Dashed Dreams, Faithful God

by MotivatedMomBoss - April 17, 2019

Do you ever see something, hear something, smell something.....and you immediately get taken back to a certain time in your life?

When I pull into the graveled winding driveway covered by trees to my grandparents cottage in Boyne, I am immediately filled with the best memories of my childhood. Being so excited to hop out of the car and run up to the door to the cottage to be embraced by my grandparents, excited to spend a week trying to catch minnows, fishing with Gramps, homemade waffles by Grams in the mornings, go out looking for deer at night with my dad's big spotlight and being overly excited year after year when we would spot them in the dark fields. Being told over and over again by Grams to keep the sliding door shut in the basement so the mice don't get in the house. (Hahaha, I still have not seen a mouse at the cottage all these years, but ya know, that one time my Grams did see one was enough for her). Their basement smelled like mildew and to this day it is one of my favorite smells in the entire world. Weird I know, my grandma hated it and would rarely go down there because of the smell, but for me it immediately brought joy, happiness and peace to my heart. It brought memories.

I used to love watching my Grandpa clean & gut the fish in the basement. It was like my favorite thing, I always watched and found it fascinating. This cottage will always give me all the feels.

Last week, I picked up my mother in law from the airport and she needed to be dropped off at her friends house, which happened to be in our old subdivision in Grand Blanc. I drove by our old home slowly...then stopped and took a photo. They've painted the outside since we've moved so it doesn't look quite the same but I was immediately filled with so many different emotions and thoughts.

You see, over a decade ago, my dreams were dashed. We bought this home with the main purpose being to start my licensed in home daycare. We completely finished the basement for this purpose and it was beautiful. I'm talking fifty grand beautiful. Gulp. It took a little time for my business to get established as I have mentioned in a previous blog post, but it was filling up with adorable kiddos and before I knew it I had myself a successful daycare business. What a dream. Keri's Kidz.

Then the economy took a tank. Oh hey there 2008! No offense, but you weren't my favorite. Ok ok, except for becoming a mom of my own babe that year. That was pretty fantastic.

However, the woman in our rental condo stopped paying, Jeremy was out of work and we were swimming in bills. We fought so hard to save our home and my business, but ultimately even though my business was finally doing well, it wasn't enough to cover two mortgages and all the other bills and we had to walk away. Sigh.

This began what would be a decade of financial struggle and hardship. More jobs lost, bankruptcy, walking away from jobs that weren't healthy, a car being repo'd, threatened lawsuits, employers telling my husband he's not cut out to be a business owner (God bless em'! This has been in my husbands heart since he was a young child so those words were rebuked real quick!), and many nights crying myself to sleep, not knowing how we would be able to pay all our bills and have our needs met. The last ten years have been hard to say the least.

But GOD.

When I see this home now, I see God's faithfulness.

I see how He carried us through it all.

I see His provision. He has met every need the last 10 years.

I see God's protection. He has protected our family from hard situations.

I see answered prayers.

So. Many. Answered. Prayers.

I see restoration. In our hearts. In our businesses. In relationships with people I prayed for there to be restoration with.

I believe we walked through hard things in our finances because God knew what was coming for our family. Never in a million years did I think I would be in a business selling shampoo and have my paycheck cover our mortgage payment. But God loves to surprise us. He loves to show off His goodness and faithfulness in our lives. He loves to turn our tests into testimonies.

There have been some huge dreams in our hearts for a long time, specifically one of my husbands. We have talked about it since our dating years, almost two decades ago.

We have been actively pursing the dreams God has put in our hearts. Me through my social media based business (it's so much more than shampoo! That's just the stepping stone God is using for dreams to become a reality) and Jeremy....well, we have some really exciting things going on in our lives right now....that are ALL GOD....dreams we have prayed about and believed we would see God do, even during the past 10 years when I'm sure everyone else in our lives would think we are cray cray for even walking towards them (hence why we haven't shared them really with anyone.) To be barely surviving financially for a decade but yet you believe God is going to do huge things in your finances, through your dreams.

But see faith is being certain of what we cannot see. In the natural, I'm sure sharing our dreams... "We're gonna do _____ one day!" would be laughable to most. Umm, ok Harrison's, you've lost a home, businesses, walked away from jobs, went bankrupt....surrrree thing. *awkward smile and nod*

But peoples opinions don't matter. People have tried to stop the calling over our lives. Threatened lawsuits. Jeremy and I have both had people threaten to have our businesses shut down. BOTH OF US. Ha! If that ain't the devil at work, I don't know what is. (Another blog post on that to come soon.) People have spoken many words over us that have come against what we know our testimony would be one day. They've tried to stop the calling on our lives with their words, and with their actions...but God always shows up. GOD WILL ALWAYS SHOW UP! Repeat it until you believe it in the depths of your souls, friends. He will never abandon you, even if you may feel abandoned and alone. He is there. I promise you, He is there.

We are not promised easy lives, just because we know Jesus. But when the hard times roll in, which they will, whether it be through financial hardship, marital issues, loss, illness, we have hope in Jesus. We have Him to hold on to and carry us through the storms.

All I know is God never left us during that hard season. I believe walking through financial hardship will forever keep us humbled, grateful, generous, compassionate people. We have learned to be content with little and we have held on to the dreams He has put in our hearts from long ago, believing that even though in the natural those dreams seemed nowhere in sight, that we needed to continue to wait and trust in His timing...His plan...because now we are buckling up for the exciting adventure He is about to take us on!

I can't wait to share more when we can, all in God's timing. But friends, storms don't last forever. Eventually, you'll see the rainbow. His promises fulfilled.