For those of you who read our verse of the month each month, you know we dive into the real stuff, and sometimes that’s the sad and hard stuff. I think sharing the real stuff is important, even when it doesn’t always have a happy ending.
This verse of the month hits different right now because of all that’s been going on behind the scenes.
I think it’s much easier to not be afraid when life’s going well. When you can see the path in front of you looks good up ahead. But when the path in-front of you is unknown and dark, life can feel quite scary at times, and I’ve currently been in a season like this.
About a month ago, right before we went on our annual summer vacation, someone complained to the county where Happy Hamstery operates, that there is a business being run inside the house with no one living there.
Was this true? It was sadly, so this opened the investigation to see what they were going to do about Happy Hamstery moving forward.
For those of you who might not know, we just moved into a new home in June (literally less than two weeks before this complaint was filed). We did plan for Happy Hamstery to stay at the other property while one of our amazing team members was going to move in to rent one of the upstairs rooms. I knew you legally needed to have someone living there to be compliant with the law, so that was always the plan.
I explained this to the county, that we are going to have someone living there in the next 30 days-- that we are literally 2 weeks fresh from moving out and are about to head out of town for 3 weeks and need one week to clean and paint the space before that team member “tenant” moves in.
Sadly the county denied our solution, they told us that in order to operate Happy Hamstery out of the home, the owner of the company must live in the house. So to explain, anyone could live in our house as a tenant and they could operate their own business but they cannot operate “my” business, even if they work for the company.
This. Was. So. Stressful.
I felt so overwhelmed and hopeless and helpless being thousands of miles away on vacation. Each step of this process we continued to feel discouraged because we can’t see what’s ahead. And sadly, we still don’t actually know what the road holds ahead. All we can do is take it one day at a time.
We tried many things this past month while we were on vacation. We applied for business permits with the county to be allowed to operate Happy Hamstery within the home. We promised to live there Monday-Thursday evenings until we were able to move Happy Hamstery out. The list goes on and on but sadly amidst all our efforts, we were entirely denied.
This month has been a hard one, and while this has been going on behind the scenes many other challenges continue to present challenges were at the surface that many of you saw. As some of you may know, multiple Reddit threads were posted in July, and it was quite stressful to have so many voices who were sharing their opinions about so many different things with Happy Hamstery... I didn’t even know where to begin. It felt like day after day, we just continued to try to put out fire after fire.
And for those of you who may not know, I am also in the beginning of my third trimester. So I’m trying not to be fearful and stress about the unknown because I know it’s not good for my body growing our baby boy.
As soon as we returned from our vacation we began looking at commercial spaces and tried to formulate a plan to move everything over into a new space by our new deadline.
The county has officially given us 30 days to stop business operations entirely and to move Happy Hamstery to a commercial space.
I wish I could say I knew that we were gonna make it, and that it’s all going to work out but right now, we need prayer.
We never planned on moving all of Happy Hamstery during my third trimester, and we definitely never planned on needing to find a new tenant to rent our other home once Happy Hamstery moves out.
While my brain knows God promises “to work all things together for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose” but that promise doesn’t always make it feel easier when you’re in it, you know?
This verse brings me to tears as I write this because it’s the perfect verse for right now. I really don’t know what’s ahead but I know that God has NOT given me this fear, or timidity (which pretty much means cowardice, or lack of courage). But what He HAS given me is the gift of His miraculous power, His unconditional love and His sound mind. And I definitely need all 3 of these right now.
I need God's miraculous power to work in this situation where I’m not sure how we’re gonna make the deadline with moving into a new space by September 1st; but if anyone can make it happen; He can.
I need His unconditional love, to work in my heart and reassure me in my short comings. I’ve let quite a few people down this past month, and I take full responsibility for all my short comings, but I long to feel God's unconditional love no matter whether I’m perfect or miss the mark.
And I absolutely need His sound mind. The self control to take the fearful thoughts captive when they come and to remind myself that God’s got this. I am going to steward everything to the best of my ability, but I cannot control the outcome. I can only trust that God is going to make a way right now and hopefully all before baby boy comes haha.
If you’re in a similar seasons, my heart goes out to you right now because it’s always easier said then done. But I am reminded that the Bible tells us in Psalms:
“God’s word is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path”
We wouldn’t need a lamp or a light if the path was clear, and fully visible ahead. It’s in these moments we can hold the father’s hand and walk with Him, step by step as He lights the path in front of us.