Life in Kentucky, and A Few More Changes.........

If you've missed posts one, two, three, and four, you may want to read them first!

As we settled into our new lives in Kentucky, I was still fighting God on some things.  I'm not proud of this.  I think usually I'm pretty good at letting God have the reins, but on some things I have to take my time coming to terms with His plan.  One of those things was letting my goats go.  I held on and cried, and held on and cried and then I finally accepted that God didn't want me to have goats right now.  As you may remember from this installment of our story, my goats were over at The Aunt and Uncle's place.  Tommy had to be housed with Tulip, Star, and their six kids and that wasn't working out so well.  A buck will run does ragged because they are pretty much always ready to breed, even if the girls aren't, especially a Pygmy like Tommy.  The 3 buck kids were also running their sisters ragged and I was stressed to the breaking point. 

I put Tommy and 4 of the kids on craigslist and sold them quickly.  That alleviated some of my stress and I settled in to milking my girls.  The Aunt and Uncle's 100 acre farm is only about 4 miles from where we live, but I had to make that 4 mile drive in Black Betty.  It was costing me $20 a week to go over and do my chores.  As a few weeks went on, the grass and brush in the 1 acre paddock they were in was gone.  My girls were losing weight.  We are not in the financial position to be spending money on extras, and sadly that includes critters.  I had to make a choice between Champ and the goat girls.  I lay on the couch in The Man's lap crying my fool eyes out and then I accepted that God wanted me to sell my girls. 

I got on the computer and emailed my dear friend Jennifer from Our Little Farm.  She lives about 45 minutes from where we are now and she's been a saving grace to us on this journey.  I asked her if she knew anybody that would want to buy my girls, each with a doe kid at their side.  She said she didn't really know of anybody, but then she emailed me back and said she was talking with her husband about it and would get back with me.  In the meantime, I also sold off a bunch of my little pullets, leaving me with only 6 pullets and three ducks.  A really perfect and manageable number.  Jennifer got back with me and said she wanted to buy my girls!  Whew!  Such an answer to prayer.  They have a wonderful home with Jennifer and her family and she is milking them and loving them and that means everything to me. 

We still have our three dogs, our cat, the 6 laying hens, and our Muscovy drake and his ladies.  They free range during the day and are giving us enough eggs for us to eat.  No extras, but that's ok, we have enough for us and I can afford to feed them!  I of course still have Champ, and he is here at our house with me now.  He's right out my bedroom window and I love hearing him nicker for me in the mornings.
 

Notice that he's nappin in the sun right out my backdoor, see the doorknob?

Selling Champ is not, and has not ever been an option.  If the Lord leads us somewhere else and I can't take him, I'll put him down.  He will be 24 in the spring and I'll not take the chance of him being neglected somewhere else.  Of course, if God were to present me with a home for him, I would follow God's direction, but the thought of trusting his welfare to another person is oh so difficult for me, especially as I'm surrounded by horribly neglected and starving horses.

God has provided The Man with a job.  He makes in a month what he used to make in a week, but he is relatively stress free, and happy.  We have enough.  Having enough is huge, and God is good.  We aren't on any state aid, although we do qualify and if it gets to where we need it we will apply.  We don't have health insurance anymore, but our faith in our Heavenly Father is better than any insurance policy on earth.

Our bankruptcy is final and our credit score didn't take as big a hit as we had feared.  I think because it was so high to begin with.  However, we've both decided not to borrow money for anything.  If we can't pay cash, we'll do without.  We were able to sell The Dodge and we've got that money in savings, to be used for emergencies.  We wanted to live the self-sufficient lifestyle, but there is absolutely nothing self sufficient about being deeply in debt.  This is the first time in our marriage that we've been footloose and fancy free.  The first time we've ever rented, the first time we've been unfettered and it is a good feeling.  We are constantly praying and asking God to show us.  Show us what to do, show us where to go, show us how to be better servants to Him.  Our family is closer than ever and our marriage is still steady as a rock.  I know the reason for that......God is the head and the center of our lives. 

Will we stay here?  Who knows!  We certainly don't.  We are asking God to guide us where He would have us.  Use us, let us be shining lights for Him.  We are still homeschooling Shayla but are beginning to feel strongly that God wants us to put her back in school.  We've told her to pray deeply about it, as well as praying about it as a family.  We are His to do with as He will.  Our faith, while already strong, has grown by leaps and bounds.  I can't wait to see what He does with us next!

