Say What You Will
Reality is setting in. Waking up at 5:00am to bottle feed five baby goats, and get 4 kids to school (praise God for Summer Break!), and myself to work by 7:30am each day is tough! Filling free moments with mucking stalls, washing buckets, refilling hay and grain, and lovin’ on those cuties makes completing all the normal household chores that much more challenging.
We didn’t eat dinner until 8:30pm the other night! I called the kids to the table only to find my youngest daughter already fast asleep in her bed. I felt defeated. Instantly, I heard the negative voices of people I pitched this entrepreneurial dream to in the start up process:
“Are you crazy?”
“Why on earth would you get goats?”
“Don’t you have enough to do?”
“What did you think was going to happen?”
Similarly, a couple days ago, Chris and I attempted hoof trimming for the first time. The goats are too small to secure in the stanchion, so he had to bear hug, straddle, cradle, wrangle each one as I clumsily and ever-so-slowly attempted to ever-so-carefully trim each hoof (20 total hooves). He was sweating, I was stressing. We looked at each other and echoed those negative thoughts, “Are we crazy?”
I feel a lot of pressure to justify my choices to those negative voices, like I need to have a really compelling, convincing response to the nay-sayers.
Instead, I am learning to echo the lyrics of a song by the talented musical duo, JohnnySwim. Recently, Chip and Joanna Gaines promoted their new album, Moonlight, and I am hooked!
Say what you will
I gotta feel the fire burning
Say what you will
I gotta heed the higher urging
Like the tide that turns the ocean
I'm not made for standing still
Say what you will
Say what you will now
~JohnnySwim, “Say What You Will”
People who know us, see a pattern in our approach to this life. Just when things get comfortable...just when we finally “arrive” or “achieve”, we go and chase some new wild idea.
We had vacationed in Northern Michigan and, like so many others, fell in love with beautiful, Leelanau County. In 2009, we left a comfortable lifestyle in the Chicago suburbs and took a leap of faith on a job opportunity Up North. We moved with 2 babies to a tiny rental home in Empire, MI. I walked barefoot, pulling those girls in a wagon, to the beach everyday that summer!
We both secured great jobs and moved into a beautiful custom built home. We had another baby. We were settled, complete.
Then, something stirred in both of us and we made a heart-breaking decision to sell that home. It allowed us to move closer to town, work and school, and lower our monthly expenses. As a family with young children, it was the right thing to do. Difficult, but right. Mission accomplished!
Then, another stirring, we decided to pursue an international adoption. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a lot of love to give…and thus began, and continues, one of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our life.
I got dreams that keep me up in the dead of night
Telling me I wasn't made for the simple life…
~Need to Breathe, “Happiness”
After several tumultuous years for our family, a new chapter began last November when we moved to our current property in Cedar, MI. The move brought peace, calm, recovery, breath. You can read about our sanctuary in my earlier blog, Full Plate.
So it shouldn’t surprise you at all, that in the midst of this peace and refreshment, we would decide to start a goat farm business!
The Navy Seals have a “40% Rule”: When your mind is telling you that you're done, that you're exhausted, that you cannot possibly go any further, you're only actually into 40% of what you are capable of!
I don’t know if that is inspiring or completely overwhelming, but 60% more here we come!
I have learned when people feel valued and that their unique skills and abilities are being used productively, it blesses all the aspects of their lives.
*So my hope is that you, our customer, follower, friend, passer-by, would be inspired to step outside your comfort zone. I can tell you that when you test the boundaries of what you believe you are capable of, you feel alive, you feel active, you feel purposeful. It won’t be easy, but when you collapse into bed at the end of the day - you will knock your socks off with what you are able to accomplish!
*My hope is that my children see their ordinary parents, time and time again, dare to do extraordinary things. Let me rephrase that, there is nothing extraordinary about moving or changing jobs or even raising goats…people do it all the time (Adoption is extraordinary, and under-resourced, please support adoptive families however you can!)...but these choices went against what was safe, logical, and comfortable and yet have led us to new richness in our relationships with each other and our opinions of ourselves and our abilities. Goodbye negative voices!
*And my hope is our indulgent goat-milk products (and rocking some inspirational tunes) will offer the relaxation, refreshment, and renewal you need to keep going!
So, say what you will.
“Challenge yourself; it is the only path which leads to growth.”
~Morgan Freeman