Home. Made‪.‬ Rocket Mortgage

Kim Ceurstemont always knew she wanted to be a mother. In her late 30s and still single, she opted to become pregnant through a donor. She planned to raise her son on her own, but wanted her child to know who their father was. So she chose a donor willing to share his identity. His name was Guilherme Figueiredo. Gui and his boyfriend, Jeremy, had never discussed children, but both were supportive of Kim’s journey to motherhood. What began as an act of kindness between strangers evolved into a nontraditional family happily living under one roof.

As a teenager, Ling Pai had barely settled into her new home, in a new country, when she learned she was losing her sight. She’d been diagnosed with dominant optic atrophy, a degenerative condition with no cure or treatment. Her vision would continue to get worse with every passing year, until she was effectively blind. For years Ling resisted – even outright ignored – the implications of her diagnosis. She refused to ask anyone for help, and stubbornly pursued perfection with everything she did. A crisis in her 20s – when she found herself alone at home, far from friends and family – forced her to confront and accept her condition. It liberated her to take on new challenges, ones that required her to ask others for help. Challenges like downhill skiing. And competitive surfing. Adventures that brought new waves of friends, family, and more places to call home.

At one time, Robert and Dareda owned seven homes – including a massive lakefront property and a 50-acre farm. And then it all came crashing down. But that didn’t quite spell the end of their opulent lifestyle – or at least not the appearance of it. For the next decade, the couple occupied dozens of extravagant houses – none of which belonged to them. In exchange for living on the cheap in luxury homes for sale, they had to agree to keep them absolutely pristine and ready to show at a moment’s notice.

Jazzmyn Cramer and Chris Phillips arrived in the desert outside of Chama, New Mexico, with plans to build a home and live a self-sustaining life together. But in a flash, a tragic accident changed everything. Suddenly, Jazzmyn found herself alone, broke, and in a town where she knew no one. She turned to the one thing that always consoled and steadied her through challenging moments: baking. And that gave rise to an idea she hoped might help her move on – by staying put and opening the Wilder Bakeshop.

Brandon Smith was raised by a family of public servants, but he felt like he was more of a public nuisance. A couple of wrong turns after college landed him in prison. While languishing in his cell, lost and unclear on what path to take next, a prison counselor offered him an opportunity: volunteer for Fire Camp, and help California tame its wildfires. The idea of fighting wildfires terrified him – but it also sparked hope. If he could just survive the program, it might lead him out of the wilderness. And help him find out where he belonged.

As kids, Esther Boyd and Teresa Moon spent hours playing alongside – and sometimes on top of – the 6-foot-tall, half-mile-long wall that cut through their Detroit neighborhood. But the wall’s intended purpose was much darker. It was built to segregate their Black neighborhood from the white families on the other side. The Birwood Wall had one job to do, but history suggests it failed spectacularly. Instead, the surrounding community has committed to redefine the legacy of the Birwood Wall and use it to celebrate the resilience of Black American culture.