Six months ago, Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico with winds up to 175 miles per hour. The storm upended Soleil's life. Fortunately, another Maria was there to help her get back on her feet.
When the hurricane hit in September of 2017, Soleil and her husband Juan lost everything, including their jobs. It looked like Puerto Rico might take months to recover, and they were right—as hundreds of thousands are still without power there even now. In November, Soleil's friend Maria, who lives in Des Moines, invited her to move to central Iowa to start fresh. After a lot of thought, Soleil and Juan made the difficult decision to move with their two young children.
As the family settled in, they worried about countless challenges, including taxes. Soleil and Juan had been told they couldn't use their W-2 from Puerto Rico, and they didn't know what they were going to do.
