New Beginnings

Jeremiah 29:11-12 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then, you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."

For the last almost 12 years I have been wearing the  Customer Service Representative hat at my job at Times Printing Company here in my home town of Random Lake and to say it has been a great experience as a whole wouldn't be giving it enough credit. 

Oh my goodness the last 12 years have been great!  I have met a ton of wonderful people.  Not just the co-workers I have been blessed to meet and share life stories with, but also the customers I have been corresponding with, who in some cases I have been dealing with the entire time I've been there.  A lot of them have become an extended part of my family and people that I wholeheartedly love with my heart.

But as we all know, life is ever changing and things don't always stay the same, and that is why last week I decided to take a new direction on this journey called "life" and call it quits on what has been a good "run".  I prefer to go out on a good note and at what I believe to the be the "top of my game".

Oh, I know, you're all probably wondering what the heck am I going to try now, but anybody close to me can likely figure it out.  Yep, you guessed it, I am going to work on the dairy farm full time alongside the hubby.  Something I knew 15 years ago when I married Jeff was likely to happen.

My explanation as to why I would make such a change is simple.  I have sat back and seen my husband struggle every single day since his Dad passed away and despite the help I've been giving him between my job and taking care of the kids I simply refuse to sit back and watch him do this anymore by himself.

It will be a life change for me, for our family, but one that was always expected and in all honesty, one that over time will likely be the best thing we ever did for each other.  Am I scared?  Of course I am.  Can I do it?  Of course I can!!!  I already help at the farm quite often now and am not going into this blind obviously, so I know what I'm getting myself into. 

At the ripe young age of 39 I have already learned a lot.  I have learned that nothing can replace the time you spend with your family and I have lost too many people I love already to take that time for granted and I'm not going to waste the opportunity to have more time with my husband and my kids who can be with us at any given time they want at the farm.  I look forward to summer now when they are off of school and they can hang out with us.

I have also learned that way too many people pour all of the energy into their career, trying to make millions of dollars for this thing and that thing, only to find out later that those material things aren't really what they needed in the first place but the love and quality time that they missed out on was and it's now too late to get it back.

I don't want to be that person that wakes up one day with regrets like that.  I don't want to be that person who wishes she had spent more time with her kids instead of traveling here or there for work.  I don't want to be that person who sat back and didn't follow her heart and didn't follow her "gut" and go for it.

So I'm not gonna be her........

I'm putting my faith in the Lord as I seem to think He might have a little bit to do with this.