The here and now

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

Holly Balls! Life went from a sprint to a marathon since arriving in Kentucky. We were going 90 to nothing trying to get everything done. We were excited, but overwhelmed with how fast everything was happening. On September 3rd we closed on our house in Alabama and drove to Clay, Kentucky and everything changed. We didn’t have a home, jobs or any of the little comforts were were use to. Even our sweet dogs lost the freedom of coming and going as they please–no doggy door and fenced backyard here. Even though we unpacked a few boxes and took over part of my mother-in-law’s house it still felt like we were just visiting the first week or so. Time seems to fly by, too. Why is it when you are at work 8 hours is an eternity and when you are home you blink and its supper time!

I thought we would get up here and the next part of our plan would be revealed to us. I thought God would show us what’s next–how can we use this farm for our future. So far its been crickets. I don’t like crickets. I don’t like the unknown. I am a planner and I am not sure what I am supposed to be planning for. I continue to pray and talk to Kevin about all our dreams. We wonder if our dreams will align with God’s plan. What’s He got in store for us? What does the future hold for us over at the farm?

This is our third week in Kentucky and I was really starting to feel uneasy. Uneasy about the unknown, the future and why God is being silent. He laughs at me I am sure! Why? Because He is never silent. If we are talking to Him, He is talking to us. Sometimes we are only listening for the answer we want instead of the one He is giving us. 😉

For the 3rd Sunday since we being in Kentucky I got up, listened to church and planned my week out in my digital planner. I decided no more being lazy its time to get my tail up at 5:45 and get back to my morning routine that always seemed to help me live my best life.

That is just what I did, too! Monday morning at the lovely hour of 5:45 AM my alarm went off and I rolled out of bed and started my day. By 6 I was on live chat with my 6AM Hottie Kim chatting away. After a few minutes catching up we did our workout and I was done just in time for live devotion with Pamela. No one else in the house was up yet. I grabbed my headphones, iPad and a cup of coffee and joined live devotion just in time for our morning routine and Big Life Devotional.

Little did I know God was about to talk to me loud and clear through Pamela! He knew I was in a quiet place focused on her words–words that He gave her. He knew I would be really listening. Monday’s Big Life Devotion was titled “The Roundabout Way” and she read to us from Exodus 13: 17-18. Its about Pharaoh letting the people go and God NOT taking them on the main road, which was the shortest route, but leading them on a roundabout way. He took them the long way around to avoid a battle. He knew they weren’t ready for that battle. Pamela mentioned that God had a purpose in this, just as He has a purpose for everything He does in our lives. We need to trust Him and His route for our lives.

LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!!

We are exactly where we are supposed to be on our journey! A movie of our journey played in my head! How six months ago we never would of brought up moving to Kentucky, that night in May when everything changed and we decided to try and get to Kentucky by May 2022. How God changed our timeline and got us here in three months. Just in time to be available for Betty as she battles this cancer. Every morning Kevin makes breakfast and every evening I make supper. She is eating better than she has in months. Our sweet little dogs just love to sit and snuggle with her. Lollie loves playing ball with her. Kevin was able to take his mom to her first chemo treatment. We are here with her every step of the way. She might want a break from us. 😀

But that movie playing in my head showed me much more than just being available for Betty. We have been here for so much in this short. During this time I have been waiting for God to reveal what’s next I was living it! I was so busy looking for what’s next I almost missed the here and now. I have been able to go to Nadya’s soccer games and cheer on the Lady Tigers. Nadya asked me to go with her for her senior pictures and we had the best time. Her pictures are going to be amazing. We have also got to spend lots of time with Emmy and Sadie. We have had time with my parents, Faye, Linda, Lori, Jason, Joy, Margaret and Rodney. I have got to see 2nd cousins I normally never get to see. Kevin’s had friends stop by and see him. My uncle Rodney is building our house. Thank you God, I love it. You are so so sweet! I trust the journey you have us on and your timing.

