“Glory moments” are what I most often read about when it comes to the agrarian way of life . . . the perfect chicken coop, the amazing garden harvest, the healthy baby calf, the children all working peacefully as a team, the community sharing their bounty with each other. It’s encouraging to read about all those wonderful moments in time that people share about, but the truth is that “glory moments” come and go . . . all too quickly sometimes. Over the past year, the scale, for us, seemed to be most often unfairly tipped toward the go . . . and so we learned during the most crazy times, to fix our minds and hearts on the One Who will never go. We found that His peace and joy were abounding if we would simply embrace HIM. Though we are weary and tired, because of Him, we won’t give up.
There couldn’t have been a much more beautiful place to have had daily truck and/or trailer break downs . . . Canada.
We could easily fill a 1000 page book to recount the main events of the past year of our lives, but time is too precious for so many written words, not to mention the time it would take you to read them. So instead, how about some pictures that captured some “glory moments” (yes, we did have many), some challenges, and some of our biggest lessons learned through the day to day real life experience of moving from Alaska to Missouri to build a homestead, from scratch, with very little money, no income, no experience, no close community, and a family of 7 all living in a 27 foot travel trailer . . . which we still live in.
Challenge: Home, sweet, dirty, crowded, everything in the same place, enter at your own risk . . . home!?! . . . an experience we cannot recommend for a large family for more than a month or two at most.
Being that is takes quite a while just to upload one picture (that’s rural Missouri internet for you), we’ll have to divide this year in pictures into a few different posts over the next few weeks. We are still undecided about when, how, or even if we should share anything beyond the past year in pictures. We had hoped to have the Journey to Surthrival project up and running by now to document the agrarian journey of multiple different families, but it just didn’t make the priority list and some of the other families were lead in different directions. There are so many people out there sharing their story . . . do we really need to share ours? Should we say good-bye to internet all together to keep our time invested in our children and this land Yahweh has given us? Or, would a little time at this keyboard make a worthwhile difference in some life out there? We would love your thoughts . . .
We left Alaska early July 2013 . . . little did we know we would be stuck in Canada for two weeks, spend our nights in auto repair parking lots, get towed twice, and miss out on our family vacation to the Oregon coast. Lesson learned: We are entitled to nothing, but in every trial, we can fully trust Him to give us all that we need.
Glory Moment: When the trailer is 100 degrees, it’s a good time to find some cold water somewhere! British Columbia, Canada
Glory Moment: She absolutely loves water!
Challenge: From Alaska to Missouri, 8 months pregnant! His grace is sufficient . . .
Glory Moment: Our first home birth . . . in our travel trailer . . . the best! Joseph Luke, born September 24, 2013.
Lesson Learned: Cherish the moments . . . love is everything when everything else is a mess.
Challenge: All tucked in for the harshest Missouri winter in years . . . waiting for our home in Alaska to sell, waiting to find land, waiting to have running water again, waiting . . .
Glory Moment: I guess we brought a little bit of Alaska with us!
Challenge: This is the reason we were often waiting for running water . . . when the hose from the friends water catchment froze, the neighbors well froze, and the only other option was to drive into town for water and then empty jugs one at a time into the tank, we really learned to appreciate water. Did I mention it was a record cold winter . . . he’s such a good man!
Glory Moment: Our home finally sold in November, 2013 . . . we are debt free! Land at last . . .
Praise Yahweh from Whom all blessings flow! To Him be the glory . . . in every moment. More moments in pictures to come . . .
Blessings,
Carrie ><>
1000's of roots 
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