Thank you dear readers for your comments, thoughts, and prayers.  Please know you've all been on my mind and I've missed you dearly.  I'm back though because I love to witness through my blog and I love sharing with you all.  Reading about your triumphs and your trials is a great comfort and inspiration to me. 

We may no longer be Goodwife Farm, but I remain, as always, the Goodwife!

Until next time,

God Bless...........

Kentucky Bound, and Tragedy Strikes........

Installment one, two, and three.....

I'm going to take the time now to tell you a little about The Man's sister.  She is his older sister and his only full sibling.  She has two young adult children and at the time of our move was married to a man 12 years older than her.  Her husband Ron was very ill with diabetes and heart disease.  He had lost a leg several years ago.  Ron was a character to put it mildly.  He was the kind of person either you loved or you hated, with no middle ground. 

A couple days before our move, The Sister and Ron drove out to California for an experimental medical treatment.  A last ditch effort.  You see the doctors had told Ron there was nothing they could do for him.  I don't know how many heart attacks he had, but in January of this year he was in the hospital for over a month, and they spent last Christmas in the hospital with him as well.  He also had one two days before they left for California.  The doctors told him he would simply continue to have small heart attacks until he had one big enough to kill him.  The Sister was his rock.  She was his caregiver, his lover, his friend, and he was her knight in shining armor, albeit his trusty steed was a wheel chair and a golf cart instead of a shining destrier!

We made it safely to Kentucky and got everything unloaded.  By Sunday July 3 (The Man's 38th birthday) we were totally unpacked and settled in.  As you may remember we don't mess around when it comes to work!  My folks left to go home on the 4th and we began to acclimate ourselves to our new home.  Champ and the goats were over at his aunt and uncle's 100 acre farm and I went over every day to tend to them.  The Youngun decided maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all and we were excited to see where God would send us.

Early the morning of July 12, The Man's aunt and uncle came over to tell us Ron had suffered a massive heart attack and passed away.  The Sister was in the room with him, alone, more than two thousand miles away and she performed CPR on him until the paramedics arrived, but he was already gone.  Our niece, who is 18, was across the driveway home alone, so The Sister had called Aunt and Uncle W to come over and break the news to her, and also to let us know because she couldn't get us on our cell phone.  The Man and I immediately thought perhaps this was God's reason for sending us here.  It took almost a week for The Sister to get home and it's been a long road with the grieving process but they are all getting there. 

At Ron's memorial service a wonderful man preached the service and we were in awe at his passion and devotion to the Lord.  He is pastor of a church about 5 miles from the house and we've been attending every Sunday since the memorial service.  What a blessing it's been to us to find a church that is truly about following God!!  Every single Sunday Brother Willie says, "Mind the Lord children."  Truer words were never spoken, and how wonderful our lives become when we truly do mind the Lord!  To say that things have been totally smooth and easy would be a lie, and I'm going to tell you more about that in the next installment.


To Be Continued......................

The Move to Kentucky..........

If you haven't already, please read installments one and two......


God was really pushing us to Kentucky, even though we weren't sure we really wanted to go.  We decided to take a deep breath and trust God.  The Youngun wasn't happy and there were lots of tears on her part.  She didn't want to leave Pop Pop and Granny, or the Darling Cousin.  We understood but we also explained to her that when you pray for God's guidance and direction in your life, you must be prepared for Him to give it!  We've always prayed for God to show us the way and for Him to give us the courage to follow.  Well He was asking us to put our money where our mouth was so to speak! 

Wednesday, June 29th, The Man and I loaded The Dodge up on a car trailer and pulled it down to Kentucky with our truck Black Betty.  I followed in our S-10 pickup.  We made it a one day run, so were on the road roughly 15 hours.  We dropped The Dodge  and the S-10 off and then went over to his aunt and uncle's place to hook up their stock trailer and haul it back to IL.

On July 2, 2011 we had a 26' U-haul loaded up with our belongings.  We also had the stock trailer with Champ, the goat girls; each with three kids at their side, our cat Willow, and the chickens and ducks. Our little convoy was ready to leave at 6 AM.  It was very hot and I was worried about the critters on our 7+ hour drive down.  The Man drove the U-haul with our dog Ginger along for company.  My dad and mom, along with their dog Pepper, drove our truck Black Betty pulling the stock trailer, and The Youngun and I brought up the rear in my folks' vehicle with our two other dogs, Annie and my Ellie-Girl, in the back seat.  We were off!

Leaving our place behind wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  I think because we were totally focusing on what God wanted us to do, and knowing that home is where the heart is.  Our hearts are with God, so home can be anywhere we make it!


To Be Continued.............