Breezee BarnsYou might be wondering how this adventure began, well here’s our story in a nutshell.
What Started it All
In the spring of 2019, my husband had his curiosity peaked when a company approached him to discuss a potential job. This wasn’t the first time this had happen, but due to the declining environment within his company, he decided to look into it. The new opportunity had a lot of potential for new growth, unfortunately it didn’t work out. He took it upon himself to just start looking on his own. He knew his mental health was declining due to the situation, so a new job opportunity was desirable.
As he looked for different employment, he applied to hundreds of jobs, with no success. He spent countless hours searching, revising his resume, and even paid for coaching lessons. He landed a interviews here and there and he would be told he would be a great fit for their company and then BOOM, they would GHOST him. So unprofessional if you ask me, or give him some other excuse that they need to re-evaluate the position. He would spend 4 to 6 even up to 8 weeks in contact with a particular company, each time them would do the same thing. String him along, then drop him like a hot potato. Not cool people, not cool. He did receive a number of job offers, but the compensation package was too low or they would change the role mid-stream or change the location of the position. These experience just added to his stress level going up and the mental health going down.
The Unexpected Curveball
While the job search and ghosting was going on, my mother fell ill. I spent lots of time visiting my parents to help out as much as I could, but I still had my own kids to take care of. In September of 2021, she finally passed away leaving my father to take care of the family farm. This family farm is not where I grew up, it was passed down to my mother from her father several years ago. So yes, I had been on the farm to visit my grandfather, but have never had to work on the farm, if that makes sense.
We don’t work the land ourselves since none of have been taught how to do that, so we rent it out to those we can. So, it’s just mainly the homestead area that we need to maintain, but even that can be a challenge. Before my mother’s passing, my father was her full-time caregiver. Basic maintenance like mowing the grass got pushed to the side. Building were needing some TLC and my dad just didn’t have the energy to do it anymore.
We Began our Soul Searching
With the combination of all these things going on, we were at a crossroads in our lives. Then questions began to fill our minds. We started asking was what is best for our family and ourselves? How can we help with the farm if we are so far away? What should our priorities be? These questions began our path to find our destiny. We truly believe that there is a plan for us. We just need to be diligent in what we do, and things will fall into place.
After pondering and praying about what to do, we felt we needed to move back to the farm to help my father. He isn’t getting any younger, and maybe this was why no jobs were working out for my husband. The thought of moving always brings anxiety. But the thought of moving across states to the middle of nowhere brought the anxiety to fear of the unknown. Knowing the winters are colder and snowier had good and bad feelings for everyone. So the preparations began for these adjustments that we would be facing.
We knew from the very start that this wasn’t going to be easy. The thought of giving up the conveniences that we had gotten use to over the years made us sad. Leaving favorite restaurants, shopping places and dear friends in the city was challenging as well. Our favorite places to run, walk or hike would be gone. The hardest pill to swallow was the substantial pay cut were facing. At this point, we knew that finding a job in healthcare management in a rural area would be challenging. The goal now became just finding a job and we were just happy to find employment before the big move.
