I hope your 2011 ended beautifully and that your new year is off to a great start!
Over the past three weeks I have been reminded once again that I am not in control of anything. It is a great (and very difficult) way to start a new year. It is great because I am being purged of my own strength and pushed into a position of weakness where only God can receive the glory for anything that is accomplished. It is difficult because our family has once again been reminded that nothing is safe and only our relationship with the Lord is secure. Your home and financial stability can be taken from you, literally overnight.
Through a series of events we found out that our home, our investment that we had poured our entire savings into when we moved from Virginia to Florida, has been deemed essentially worthless. Our house has chinese drywall which is a defective drywall that when met with the humid air of the gulf coast begins to break down and emit a toxic gas into the air of your home, breaking down and corroding everything it comes in contact with. You may have heard of this 'silent hurricane that has hit the gulf coast' (as named by the lawyer) and heard of many different scenarios where the homeowners were taken care of by the builder or they won the lawsuit, etc. In our case, after lots of research and jumping through every hoop imaginable we had to walk away from our home. We were advised by our lawyer to do so, with the hope that one day the financial loss will be restored to us. But we know that nothing is promised.
So, the week before Christmas we were faced with this news. On Monday we met with the lawyer, on Tuesday we met with a realtor and we found a rental house we loved that would fit the needs of our growing family. On Wednesday we filled out all the necessary paperwork and gave over a hefty deposit to secure the rental home and then we waited to see if we had been approved. Just a few days later we celebrated Christmas and Aaron's birthday. We were then given the keys to the house and began a whirlwind of a packing process. We packed everything in one night and unpacked it the next day. We had an unbelievable group of people who surrounded us with so much love and support (and moving help!). We truly have the most amazing family and friends who walk in and willingly enter into the pain with us.
Our prayer during this crazy time was that God would provide the strength and energy we needed, that we would continue to serve Him with joy and bring glory to His name.
My New Year's Goals have been put on the back burner, as I can only focus on one thing at a time, and right now that one thing is about a billion things that include finishing the unpacking process and getting settled in this house. I hope to share those with you very soon! I am however, looking forward to what God is going to do in 2012. I am prayerfully asking Him to guide and lead all my decision making as I embark on a new journey with Ashlee Proffitt Design that will include new branding as a whole, a new design for the blog and website, new products and most importantly a new focus. I can't wait to share all of that with you! For now, enjoy these little bits of my decorating of the new place.
