Ringing in the New Year with a New Beginning

Ah, dear readers, what an ending to the year these last few months have been around here.

Our family has been through the wringer since I last sat down here and chatted with you, but our faith in the Lord is still strong, the determination for our family to see what could be coming our way is still where we are focused, and we are moving into this bright, brand new year with high hopes and excitement at a new adventure.

When we last spoke, I told you I had to pull away for a time, possibly forever, because I needed to get my priorities straight and focus on my family. I told you how I had been struggling with that for a couple months and finally gave in to the burden I was feeling to simply step back and let go.

Wow, am I glad I did.

Only a few short weeks later my dear Handy Hubby was notified his store was closing for good. All the employees were gathered by the management , expecting to hear they were remodeling the store, and instead told the worst news of their life. Kurt called me from the store in tears…..but true to form, he was more worried about those men he had come to hold dear to his heart that he knew would have a harder time finding employment….the co-worker who had just come from home from the hospital after a breakdown from losing his wife to death….the friend who had just accepted a management position with their company and had turned down a better offer…..his other friend who had spent his entire life working for this store and had never know anything else.

It got worse from there. Not only were they closing the store, they kept moving the date up. Instead of a guaranteed three weeks of work, it became two weeks. Days later it became only two more days of work.  Then came the news they could not guarantee retirement packages or even their severance packages, and the forms and agreements the company employees had signed just weeks before were now null and void.

I knew we would be okay even if things were tight because my Young Living business replaced my husband’s income only a few weeks earlier. However, I also wondered about the friends and families we had come to know and love through the store that were not so fortunate.

Emotionally, for my husband, it was excruciating.

But all the prayers and ties that had been cut all of sudden became clear when he got a call from a chain of stores only an hour away. They made an immediate appointment with him, sat down with him at a restaurant, and offered him the moon

No kidding.

That day, the moment he came home and I saw his face as he walked through the door, a lot of things became clear. As always, God was moving and directing our paths. Something big and exciting was around the corner for our family, and while it might be a wild ride, what is more fun that stepping out in faith and watching the Lord direct your steps as He promises? In my mind, nothing.

Kurt signed the papers for employment with this new company less than a week after walking away from his old one. It is not only a good job, it is a great job, with huge potential. Better pay. Better benefits. The only catch?

Its in a different state.

Not too far away, but truly farther away from everything we held dear, all our plans and dreams and hopes for this house.

So what is our new adventure for the year 2015?

Why many of them, of course, but the biggest one will be our family relocating to South Dakota at the end of this month. After 10 weeks of our family struggling to only be together on weekends for about 36 hours, we will finally all be in the same place and same state again.  I look forward to the new adventures ahead of us, and am excited to share them with you as I am able.

I promise to uplaod pictures of where we are going and our plans. 😀 I can not wait to share with you what we do with our new property/house and how we make it more self-sufficient. I cant wait to chat sewing and crafting, natural health, and gardening or canning with you over this new year ahead of us.

And I guess that is what matters, right?

Sharing my heart with you. Being real and transparent with you and showing that  life may throw you lemons…..but you can make some darn good lemonade out of them with a lot of faith and a determination to not let it turn your heart sour.

May this new year be full of excitement, promise, hope and adventure for you as well.

Blessings to you and yours.

~Heather <3