I'm back to this AGAIN. This? This picture...
I bought this picture for myself in the fall of 2012. It was almost a year after we had lost Papa. It was a few months after my horrible hysterectomy. We had moved Mom from the farm back to her home in town. Keller and I were living in the house at the farm. I ran my business from a barn next door. We had made the house at the farm 'our own', so to speak. And this fun sign looked great on the Kermit the Frog green walls in my new scrapbook room! I read it daily, thinking to myself that FINALLY things were going our way.
Life doesn't work that way. There's always something. There's always one more thing.
Within a few months of hanging this sign, Keller's struggle in school spiraled out of control...leading us to FSU and testing...results showing he had several learning disabilities that were never diagnosed. We then were faced with 3 months to complete his entire junior year of studies, if he was to be eligible for his senior football season. We did it, though...studying day and night.
So, I thought to myself, now I can live the life I've imagined. Not a life of leisure and eating bon bons, but at least one with a happy kid and time to scrapbook and time to enjoy country living with our dogs.
Again, it wasn't to be. Not then anyway. Keller got into a little trouble that summer...so despite the fact we were paying rent to Mom, she told us we had to move. We were heartbroken, to say the least. We found a place in a not-so-safe part of town, but close enough Keller could walk to school. The 'crooked house' or 'ghetto house', as we called it, did have enough room for our business stuff, too.
We would make do in this house til Keller graduated. Well, that took a little longer than planned too...and that's another story for another day. So, in May of 2014, we moved out of that house...I began a 6 month homeless period...and Keller bounced around from one friend's couch to another. Again, I'm sure I will write about all this in more detail later...but for now, just know what a hard time it was! Oh, and did I mention that it was in November of 2013, while living AND working in the crooked house, that I tore my left Achilles tendon?! Just one more thing, right?
It was during my 6 months of sleeping on couches myself that I moved the business to North Augusta, so Tracy and I could work together to try to fix so many things that were failing in our business. During that time, I blew out my right knee, mainly from wearing a boot for my Achilles for so long. Ugh, not just one thing...so many hard and painful things.
But, I had a plan to get to Charleston, SC. From the time I left the crooked house, that was my focus. In October of 2014, I rented a townhouse for me. Keller soon followed, as he had a diploma and was ready to focus on college. I then had knee surgery in March of 2015. Then in May, I moved the business to me in Charleston. Then in November, I had Achilles surgery.
I knew 2016 would be rough, as the doctor told me it would take at least a year to be able to walk on my foot. I thought I could handle pain...but this was different. It never let up. I did, by the grace of God, manage to travel all year and do my events and CKCs.
But that wasn't the only painful part of 2016. In March, my landlord decided to sell the condo I was renting. It sold in just 9 days. Homeless again. And, yes, I will be writing lots about our tiny home journey that we are still on....9 months of sleeping at the office and counting.
Oh, in the fall, we moved the business again. Floods and hurricanes with an office full of paper on the water was just too much to bear.
That was it, right? Get to November. Then I could rest. That was the plan.
Yeah, right. One more little thing happened in the fall. Big Billy, as Keller called it. My brain tumor. (and, you guessed it...I will be sharing more of this story, too!)
Are you seeing how crazy my life can be? Guess what? It's not just me. It's all of us. Maybe not to the extent of mine, but we all have our challenges. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. We all say that. But, it's even more than that. God can take every single horrible trying time in our lives and work it together for good. I stand on that! It's one of His many promises.
It's 2017. It's already had some challenges. But, I'm here. I'm giving it my all for another day. And, today....well, I was just crazy enough to hang that sign again!
