A Journey Through

Wow has it really been that much time that has passed since the last time I wrote? I guess so. To be honest I think the past few years have been some of the hardest we have faced as a nation much less as a family. COVID started for us in 2020. In March of that year, my school closed for Spring break and never reopened for the rest of the year. In September of that year, we packed our house and headed to FL to uncharted waters. It was our hope to be able to find a place of ministry in the Southeast Foursquare District however with so few churches and each church so very different from the other, found it almost impossible. I have a lot to say about this but will hold it for a different post. Once in FL, we found that COVID was not over. In fact, the state of Fl was just then getting hit with the bulk of their cases by the time we arrived. We spent the next few months learning our local community, enjoying the beaches, and setting up our new lives. About six months into our journey we launched Palm Coast Paracord. A small hobby shop that made all things paracord. While sales were slow it was still exciting and something for us to focus our free time on all while homeschooling to kiddos during that day. By June of that first year came an amazing opportunity with a local church to start and plant a Christian Private School. Something that I have been wanting to do for many years and something I have prayed about and even started to set up as part of our Homeschooling. At first, I thought maybe this was why we were called to this area. With the failure of our wanting to be part of a local Foursquare church maybe this was it instead. Finally, we understood the “Why” behind our move. At least we thought. The Lord opened door after door and kept blessing us as a small school however we ran into a brick wall that we couldn’t pass. The school was short-lived after our location was closed by the local town as they rather have more bars than a school. So that left us with homeschooling again and more questions.

Overnight Russia went to War with Ukraine and our hobby shop went viral. Our traffic on Esty went from 1 person a week to over 40 customers in a day. Our sales went up 300% in just a matter of weeks. We become one of Esty’s Star Sellers and to this day still honored to be a top seller. By 2022, The year of “Bad Health” as I like to think of it. Debra started the year with a Heart Attack, and by summer my body started to act up. After weeks and weeks of Doctors’ appointments and test after test. Learned I had an Autoimmune disease (Celiac disease, and Lupus). Thankfully the year ended and we made it alive. I really felt my word this past year was the word “Family” 2022 for me was about family. Life really slowed down. Really we were forced to slow down. Thankfully it’s over and we are on to a new year!