In a way that only God could, the collapse to rock bottom built a new foundation built upon His promises. Few people might identify as having the best year in 2020, we were right there with others struggling. The state-mandated destruction of a small business, the depression and fear, the financial strains, and the abounding theme of fear that the world was trying to call us all to.
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The Fall
If you have been a follower of mine or this blog, you saw me discuss openly one of the final catalysts for moving (fleeing) our “home state”. If not, find The 2020 Collapse of Small Business series here.
What proceeded us to pack up everything we owned and moving across the country to somewhere we had no friends, families, or connections?
Prayers
If you know me, I can be strong-willed, stubborn even at times... haha Some days my husband and I might even compete on which one of us is the most! I share that because it might have been hitting rock bottom that was the only thing that would shake us from being safe (and stuck?) where we were. Maybe God was calling us to something entirely different than what we had settled into and we were too comfortable to hear the call? Years prior we wouldn’t have been ready or open to starting again in Missouri (James has sworn off returning to the midwest after his childhood there).
I remember times in the last 10 years when I had cried out in prayer for a home that would be ours. I cried and asked God to please bring us the desire of our hearts. It felt like we had all the right pieces, the good-paying job, the business, friends, and family nearby. Why did this forever feel out of our grasp?If I am brutally honest, slowly over time, I had given up asking for what I once dreamed of in a hobby farm and felt like I was becoming desperate and would be happy with 'just a house'. I even remember hearing the sting of pain when someone described how great it would be when we got our little farm, it felt like it wasn't coming. I didn't give up on knowing that God would provide, I did however have to surrender and release my natural tendency to want to control things and know how it would look. Doesn't that sound silly seeing it written out? But surely I'm not the only one who gets caught up trying.
He was faithful in His timing. Because years had passed (let's be honest, we aren't getting any younger as they say), we just skipped starter home and moved to forever home! I would say many areas of my life don't comply with the 'norm'. The white picket fence house and the 2.5 child family by the time I was leaving my 20s for instance.
So why start now?
Financial Provision
In God's perfect timing, He had already provided the way there and needed us to fully surrender and trust. Like so many other families and small business owners, that looked like losing so much in 2020. And through loss came redemption. As we closed our business in Oregon the financial loss on our taxes generated a refund for a down payment on our forever house.
Like so many, I felt a feeling of shame moving from a fully independent professional woman who had worked since I was an early teen to applying for unemployment. But as I surrendered to the support our family needed during this time, I was learning new lessons along the way and started into 2021 in the most incredible case of 'perfect timing'.
God was continuing His love letter to us.
My unemployment expiration/exhaustion came the week before my new job began. I received a final unemployment check one week and the first check from my new job the week after. In no way could I have ‘planned that’ out when I lost my contract in July of the prior year to February of the following year. #GodProvides
By moving to a lower cost of living state, we were in a position to buy an entirely different home (and now land) for the same price as a small cookie cutter starter home in our prior neighborhood. This is my vision dream board from the photo I snapped before we moved on 12/30/20:
By moving to a lower cost of living state, we were in a position to buy an entirely different home (and now land) for the same price as a small cookie cutter starter home in our prior neighborhood. This is my vision dream board from the photo I snapped before we moved on 12/30/20:
This is a close-up on the top of my vision board home and front porch, and the bottom is our new home in Missouri:
God loves us the same in the biggest challenges and smallest details...
God cares about the little details
I recently discussed in The Adventure Interview the love letter that God is writing in our lives.
Some of those details that we saw come true in our love letter include:
- Oak trees surrounding our home and land (my dream home vision had always included some kind of oak grove).
- We drive to our land through the most beautiful tree-lined roads. Literally, over the hills, through the woods, to our dreamhouse we go!
- We have drive-thru permanent streams that are a dream come true for my husband James who LOVES to drive his truck through puddles and water. "That will never get old," he tells me. This crick (as I call It) in the background runs through the bottom of our land and across the road to our house most of the year:
- Tall shower heads (I told you, the small details!) for James.
- A porch and porch swing where I can sit out and watch the wild birds, enjoy the fireflies, and call to my free-ranging chickens:
- A firepit, so simple and yet such a magical place of intimate gatherings and the invitation to build community with new friends.
- Ready to go with multiple income stream possibilities. For instance, we have already launched our Ozark Farm Stay Airbnb and people are loving it!
We may live on Seveno Ridge Road, but our homestead is now atop what we have claimed as Freedom Ridge.
And now I will leave you with my song that feels like where I have arrived, Wildflowers by The Wailing Jenny’s.
P.S. Sorry Tom Petty, I love your music but this version speaks to me in a different way in this season of my life...
Lyrics:
Information courtesy of Echo Schneider
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