All of the power and promise that the land had previously supported was gone. What had once been a beautiful butte now stood desolate, lifeless and broken beyond hope of repair. All of it's intrinsic gifts had been razed away. The property was so hideous that many of our family and friends turned away in disgust. Several laughed at our foolhardiness for ever wanting something so useless.
     Although the land was completely destroyed, Troy and I saw something else. We didn't focus on what was, but what could be. With the help of local ranchers, we began to bury the cinder pit floor under organic waste materials—manure, straw, wood shavings—to build up a foundation that could again support life.
     Troy, being a landscaper, brought home every bruised, broken, and unwanted tree; and together we planted them, digging holes through the floor of sheer rock. After hundreds of pick, bar and shovel hours, and nearly as many blisters, our cinder pit was transformed into a remarkably functional and beautiful ranch.
     It had become the perfect match. Broken property planted with more than three hundred broken trees and shrubs, filled with a herd of broken horses—all to love back to life thousands of broken children.
     What once needed healing, now gives healing. What was once broken has now been restored. What was once lost is now found.

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