Then & Now
We have shared many faith, family, and farming stories from our younger years of prayer, homeschooling and homesteading. We wrote about many family lessons in the History of Our Lady’s Ranch. And I’ve highlighted funny experiences like riding the pigs. But we’ve all grown up since those wonder years, so we want to share a family update of what we are all doing now before proceeding with the current homesteading residents at Our Lady’s Ranch.
This was the Zeiter family in 2008 —
It honestly seems like forever ago…
Starting in the back and going from left to right we have Alisandra (“Ali,” age 7) and Christia (“Tia,” age 8); in the middle is Zachary (“Zachy,” age 10), Dad, Joseph (“Jo-Jo,” age 5), and Michael (“Miggy,” age 4) held by Mom; then myself, Tyler (“Ty,” age 12), and Mariana (“Nina,” age 2).
Fourteen years doesn’t seem like that long in the grand scope of things, but a lot has happened since then, including an expansion of the farming business, kids going to college and graduating, the discovery of a long lost sibling, weddings, grandkids, and the death of our mom (Alicia). Losing her was the most difficult thing that has ever happened to us and it is only because of our faith and love for each other that we’ve made it to where we are now…
I (Ty) definitely have the oldest sibling complex… my nickname was even “mamacita” for a while because by age eight, I was already cooking dinner for everyone. Despite my need to take care of everyone, I managed to head out on my own to pursue a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration. In 2018, I switched tracks, went on mission for a year, and then graduated in 2021 from John Paul the Great University with a Bachelor’s in Philosophy and Theology. One week after graduation, I married my childhood friend Charles Straight, and moved across the country to Camp Lejeune USMC just a few days later. We’re now back in northern California, and expecting our first baby in June. We’re naming her “Alicia,” in loving memory of my mom.
Zach is a huge reason why Our Lady’s Ranch grounds look like a beautiful park. He was working full-time days starting in middle school to help Dad develop the property and the business. After a gap year at community college that he attended in order to continue helping us at home, he attended Thomas Aquinas College where he met his wife, Cecilia. He finished college first, and also was the first one to walk down the aisle in the summer of 2022 at age 22. Zach and Cecilia live in Lodi, California where he runs the IT department for Zeiter Eye, an ophthalmology group started by our Jiddo (grandfather). They are expecting their first baby in April—Lot’s of girl cousins coming up in the Zeiter home!
Tia is a go-getter and graduated high school two years early (let’s go homeschooling!). Originally planning to change the world through politics, she attended the University of California San Diego and graduated, summa cum laude at just 20 years old. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a focus on Political Science. Tia is incredibly gifted in languages, and now speaks Spanish, French, and Japanese. She’s currently living in Tokyo for this year, while teaching English at a high school there. When she gets back to America this fall, she’s planning to attend advanced studies in southern California, while indulging her passionate hobby by working at a bakery :)
Ali is the only Zeiter kid still at home (although she’s rarely home now). She just turned 20-years-old last week and is running around with a full schedule of pre-nursing at community college, while pursuing her passion for photography, and performing in aerial dancing (dancing “in the air” using silks and hoops). Ali has always been the most empathetic out of all of us, so her decision to pursue nursing at a university came as no surprise. It’s so interesting to hear about her latest classes, detailing the complexity of anatomy or the emotional stages of childhood development.
Jo is eighteen now and has always been a tech genius. I remember hiding things from him or else we’d find them somewhere taken apart. One day I saw our family DVD player in pieces on the dining room table with Joseph attempting to put it back together (and he actually did). Last year he attended a three month long survival camp in Idaho where he was the star of the show (it’s really not fair to throw a ranch kid into the mix in camps like that). This year he’s attending college in Utah with technology courses to pursue a career in software engineering.
Miggs has always been the one with the most energy in our house, going from a million miles a minute and howling like a monkey to crashing out in some obscure place (we found him napping in the pantry one time). As he’s gotten older, all that wildness has transferred into the in-exhaustive social energy of a 16-year-old. With only two siblings still at home, it was time to find a new solution to homeschooling, so in January of this year, he began attending Villanova Preparatory School where he has all the opportunities he wants to pursue new adventures and sports — like baseball.
Nina definitely wasn’t going to be left at home when Michael took off to school, so she went to Villanova boarding school just one month later. She has always loved art, and her supplies took up most of the room in her suitcases when she left. She’s not sure about career plans yet, but art, architecture, and landscape development are at the top of her list. Nina also loves animals, and was always covered in dirt and scratches from running after them. So now she runs like a wild chetah for the track team that she just joined at her new school!
In 2018 we received a surprising call from Eric Hallin, who said that he believed that our dad was his dad too. Sure enough, Eric is a happy result of my Dad’s wild past from when he was at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, studying architecture at age twenty. Although Eric is nearly fifteen years older than me, it’s been amazing to become friends with him and his family (his wife Amanda, and their kids Jacob and Emma). They live in Paso Robles, central California, where Eric helps many people with financial planning and advisory services.
Last year God brought Karen into our life through his providential kindness to Dad. Although she lives in Honduras, they see each other at least once a month and have traveled the western hemisphere with a renewed youthful enthusiasm. Karen has two daughters in high school (Emily and Camille) who have visited us here at Our Lady’s Ranch and some of us were able to tour Honduras with them as well, so life has remained quite full and adventurous. Over the years, Karen has been involved in various charitable groups in Honduras that dad now helps with too. She has been incredibly energetic with Our Lady’s Ranch ministry, so her and Dad enjoy working together to help as many people as they can to live in God’s love and peace.
And I think that’s a wrap.
Life has definitely changed from all those family photos that you’ve been viewing on this site. And I believe that speaks to how the ideal Catholic family life can change based on a family’s situation — not just family to family, but also within the same family at different stages of their life. It seems like God continues to lead us all into some type of change. I think that what God really wants is for us to grow as we remain open to his will and choose the path that He shows us in each new phase of life and in each moment.
Our family has changed much over the years and we Zeiter kids are all discovering our own paths as designed for us in God’s holy will. Meanwhile, God has been leading others to live and work at Our Lady’s Ranch as he develops a new Catholic Family Homestead community here. We’re looking forward to introducing several new residents on the next entry :)
Until then, God Bless —
Tyler Straight
Oldest Zeiter Kid
Design & Marketing for Our Lady’s Ranch
