A Marriage, a Milestone, and Time Away: Kiersten Theurer Marks 10 Years of Marriage, On Her Own Terms

Kiersten Theurer lives a few miles down the road from where she and her husband grew up, on land that has shaped both of them for generations. They farm in south-central Kansas, raise cattle, and are raising three boys — Henry, Rowdy, and Tripp — who spend their days moving between school, sports, and the farm.

Kiersten is 33 and self-employed. She has run a photography business for nine years, alongside a beef and tallow operation she manages with her husband. Until last spring, she also worked full time as the grant director for a substance-use prevention coalition serving youth across Sumner County. In May 2024, she left that role to focus on her own businesses and her family. For the first time in a long while, her life felt aligned.

In December, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The discovery was unremarkable in its timing. One of her sons ran past her in the kitchen while she was making supper and collided with her chest. The pain lingered long enough for her to notice a lump. An initial appointment suggested a cyst. Imaging told a different story.

Treatment followed quickly. In January, Kiersten underwent a double mastectomy. From March through June, she completed eight rounds of dose-dense chemotherapy. In August, she finished 25 rounds of targeted radiation. She will remain on medications and infusions for years to come, part of the long tail of care that does not end when “active treatment” does.

Throughout it all, Kiersten continued to show up for her children’s lives: basketball and baseball games, livestock shows, school events, and family celebrations. She missed some things, but fewer than she feared she would. Her priority, she said, was keeping life as steady as possible for her boys.

Now finished with radiation, Kiersten is beginning to feel like herself again. Not restored, exactly, but present. Clear-eyed. Ready to mark what the past year required of her and what remains important.

In October, she and her husband celebrated 10 years of marriage.

They did not travel. There was no trip, no pause, no moment set aside to acknowledge the weight of the year they had carried together. The timing never worked. Treatment schedules rarely do.

Kiersten’s Love Bomb will change that.

She plans to use the grant to take a trip with her husband — time alone, away from work, away from parenting schedules, away from medical calendars. The two of them have long talked about offshore fishing. This trip will finally make space for it.

It is not framed as recovery or reward. It is simply something she wants. Something they postponed long enough. Something that belongs to the marriage they have continued to choose through a year that asked more of them than most.

The Rural Gone Urban Foundation’s Love Bomb supports that decision. It does not pay medical bills. It does not attempt to fix what cancer disrupted. It allows a woman to decide how she wants to move forward — and to take her husband with her.

For Kiersten Theurer, that choice looks like open water, time together, and a marriage that gets to be celebrated on its own terms.