Hello Friends!
I did not mean to leave you hanging with my post on IG. Instagram limits our captions and I did not want to carry on and on. For those that have asked-No we are not leaving the road life as of now, but we have had some major curveballs and also some major blessing in disguise.
While we were in Georgia a friend of my husbands asked if he would come be his lead fly fisherman for the summer. Little backstory-We sold my husband's drift boat after deciding to hit the road full time, so guiding was not on our radar for the year or more- I was mentoring/coaching along with a few other income streams and we were making what we needed to live the life we enjoyed. Fast forward, we decided to say yes to helping this friend. We switched up our travels, cancelled the summer reservations we had made and slowly began our way home. I ended my contracts with several families that were ready to soar on their own and I also handed over incoming families to a wonderful friend as I knew I would need to be 100 percent mama while my husband was guiding.
Long story short-the friend that needed us is still waiting for the business stuff to go through and it will most likely be next year before anything is sorted and ready.
If I am honest I became super resentful and angry. We left our plans, cancelled reservations, my main income now gone and...I questioned why this was happening and to top it off, now we had a new boat that my husband drove to Idaho to pick up for this job...I found myself asking why a lot and forgetting to remeber that life was happening for us. I felt lost and super confused and yet I also felt like I couldn't grieve because if I did I wasn't grateful...what a lie I was feeding myself.
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In the meantime my husband decided to take a job in nearby (3 hours away) town for a month and then another job for 3 months in Jackson Hole as a guide.
Things seemed to be coming full circle and we were excited to be back on the road again and Yellowstone all summer was sounding good! Except once again life- it's happening for us. YELLOWSTONE needs our positive energy you can read more here- YELLOWSTONE FLOODING
AND THEN-we found a crack in our RV slide wall.
Turns out the crack is structural and the RV will be heading back to the manufacturer. Thank goodness we are with a phenomenal company that is taking care of it all, but now what....
My husband has left to work while we stay with the RV until it makes its way back to Indiana. That process will take who knows how long as it is quite the fix. We have to completely move out of our RV and...
Again I allowed so much negativity enter my mind, definitely not like me so I knew I needed to take time to step away and really process everything.
This is where I was given the reminder that life is happening for us-We came home for a reason. Maybe not the reason we thought, but we are near family in CO, so that when the time comes to move out we will not be completely stranded. Things could have been much worse. Something could have happened while we were on the road. I could have been in the middle of working with a new group of families and then needing to hand them over to someone else-not an easy thing to do. So many variables.
I share all of this to be completely transparent with the other side of RV life. It isn't all beautiful locations with no worries. It is just like owning a home. I also decided to share because while I 100 percent believe in our mindset and the power of positivity, I also believe in feeling all the feelings and moving through them. I do not believe that pushing through and only looking at the positive is healthy. I believe that we are meant to go through things in life that break us, make us question things and grow us. I believe it's through this complete cycle that we become an even better and stronger version of ourselves.
What has this phase in our life brought me to
1. Things can always be worse-My family is healthy and safe
2. I CAN NO LONGER avoid publishing my books in fear of judgement-Oh man that is hard to admit, but also feels so good. I am sitting on 3 children's books because as a young child a teacher of mine told me I would never be a writer...Guess what? Until now I have let Mr. Johnson's words win.
3. I can no longer hold back my final chapters in the book I am writing on raising myself, while raising a child-Fear again has held me back. Fear of hurting those that are a part of my story and well...
4. I have stayed fairly quiet about serveral other icome streams we have been working on, but that also needs to change.
5. Things are truly working for us and while this may be a bumpy few months-the other side is going to be good! And the road to the other side is filled with lots of good as well.
All this said, I really just want to encourage you to step into that nudge in your heart. Have you ever wanted to write a book or work for yourself while serving others? Do you dream of owning your own business? Do you want to just step back and BE still for awhile? This bump in our plans is pushing me to GROW, BE BRAVE, BE STILL and SHINE, while leaning in more than ever to trusting the process.
If you made it this far- than you! I would love to hear from you! Let me know how you're doing. What dreams you have or....
Hugs,
Joey
