Crohns...another adventure.

When we started this blog, we wanted to make it to represent our authentic journey of following God's will to start a youth/men's summer camp and working farm/ranch. The journey has definitely been longer and harder than we both expected. Aside from the the financial hiccups that we have been having, my Crohns disease has been flaring up for about the past year. This was coincidentally about the same time that Ashley and I lost our jobs. It makes sense as Crohns is triggered by stress. I know the right thing to say would be that God will take care of everything and not to worry, however this is an authentic blog and I want to share our true hearts. I know God will work it out in the end, but in the mean time I am in a lot of pain (emphasis on a lot)! My latest surgery was on 6/20 and we will have to see if that is going to do the trick or not. In the meantime, I can no longer work as I am down a lot of weight along with the pain. With the physical pain comes frustration at the length of time, and difficulty involved with accomplishing our goal. With every physical pain comes a financial setback, and with every financial setback comes more frustration...and with the frustration comes stress and more Chron's flareups. And the cycle continues...

Am I just venting or does this have a point? A little of both I would say, but here's the point. Life would suck if it was all pain, but fortunately God blessed us with this thing called relationship. Sometimes, only out of the pain, do we truly see how blessed we are in the realm of relationship. Our new church family has really taken us in and cared for us whether it is lunch at Cracker Barrel, mowing the lawn, bringing over supper, or just chilling together playing Scattegories. I don't know what this does chemically and physically to the body, but I do know that it feels as if the Crohns starts to flee at the first sign of God's love being shown through others.

A quick update on the farm...we now have a gorgeous 8x10 cedar shed with a red metal roof on it to house the four wheeler and some of the garden supplies. There are currently 7 fruit trees planted, as well as a few raspberry bushes that are being protected by a solar-powered electric fence. This is all being grown organically, and will hopefully someday begin to supply our ranch and guests with healthy tasty food. Latte, our mini corgi farm puppy is doing great. She loves kids and will make a great therapy dog someday soon. We plan to take her to the nursing homes and hospitals in the area to help others, just like someone did for me when I was in the hospital as a kid.

If you want to help, prayer is what we need the most as one job between the two of us is not enough financially, and the pain from Crohn's is just barely tolerable.

We appreciate your support, and look forward to the day when we can have everyone out at the property to enjoy God's blessing of fellowship.

Why Texas?

The question we get most, is why Texas? Well, here's a rundown of the road God took us on to get us here:

January 2005: Brent and I got married and moved to Seattle, my hometown. We knew then that we would eventually move closer to his family in Missouri.

July 2007: I was in the middle of a very stressful job that was literally making me sick. We went to my grandparents' home on Whidbey Island to get away from everything and just relax. As I sat outside in the sunshine, reading a book, staring out at the water, I realized why people chose to escape suburbia for land and a slower pace of life. I made the decision that we'd start looking at places to move.

August 2007: After a lot of deliberation and research, Brent and I decided on North Texas. It was only an 8-hour drive from his parents, land was relatively inexpensive, Dallas was a short drive away, and there were plenty of universities for me to pursue my master's degree.

October 2007: Brent and I flew to Dallas and stayed in Commerce, Texas. We met with our real estate agent, Doug Franklin, who we found online. He showed us around the area, and we viewed half a dozen properties. In the end, we left without making an offer, but loving Texas!

December 2007: Doug kept sending us properties to view online after we left. One of the properties he found for us was a 35 acre spread in Jacobia (12 miles west of Commerce and 10 miles north of Greenville). We put in an offer, but the sellers wanted more than we were willing to pay. We decided that it must not be meant to be, so we kept looking for something else. Two weeks later, the sellers came back and accepted our offer.

January 2008: I lost my job at Harbour Homes due to the housing downturn. Thankfully, we had already signed our paperwork, and closed on the property.

February 2008: Now that we were officially moving to Texas, I chose to pursue job opportunities in Texas, rather than Washington. Luckily, Texas A&M University-Commerce had just posted an opening for a publications writer with the marketing communications department. I applied, and waited.

March 2008: In an effort to actively pursue a Texas job, I flew to Greenville to attend the city's career fair. I made some connections, and chose to drive to A&M-Commerce to introduce myself. I'm glad I did. I met Christan, Ken and a few of my other future co-workers.

May 2008: I still hadn't heard back from A&M-Commerce, and gave up on that job. I chose to pursue another job opportunity from the career fair, and scheduled another flight to Texas for an interview. A week prior to my flight, A&M-Commerce called and said they were ready to interview me. They asked if I wanted a phone interview since I was in Seattle, and I let them know that I was going to be in Commerce. It was a HUGE God thing. The interview went fantastically well, and I was offered the job a few days later. By May 31, I had arrived in Texas.

Septemeber 2008: For four months, Brent stayed in Washington while I was in Texas. He had a good paying job, and we were trying to sell our condo. I started praying that Brent would be in Texas in time for the holidays. Be careful what you pray for. Brent lost his job due to the Boeing strike, packed his bags, and moved to Texas leaving our condo and Seattle life behind.

Now, our big Texas adventure begins...together.