Friends here is your reminder to trust the route God has you on. Look around you and take in the here and now that is happening in your life.

Oh and the house build has started already! I’ll share more on that later this week. Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Well that was fast…

September 1, 2021September 1, 2021 / Kelly Bea / Leave a comment

As I type this we are two days away from closing on our house in Alabama. I am sitting here on a mattress that is sitting on the floor in our bedroom. I am surrounded by a mostly empty room in a mostly empty house. My mind is constantly storing away memories of the last 17 years living in this little paradise. Our boys were 4 and 6 when we moved here and now they are 21 and 23. So much life happened here. I am really going to miss so many things about our little house with the most amazing backyard. I am thankful for being that girl that takes too many pictures and has a good memory. I will treasure those pictures and memories!

I want to start by saying I am also that girl that is a planner and likes to work out every little detail. I make list and I check them off. Its funny on the enneagram I am a 7w6, but I have a lot of 2 and 3 in me. Usually when something big happens I have a plan and steps to get us from point A to point B. If I don’t have a plan I tend to worry or am constantly trying to figure out all of the what if’s that could happen. That has not been the case this time. I have had total trust in God. I have complete faith He is working all this out. I am very thankful that my faith in God is so strong, because this has not been an easy process. It has been very fast and I believe that is because of our trust and faith in God’s plan.

Our house went live as “coming soon” on Friday, July 23rd. Our open house was Sunday, July 25th and by Wednesday, July 28th we had a few offers. No matter how many times you were hear the market is hot right now or your house is going to sell so fast you don’t believe it until it actually happens. AND when it actually happens sometimes its too good to be true. I won’t go into all the details, but we accepted an offer that Wednesday night and although everything seemed great I had this uneasy feeling and a couple of things happened to give my husband a bad vibe as well so we weren’t shocked the following Wednesday when our realtor called to say they backed out. Okay and what do we do now was all we asked? It was the day of our 25th anniversary so we went about our special day and didn’t worry about the what if’s of our house. Our realtor, Jessi reached out to a couple that didn’t get a chance to look at the house and some of the offers we turned down and within 24 hours we were back under contract.

Kev and I both felt more at ease about this offer. Everything was happening to us a little different than what we had been hearing about the current market, but it has felt right this entire month. Every step has gone great and Jessi has been so awesome in answering all our crazy questions.

Throughout the past month we have had a few more little God Winks I wanted to mention. We have a few neighbors that have chickens and our roosters like to crow at each other. Due to our crowing roosters I became Facebook friends with one of my neighbors. When she saw I needed to find homes for my girls she and her husband came over and got a few of them. Through Jennifer we were introduced to her father-in-law Mr. Johnny. He and his wife came and got a few of our chickens, the coop and the fence. Not only was it a blessing that they kept most of my girls together, but they took their home. Comfort for the girls and less for us to have to clean up. Mr. Johnny ending up coming back two more times and took so many things that would of gone to a dump because we just didn’t have time to sell them or room for them where we are going. I reached out to my friend Sally about getting some chickens and just days before her daughter was saying how she wished they could have a few more chickens so that was a little wink, wink. I can’t say enough about Lauren she alone is a God Wink! I really love her soul! She is just a good person and always full of life and positivity. We were downsizing and she was updating her kiddos bedrooms. I love how God works things out.

A few memories from our amazing backyard…

Mountains, hay bails and tropical trees!

Preparing us for battle

August 13, 2021August 13, 2021 / Kelly Bea / 4 Comments

About a 2 weeks before our house was supposed to go on the market our agent called and suggested moving up our dates by one week. She mentioned that anyone wanting their child to start school in a district would need to be “under contract” to register their child for school and if we moved the dates up a week it could open us up to more buyers. The thought of having one less week to get our “to do” list done was really scary, but after talking it over we decided to go for it and see what happened.

