We have had limited internet access for a few months, to explain the distance in keeping up on here. We are now on the road and my hope is to write at least once a week, and share a few more projects I have worked on the past few months...but we will see. So, here goes:
I feel like this entry could be titled many things, like........"when your husband loses his job", "walking into a career change", "marrying an entrepreneur/dreamer", "when God is calling you to step into something different", "stepping into the unknown", "when seasons of life change", or "faith and family". The list could go on and on. All of the things listed above are accurate and relevant. Our family is walking into a new season.
I will likely post more on this at some point later on, but for now I will share a bit of our story (while trying to keep it brief) because I feel it is important to document this season. Not as a season of all things figured out, or conquered on the other side. Just simply processing as we are going along. It's a bit vulnerable not to have all the answers, but that is usually how real life works...not having all the answers. So, if you are like us and feel that your life has taken a sharp left turn in a season of transition, perhaps you will find comfort in knowing that you are not alone.
Before Brandon and I got married 12 years ago, we would often talk of what our future would look like (whether we were together or not). We had both strongly felt that we were not called to live the traditional, ordinary, standard, life. And that if at any point God was leading us to do something, well anything really (move overseas, quit our day job, sell our things, etc), that we would have to say "yes". I mean how could we say "no" to the very maker of our being, the God who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves? So, as young adults we felt confident to walk in this way. Once we got married we had talks and dreams of moving to another country (South Africa at the time because we had some friends there). As we decided to pursue this dream in our hearts we found the doors to be closed in many ways, the main one being financially, as we were a young newly married couple that did not have much savings, etc.
A few years went by and we would often have talks of if we had "missed it", and why was our life so different than we had thought it would be. My husband was a full fledged entrepreneur at heart from the beginning of our marriage. He had great visions and dreams of how we would own our own company and it would fund all of the dreams in our hearts, to one day travel to foreign places in other countries to serve and live life, learning other cultures. My husband (Brandon) did well with several companies he founded or cofounded. And some were more of a struggle. All along the way, we would pray and ask God for direction through it all and we did the best with what we knew of being early married, hearing and following God's voice, charting our own path of unmarked territory, and living by faith. We made lots of mistakes along the way, but continuously prayed and sought God's direction for our life.
There were times of plenty where we lived in nice homes, drove nice cars, ate nice food, etc...and there were times when we could only see as far as a day or two in advance, trying to make $50 stretch as far as it could, and trusting God for all of our needs. Looking back now, we have learned and see so much on both sides of the spectrum and are thankful for the life lessons.
So, here we are, 4 kids and several years later. My husband had another successful business and the doors began to close in this season. We found ourselves going back to God with our old prayers, remembering that we always said we would follow as He would lead. And all signs were showing that this season of business was ending and that we were to trust completely in Him for the "next thing" for our family. Through these years of being married to my talented entrepreneur husband, we have learned a lot about hearing God's voice, and saying "yes" to things blindly, and "yes" to adventure. So, with a bit of that under our belt, we decided to pray and decided to say "yes" once again to wherever He would lead us.
After many months of praying and asking God many questions as a family and individually (what did He want us to do? or where did He want us to go? etc.), we heard a few things. One, was to sell a few valuable possessions. So we did. Two, was to record another album as a family (you can see here about the first one), which we also did (and here's more info on the current project). Third, was to travel a bit as a family and share our stories and music with others wherever the door was opened.
As our lease ended, we ended up staying with some generous and lovely friends for two months who took our family in during this transition. We slowly sold off more and more items until the bulk of our stuff could just fit in a storage unit and we could travel around with our suitcases, ukulele and one guitar. So, here we are...now on a journey that just began a few short weeks ago. I plan to share bits here along the way as time and limited internet will permit, but this is a new chapter to our journey of faith and family.
Here's the last photo taken in our house as the girls put on some dresses and twirled around one last time. I think this season of our life is very similar to this photo in some ways....a bit grainy, blurry and out of focus (definitely not the typical bright and clear photos I tend to gravitate to), but yet full of life, movement, dancing, and beauty. May this new season we are walking into be the same...full of life, movement, dancing, and beauty (even if it doesn't look like what we are used to).
1 comment:
WOW.
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