One Year at a Time
This last year has been our greatest in many ways but has also been the most challenging one of our lives. We made great strides in getting more of our farm infrastructure in place on top of implementing a completely new way of seeding our flower starts. Our little seedlings faced the freezing temps of spring, followed by the drought, and then the flooding rains of June that disintegrated many babies in our field. We quickly over planted in the holes where previous planting did not survive.
Pushing ahead we added a viewing deck for the pleasure of our customers that come with family and friends that are unable physically to get down into the field and for those customers who would enjoy a moment to pause and take the sunshine and flowers in with a front-and-center view of the field.
A flower cupboard was added for self-serve flowers after hours, in which, I promptly locked myself into one afternoon. Luckily I found my cell phone in my gardening side pouch before I was reported as missing!
Our check-in stand expanded with more flower helps and gifts with some of my favorite things: Sister Bee's "Honey" Products, Carla Aligood's hand-made flower vases, frogs, stoneware (seen below), and of course classic Gwen Frostic prints!
Behind the scenes our teenage son, Levi, continued to struggle with undiagnosed pain, had two surgeries to alleviate pain, and suffered a seizure at home in which he fell back and hit his head, seized, and stopped breathing.
We had to place another 911 call a month later as we woke up to find our foster baby progressively struggling to breathe. She spent two weeks at U of M and came home with another surgery under her belt and an ileostomy bag.
We finished out the year with our greatest VIP event yet! This is the second year we have opened our farm up to celebrate families that have children with special needs or disabilities. This year drew about 80 people into the farm for a "Flower Celebration" fundraiser for Through the Roof Disability Ministries to help kids with disabilities go to summer camp this year.
I write this with great pause and gratitude that God has granted us all another lease on life! This September we celebrated the adoption of our little foster girl. The greatest struggles of this year again are mixed with our greatest joys! Prayers of strength to you our flower friends as we begin a new year to cherish and be thankful for life... one day at a time.