From Lost to Found: Alexandra Hullquist’s Brave Journey in Finding Katie
In a publishing world that often rewards polish over vulnerability, Alexandra Hullquist, writing under the name Alix Wiebe, has done something radical: she’s told the truth. Finding Katie: Lost and Found in Plain Sight is not a memoir meant to impress; it’s a memoir meant to connect. And it does; deeply, honestly, and without apology.
The story is hers, but it’s also ours. It’s about the wounds we carry, the masks we wear, and the difficult path back to wholeness. Through Katie, the book’s central voice and Hullquist’s inner self, the author explores trauma, resilience, faith, and identity with a kind of clarity that can only come from lived experience.
“When I started writing,” Hullquist shared in a recent interview, “I did it for me. A woman at a conference once said, ‘If you want to understand yourself, write your story from birth to now.’ That stuck with me. I wrote to understand myself, and then I realized, maybe someone else needs this too.”
Hullquist’s life has been anything but ordinary. Born to medical missionary parents, she grew up between continents: California, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and Puerto Rico. Her childhood was both structured and rich in culture, filled with classical music, faith, outdoor adventures, and travel. But beneath that surface were unspoken shadows. At just eight years old, Hullquist experienced sexual abuse at the hands of neighborhood children—a violation that went unspoken for nearly five decades.
“It wasn’t something I even had words for back then,” she says. “But it shaped how I saw myself, my body, my worth.” The impact crept quietly through her adolescence, her first marriage, and even her relationship with faith. Shame, self-doubt, and a fractured sense of identity followed her into adulthood.
This is where Finding Katie refuses to be a “trauma memoir” for spectacle. It doesn’t stay in the pain—it journeys through it. The story moves through broken marriages, spiritual confusion, a child’s life-threatening illness, financial ruin, and depression. But Hullquist does what the best storytellers do: she finds meaning inside the mess.
The book doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it explores what it means to lose yourself entirely—and how the slow, imperfect process of finding your way back often starts with owning your truth.
One of the book’s strongest threads is spirituality—not as a performance or a pressure, but as a lifeline. “Without my faith,” she says, “I wouldn’t have made it. I would have given up.” Raised on the Bible, she speaks of scripture not as a weapon, but as an anchor. She recalls nights of despair when the only thing holding her together was a memory, a verse, or a kind word from a friend reminding her she was still loved.
And yet, Hullquist doesn’t let religion off the hook. She addresses how legalism and fear-based teachings warped her sense of identity. “I became obsessed with being ‘worthy,’” she says. “I lost the joy I had as a child. I was trying so hard to be good that I forgot how to be real.”
That pursuit of realness—of dropping the masks and returning to the self—runs through every chapter of Finding Katie. The book’s title captures this arc perfectly. Katie is the name Hullquist gives to her younger self, her innocent core, the version of her that was lost through trauma, expectations, and life’s battering. Writing the book, she says, was like calling Katie home.
In doing so, Hullquist invites readers to do the same. Finding Katie doesn’t preach. It doesn’t give formulas. Instead, it offers solidarity. Whether she’s recounting being violated, struggling with eating disorders, sitting by her son’s hospital bed, or healing from divorce, Hullquist writes with a voice that says, “You’re not alone. I’ve been there too.”
There are moments of warmth and even humor—she knows how to balance heaviness with humanity. “If it were all depressing,” she laughs, “who would want to read it? Life has moments of sunshine, even behind the clouds.”
What makes her memoir even more striking is its interweaving of cultural texture. Hullquist’s global upbringing shaped how she sees the world and how she writes. Her descriptions of village life in Papua New Guinea, or Sabbath traditions in rural Puerto Rico, are vivid and grounding. They’re not just background—they’re part of the emotional landscape of the story.
The message Hullquist hopes readers take away is simple but powerful: your story matters. “We learn through stories,” she says. “That’s why I wrote this—not to give advice, but to show what it looks like to walk through fire and still believe healing is possible.”
And people are listening. Finding Katie is already resonating with survivors of trauma, women struggling with self-worth, and readers seeking a more honest picture of faith and healing. For a first book, it doesn’t feel like a debut. It feels like the culmination of a life finally ready to speak.
So what’s next for Alexandra Hullquist? More writing, certainly. “I’m working on another book,” she says. “It will explore concepts close to my heart—again, through story.” That’s good news, because we need more stories like hers. Stories that don’t pretend, but reach out. Stories that show that even when you’re lost, you can be found.
