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In my last post I carried on about my past. Jobs, college, etc. and then the life changing events of the births of our children. When our son was about 18 months old we made a plan. Whether or not baby #2 came at the time we hoped he or she would, I was going to transition from my teaching job within the next couple of years. Because of the fact that baby #2 did come when we hoped she might, I was able to play the “stay at home mom” card when I left the classroom. Confession: I never intended to stay at home.
When our daughter was about 6 weeks old, our son started a Children’s Day Out program and baby girl began staying with my mom 3 days a week. I joined my husband’s remodeling business to handle administrative tasks, etc. and we decided it was time to fire up the old furniture business that was such a creative outlet for us back in the days before children.
We built 5 pieces of furniture and decided to sell them on Etsy, completely sure we were completely unsure of what we were doing! We figured it out as we went along and were met with tremendous success. So much sometimes, that we found ourselves “tapping the breaks” often and holding this little “hobby business” back.
That was the fall of 2012. We spent the rest of that year and the next two dividing our time between both businesses. My mom played a HUGE role in caring for our young children and they (and she) loved every minute of it. We were all loving life.
Fast forward to January 2015. Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, the diagnosis was devastating and definitely changed the day to day activities of all of us for a stretch. Little did we know, this was just a small bump in the road compared to what was on the horizon the following year.
A year later, just a few days prior to the first anniversary of that diagnosis, mom received the real devastating news. The symptoms she had been having were not related to the anti-cancer medications she was taking. Her symptoms were the result of Stage 4 colon cancer.
World. Shaken.
Survival mode ensued.
And continued.
In November of 2016 Mom lost a battle that no one should ever have to fight. And we lost one of the most precious people we’ve ever known.
Life is far different than it was when I walked out of my classroom for the last time in 2012. But it is still good. God’s plan for us remains. Through the happy, through the sad, through it all.
We pray. We push forward. We hug our babies tight. Because that’s what mom would do.
Tenpenny House is the vision and dream of both Zack and I. Though we’ve had to push pause more than we may have wanted to and had to “adjust our sails” in ways we never dreamed, we wait with expectant hope and push forward as God reveals the plan he has for the future. We trust that it’s a good one.
