They say to not ever start your blog post with about how it’s been a long time since you blogged last, but I feel like it’s worth noting that I last blogged in March of 2020.
Now we’re here in November of 2020, and it seems like March is a world away. Tomorrow will be the first day of the last month of the year. Usually this time I’m rounding up “best of” posts and pushing toward Q4 financial goals. I can’t even believe it’s almost time to think about taxes again.  There were definitely still financial goals set this year, but they looked more like “let’s pay our bills and feed the children.” and a lot less like “let’s plan quarterly and monthly marketing plans to achieve our goals!” The latter of which being one of the things that lights me up in life. The former, well, we are still working on that.

I had big plans for this year. I bought a course called “primed to launch.” and had a big crazy idea that I was excited to bring into the world.  Marketing in 2020 was like walking a very fine line.  We still needed to put our business out there. (See : feed the children.) However, posting too many photos of happy couples may unintentionally create the idea that we’re pretending like nothing is wrong, and we’re sticking our heads in the sand.  On the contrary, if we didn’t post anything for weeks on end, are we even working? If we posted a photo of 250 crowding a dance floor from 2019, we had an instant negative reaction.   It was a delicate balance. Especially on social media.

God brings beauty from ashes though.  We only have 6 dates left for 2021, our 2022 bookings are coming in a bit more slowly than we’d like, but they’re coming.  Even better, the couples who are making the trip to come and visit us have been our ideal couples and have done their research and usually come knowing they want to be a part of the Sparrow Hill Family. That’s been so encouraging.

We also were able to build a pavilion!  This is an amazing blessing that we were not planning on dreaming of for another 5 years, but when our 2 week break turned into a 2 month break, Josh, the tractor and a whole lot of friends rallied and pulled off building a 120’x40′ structure to replace the tent.  I’m still in awe of that miracle.  I remember being on my knees in the middle of the tent floor in October of last year, begging God to work out everything in His timing.  What happened in the next 12 months is nothing short of a miracle.

Also, here’s a fun fact. We’re homeschooling!  When K was moving from preschool to kindergarten I almost begged God to let us home school. We got a very clear word from Him that we were to send her to public school. Our local elementary school to be exact.  After getting clear direction, we moved forward with peace and for the past 3 years have had an amazing experience with the girls school.  Distance learning in the spring was brutal though.  The teachers did an amazing job, and our girls felt so loved on. The teachers and staff at their school moved heaven and earth to create some normalcy for the kids and I’ll always be thankful for that. Living where we live comes with it’s downfalls though. We have no steady access to internet/wifi. We have 3 cell phones and 1 laptop that I use for work, and trying to do zoom meetings with just two girls was honestly horrible.  Our poor E never even got to do more than a few lives with her preschool teachers, because we literally did not have the bandwidth.
So, even though we registered E for kindergarten at our local school, on the day before school was set to start in person in August we turned in our affidavit to become a home school family. It’s been a mixture of wonder and frustration.  Seeing and filling gaps that I didn’t know the girls had is rewarding. Not having to get out the door at 8am every day and staying in our PJ’s reading is right up my ally.   We all miss the “normal” of public school, but this season is full of beauty.

In order to be successful, you have to first push through the darkness. This year the darkness takes many forms, but it can not overcome us. It will not overcome our light. We will continue to push forward, lean in and find the silver linings in all life and 2020 are throwing at us. We will be thankful.