From the Mountains to the Sea

  In 2020, when the pandemic hit my husbands company decided it was going to move to Mexico.  We are a  family with special needs kids and an international move just wasn't the best idea for us, especially during a pandemic. So that left us wondering and praying what we should do.  After much thought and prayer we decided to relocate our Family to Wilmington, NC from Hendersonville, NC where we were established and had lived for many years.  With everything shut down because of the pandemic the event and decorating business was almost eliminated completely.  I had two weddings in that year and our own vow renewal, but that was it.  No weddings, baby showers, festivals.  Nothing.  As I continued to think about it over the year I began to think maybe I should close my business like the other thousands of other small business owners.   At least formally.  I knew I could possibly volunteer at church doing events (if church ever reopened) or get involved in school events but still it wouldn't be a formal business. We love living at the coast now, but I don't know vendors or have tons of contacts like I did in WNC. It didn't seem feasible to try and start from scratch in a place where I barely knew anyone.   I had previously thought of moving my business to my parents farm and have done a few events and weddings there,  but my husband could not find a job there and the timing just never seemed right.   So it seemed impending doom was knocking at the door for She Shines Events and Decorating. 

A month ago my brother Greg called me and said he was going to transition back to the farm after he retires from the Army. He told me it was his dream for each of the siblings to come back and use their gifts and talents on the farm.  That got the wheels spinning in my head and the prayers going up.  One of my greatest joys is to work hand in hand with my family on the farm. So my husband and I began to talk it out, pray about it and then talked to my parents. The timing seemed  as if it might be right because my Dad was going to start the transition to retirement.  This might open the door for me to do events there.  Was that what God was doing or was it something else? 

Sometimes when God gives us a word and it doesn't happen as fast as we think it should,  its easy to think we didn't hear what God told us or what we thought he asked us to do.  But King David was anointed as King 13 years before he actually became the King.  I'm sure he wondered if he really heard what God said as he waited for 13 years  to  see that come to fruition.  God does the same with us.  An idea might begin to take root a very long time before we act on it.  Sometimes we act on it and all the doors seem shut. Then when we least except it the doors swing open and things begin to move.  I'll be honest I'm there right now, wondering if I heard God when I opened a business not long before a pandemic hit.   Only to move 5 hours away from where I knew everyone.  But God's plans and purposes can not be thwarted and His ways are not our ways.  He sees things and knows things we do not.  So we stay close to Him and pray so we can navigate this crazy road called LIFE.  She Shines is on the road again and even though this crossroads hasn't shown us our final destination yet are so excited to wait and see.  

In Gods Grace

Cyndi

PS.. below is a picture of my parents at our vow renewal on our Family Farm this year