florida

I’ve sat down to write this blog post probably once a month since we left Colorado. But we’ve had so much going on, with so many new changes almost every month, that I wasn’t always sure what to say because things might be different next week. LOL this still might be the case. I’ll try to update you somewhat briefly on the last 6 months in Pensacola.

We had a great last month at our homestead, selling furniture and animals, finishing up projects, and saying goodbye to friends.

I’m not going to lie, it was really hard. It still is.

I can’t say enough how much we love Colorado.  We had some family photos taken before we left, and it is still kind of hard to look at them. They are amazing (I’ll post some soon just for fun) – they just show us at our farm. I love them. It just makes me miss Colorado.  We have had some really great experiences since moving here (I’ll share more about Florida, keep scrolling) , it is just different.

Before we left Colorado, I heard this song by Amanda Cook that resonated with me, even though I didn’t want it to.

What if the path you choose becomes a road
The ground you take becomes a home

I’m an introvert. I like to have a safe cave to retreat to at the end of a long day. Colorado was my safe cave. Westcliffe was my safe cave. Our homestead was my safe cave.

 

I know that life is a journey. I know that some “destinations” aren’t that at all, but rather stops along the way. Westcliffe has been woven into our journey for many years now.

Many of you may not know this, but when I (Hannah) was in college, I thought that I would be living in China after I graduated. I studied Chinese for two years, I taught English for a summer in Shanghai, and took Chinese in Shenyang one summer. I was really excited about the things that God was doing in China, and I was really not excited about the American church that I was seeing. But one of those summer while I was in China, God started giving me pictures of some mountains. I somehow knew this was in Colorado. After I graduated from school, I took an internship at a family camp in a small mountain town called Westcliffe. I didn’t realized until after I moved there that the pictures that God had given me years before, were of Westcliffe. 

I don’t really know how to put into words what these mountains mean to me. To my heart, they were more than just a pretty landscape.

For some reason they signify something so deep inside of me. Like, the actual relationship part of my faith. Adventure, risk, and beauty. Yet there was also such a safety. Like the safe cave I described above. Even the Bible describes mountains being a place of refuge.

And every story has that part when it’s time to step out of the cave. This has been our move to Florida.

Aaaaanyways.

We closed on our home at the beginning of May and started driving south. We were able to make some stops on the way to visit family and friends.

 

 

 

 

After living in Colorado for almost 7 years, living in the south again is definitely an adjustment. We’re enjoying living so close to a beach!

 

 

 

 

There have been a couple of times where I’ve (Hannah) even been able to sneak away for a mom’s day off at the beach!

 

 

 

We are also really enjoying our church here, Jubilee International. We’ve met a lot of awesome people and have just really loved getting connected here.

 

 

 

We’ve been able to do some traveling this summer too.

Ryan went on a ministry trip to Bogota, Columbia with our pastor, Len.

 

 

He had his first experience speaking and prophesying over the pastors convention. Bogota is at 8,600 ft, so it was a cool break from the humidity of Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

We also traveled to Cleveland Ohio for a conference with an organization called TheCall. It was two days of praying, fasting and interceding for our nation. 

 

 

We had some friends (Jordan and Georgia Wells) visit us in Pensacola, and while they were visiting, Jordan spent several nights ministering to the young adult and youth groups at our church.

While we moved down here to pursue some kind of ministry, we’ve had doors open up for us to start a business: Gulf Coast Recreation. We now sell commercial playground equipment all over the gulf coast region! This has kept both of us very busy lately and we anticipate that this will be a “tent-making” business for us to be freed up in the future to pursue other things. Since this has taken much of our time lately, we’re so grateful for the opportunity to send Ellis to “school” at our church’s child care! He’s absolutely loving it! Here’s some pics from his first day.

 

While this move hasn’t been exactly what we expected, we are learning what life in Florida looks like and means for us. We are confident (most days) that we made the right move and are still excited to see what happens.

 

As always, questions, conversations and connections are welcome :)

Thanks for reading!