In summer 2016, Kelly and Noah Dorrance drove up a single-lane road just outside Healdsburg, searching. The California sun beat down. Its heat wrapped around everything, its light pushing life both up and under. Kelly rolled down her window, letting the warm air wash over her hand as she looked out. Graceful oaks, draped in spanish moss, reached up and over the road towards one another, creating a sun-dappled tunnel of green that felt both mysterious and intimate.

They parked, got out, and—standing next to one another—took it all in. Right where the valley floor began its climb upward, stood a stone casita. Next to it, an elegant patio shaded by manzanitas and oaks. To the right, a small vineyard. The sense of possibility was immediate. They had found it: a home for Reeve.

This wouldn’t be their first rodeo—but it was bound to be their most meaningful one.