To be honest we were still in disbelief that the house was going on the market. Disbelief that this was really happening. As long as it is a few weeks away its not real, right? Still just in dream phase–still preparing for the future.

Two days later were having dinner with Eric celebrating him turning 21. Near the end of the dinner my husbands phone rang and he looked down and saw it was our niece calling. He gave me that look–the one that says she always text unless something is happening. He decided to walk outside and talk to her. After about 10 minutes and him not coming back I knew something was up so I paid the bill and we headed out to find him. He was still on the phone and I could see in his face something was not quite right.

Eric and I were off to the side talking when Kevin hung up and walked over to us. I can still see the look on his face when he told us that his mom had cancer. I grabbed him and gave him a hug. Hearing that type of news is always shocking and I was shocked, but I also was like WOW?!?

You might wonder where the wow is coming from? It’s coming from– Wow! God, I see it all so clearly now! You were preparing us for a battle. You were getting us strong and ready. You knew Betty was going to need us and NOW not a year from now. He was making this happen on His timeline and thankfully we trusted Him and were going for it. I was grateful that we were at a place in our life where our faith was strong and willingness to take a leap with big. Just 7 short weeks ago we were looking at a picture of the farm on the tv and beginning to dream. Look what He did in that time to be sure we would be on our way to Kentucky. What He did to make sure Betty had two more family members by her side and helping her battle through this. Thank you God, we love it.

After talking for a few minutes we all 3 drove home in separate cars. I was talking to God the entire time. I was thanking Him for filling our minds with dreams of the farm, for giving us the signs to trust Him and go for this dream. For making things happen to move our timeline up to be able to be there for Betty. I was asking Him to wrap His arms around Betty and show us what we can do to be there for her. I questioned why I was feeling relief? Like where is this feeling coming from, but I realized the relief was in the fact that we will be there with her through all this. I thanked Him for making this possible. When someone is sick and/or going through something difficult nothing is better than having a support system around them. Now Betty would have her son with her. Yes, she will have a few other family members around for her, but Kevin is her baby and knowing he is there will be really good for her.

Our drive home is a good 30 minutes or more so we both had plenty of time to pray and think about everything. Kevin and I both we just in awe of how this was playing out. He truly was preparing us and we are so grateful that we will be in Kentucky with Betty when she needs us most.

Signs everywhere

August 6, 2021August 10, 2021 / Kelly Bea / 2 Comments

Be careful when you ask your mom and mother-in-law to pray for something to happen! Its seems that since we told our parents everything is happening in fast forward. When I pray I ask for God to show me the way, make it clear, help me to know Him from the devil. My husband said “I just told God I am a little on the stupid side when it comes to seeing things sometimes so knock me over the head Lord–make it clear”. It seems as though He listened because we are getting little God Winks here, there and everywhere. When I was telling my friends about the signs from God, she said they are God Winks and I really do love that!

My mother-in-law is not very good at keeping a secret so she kind of told everyone in Clay and surrounding areas about our plans to possibly move to the farm. This brought on an outpouring of love from family and friends that were so excited to hear the news. For us it was another God Wink. We knew moving home meant being able to be there for Kevin’s mom and my parents for this we were so grateful. What we hadn’t thought of was being there for our niece and her family. When Betty told us how excited Lori was to hear we were coming home it stopped us in our tracks. How she was excited to have family (besides Mamaw) close again brought tears to our eyes. We would be there to go to the girls stuff and the girls could stay with us and we could do family things together whenever we wanted. Something that 4 hours distance all this time has kept us from doing. Thank you God we love it!

We went home one weekend and took my mom, Betty, Faye and Linda out for lunch. We had the best time. I told Kevin this is something we can do once or twice a month when we are up there and not once a year. Then it dawned on me I could come pick them up whenever I wanted to and take them out to do fun stuff. Happy tears flowing–thank you God I love it!

