Selah Creek: A Place to Pause, Breathe, and Start Over

There is a Hebrew word that appears in the book of Psalms 74 times. Scholars debate its exact meaning. But one interpretation has stayed with Ashley Potts for years: a pause. A moment to stop, exhale, and simply be. When she and her husband Kevin were building their maternity home from the ground up, that word kept coming back to her. Selah. It fit perfectly — because a pause is exactly what these women need most.

Selah Creek is a residential maternity home right here in the Rockwall area, serving pregnant women who have nowhere safe to go. Many arrive fleeing domestic violence. Others are just beginning a sobriety journey. Some are simply alone, scared, and out of options. What they find at Selah Creek is something most of them have never had before: a real home, a real community, and people who refuse to give up on them.

"Selah Creek is more than shelter. It is a place of rest and restoration — a space where women can begin healing from their past, rediscover their worth, and build a foundation for lasting life change."
— Ashley Potts, Founder

Their Story Is Really Her Story

Ashley Potts didn't build Selah Creek from a distance. She built it from experience.

She and Kevin met as teenagers — young, messy, and by her own admission, not making great choices. They dated on and off for years, then decided to go their separate ways. Shortly after, Ashley found out she was pregnant. She was 19 years old.

"I was 19 and had never felt so afraid," she wrote. "Would I mess my kid up? Could I even be a good mom? And how could I parent without a boyfriend?" The doubts were relentless. But something shifted. God showed up, she says — gave her the strength to choose life for her baby, and in the process, used that baby's life to save hers.

What carried her through wasn't a program or a resource. It was people. Her family and Kevin's family became a tribe — teaching them how to soothe a crying baby, how to discipline, how to love well. "Without them," she wrote, "I don't know where we would be today."

Kevin and Ashley eventually found their way back to each other, got married, had more kids, and started asking a question neither of them could shake: What happens to the mamas who don't have a tribe? Who shows them what ours showed us?

That question became Selah Creek.

A Full, Beautiful, Busy Life

Ask the Selah Creek team what a typical week looks like and they'll laugh a little before answering. Because there's no such thing as a quiet week.

Between doctor's appointments, Bible studies, GED prep, financial literacy courses, parenting classes, grocery runs, and family dinners — the days are packed. And somewhere in between all of it, there are babies being snuggled, exams being studied for, and women slowly, steadily becoming the mothers they always wanted to be.

But here's what doesn't make it onto the official schedule: the movie nights. The late conversations over coffee. The small, ordinary moments where real community gets built. The Selah Creek team says those quiet evenings matter just as much as any curriculum — because healthy community is something many of these women have never experienced. They're learning it here, by living it every single day.

The Story That Never Leaves You

When asked to share one success story, Executive Director Ashly McCabe paused. "My goodness," she said. "How do I tell just one?"

But one keeps coming back to her. About four years ago, a woman arrived at Selah Creek straight from a local hospital. She was four months pregnant. She had struggled with heroin addiction for most of her life and had lost nearly everything to it. Recovery was brand new to her. Terrifying, even. But she had one thing burning inside her: a fierce, unshakeable desire to parent her child.

She was, as Ashly put it, unstoppable.

She met every goal the program set. She showed up. She did the work. When she moved out of the Selah Creek home, she took everything she had learned with her — the tools, the habits, the belief that she was worth more than her past.

Today, she is parenting two of her three children. She works a full-time job. She lives independently. And she has maintained her sobriety — not because the road has been easy, but because she refused to stop walking it.

What Nobody Warns You About

Running a nonprofit is hard. Everyone knows that part. The fundraising, the logistics, the endless to-do list. But when Ashly McCabe was asked about the hardest part — the thing nobody warns you about — her answer wasn't what you'd expect.

"The hardest part was actually a beautiful surprise," she said. "I wasn't warned about how quickly these women and their babies would become like family to me."

You start the work thinking you're providing a service, she explains. A program. A resource. And then somewhere along the way, your heart just — grows. A first step. A passed exam. A quiet conversation over coffee. These small moments sneak up on you and suddenly you realize: this isn't just a job. These are your people.

"I didn't realize," she said, "that in the process of building a home for them, they would end up building so much more joy and purpose into my own life."

Who These Women Really Are

There's a word the Selah Creek team uses when they talk about the women they serve. Not victims. Not charity cases. Not broken.

Overcomers.

Yes, these women have lived through devastating things. Deep wounds. Trauma that most of us will never have to face. But what the Selah Creek team wants Rockwall to understand — really understand — is who these women are on the other side of all that.

"They lead with conviction, empathy, generosity, and a drive to pursue a different path for their children. They are overcomers."
— Selah Creek Team

And here's something that might surprise you: the need for homes like Selah Creek is growing. Changes in abortion laws, rising inflation, and the near-impossible math of single motherhood are sending more women looking for help than ever before. Selah Creek is seeing a significant influx of women needing housing — and meeting that need requires what Ashly calls "an army of people."

What Rockwall Has Built Here

Maternity homes can exist anywhere. But something uniquely beautiful has taken root right here in Rockwall.

The people of this community haven't just written checks. They've shown up for these women like neighbors. Like family. They've created, in the words of the Selah Creek team, "a culture of caring for others" — rallying around mamas they've never met as if they were their own.

And that ripples outward in ways nobody planned for. When the women of Selah Creek leave the home, they carry that spirit with them. Because they were loved so well, they start loving others the same way. The generosity doesn't stop — it multiplies.

The People Doing the Work

Behind every transformed life is a small, deeply committed team showing up every single day. Selah Creek is led by Executive Director Ashly McCabe, Program Director Kiley Parish, and Development Director Kevin Potts — people who believe in this mission not just professionally, but personally.

Ashly McCabe

Executive Director

Kiley Parish

Program Director

Kevin Potts

Development Director

What's Next — If the Lord Wills It

The Selah Creek team holds their future plans with open hands. They're prayerful about the path forward — trusting, as they put it, that God ordains their steps and directs their future. Every decision is guided by that.

But if everything goes right? Within the next five years, they hope to house 15 to 20 mothers at a time, launch a strong two-year aftercare program that keeps supporting women long after they leave the home, and establish a permanent facility right in the heart of Rockwall — a place where a thriving community of single mothers can find support, stability, and real belonging.

It's a big dream. But then again, so was Selah Creek itself — and look what this community built together.