My niece, Nadya lives with my parents. She is going to be a senior in high school this year. That’s a big deal. I am so grateful that I will get to be there for her this year. I can go to her soccer games, homecoming, help her get ready for prom, help her apply for college, graduation and all that great stuff. Thank you God, I love it!

Kevin is excited about farming his land. Getting his hands dirty on the land that his father worked so hard for. He is looking forward to walking the land with our friend Charlie Beavers who knows many a story about Frank and Darrell on the farm. He is grateful to know he will be there to mow his mom’s yard, fix things around her house and be just a phone call away. Thank you God, we love it!

Little Sadie and Emmy keep talking about spending the night with us on the farm. Going to creek to hunt for snakes and walking in the woods. It warms my heart to know they will be playing and having fun on the land their grandfather and great-grandfather loved so much. Thank you God, You are so good!

My uncle Rodney builds houses and called us offering to help us build a house on our farm. His son Tuc would be involved. I use to watch Tuc and Spence when I was teenager. I always said those two boys prepared me for raising my own boys. It was just another God Wink saying you are doing the right thing. Stop wasting time, stop half living and get on up to Kentucky. I could hear Him saying “follow your dreams, take that leap I’ve got you”.

We have lived here for 17 years and have never really sold a house so we decided to go ahead and reach out to a friend that is a realtor. We told her all about the house and all the work we have put into the last 2 years because we thought it would be our forever home. We knew the market in Huntsville area was hot right now and its a sellers market, but I was SHOCKED when she told me what they wanted to list our house for. Still in shock actually. Def a God Wink!

The few friends we have told are over the moon for us. They totally get it. A couple of our close friends even talk about the change in Kevin. How at ease he is and how the stress has left him. That God Wink is everything to me. Seeing my husband without anxiety because he knows what is coming. Thank you God, I love it.

I could go on, but I will leave it there. You get the picture. We are seeing God everywhere saying “trust me and go”. So we are doing it! We actually are trusting him so big that our timeline has moved up drastically. Our house will go on the market as “Coming Soon” July 30th and August 1st will be our first Open House.

Sometimes God gives you what you think you wanted to show you want you really need

August 2, 2021July 29, 2021 / Kelly Bea / 1 Comment

Back in May a job opportunity presented itself to me out of the blue. I was beyond excited that this fell into my lap and was going to do my best to show that I really was the girl for the job. With each passing day my plate grew fuller and fuller. I began to question is this really what I want? I was quite happy where I am. Now it was as if I was going 90 to nothing–was this how it would always be in this new role? Is the title worth it? Is the money worth this? I began to question is this what I really want. I began to pray for guidance.

All the time this is going on with me, my husband is battling his own work demons. He had been doing the same job for nearly 15 years and in the same career for 24 years. He was so ready to just let it all go. He would tell me how he just wanted work outside, get his hands dirty, not be stuck at desk or have his eyes glued to a computer screen. I had been praying over him and his job for a long while. Little did I know God was about to answer in a huge and unexpected way.

The job opportunity ended up not working out and all I felt was relief. When I went home and told my husband he felt so bad for me until I told him how relieved I was that it worked out the way it did. I told him that I think God was showing me that this is not what I really wanted or needed. I told him I was going to continue to pray for Him to guide us both.

A few nights later my husband I are were talking about the farm and started having us a little “dream session”. I can not for the life of me remember how the subject even came up, but I know we were dreaming about the possibility of putting a cabin on the farm that way when we go to visit our family we have our own little place to stay. We really love the peacefulness we get when we are on the farm. Its in the middle of no where and all you hear are the sounds of nature, you see a million stars at night and its full of God’s creations. Kevin put a picture of the farm up on the TV and showed me where he always wanted to build and it was the exact same spot that I always loved. Its a beautiful spot with great views and backs up to the woods and a great little spot I use to go hunting with one of my boys.

That night we went to bed thinking about building a cabin on the farm for when we visit…