Booklists, Reading Correlations, and Reviews, Oh My!
By now it’s probably pretty obvious that I love books. I love to read them. I love to review them. I love to share good ones with others.
I’m still considering where this website may take us one day. Can I share my heart with you? Can I share my dream?
[It scares me half out of my wits to put this into words. Really, it does.]
My dream… is that one day, maybe one day, my husband will be able to choose to board a helicopter that lands on the helideck of a drillship,
….travel back home to Tennessee, and stay home with us.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am so thankful for his wonderful career. I really, really am. God has performed mighty works in Gary’s job, and I know he has made such an impact in the places the Lord has taken him. But I sure do miss him when he’s gone. Oh, how I miss him! And my heart breaks when the boys have to say goodbye every other month. It breaks when he misses a performance, or a birthday, or our anniversary, or Christmas. It breaks when Gary fears that Isaac won’t remember him when he returns.
So maybe starting a new business will one day allow him to return home to stay home. He won’t need to head back to Tanzania, or Angola, or South Korea, or Brazil anymore. I expect that it will one day happen [retirement], but my hope is that it will happen before we become empty nesters.
Fast forward one year from when the above was written. Ironically, with only two days’ notice, my husband lost his job in February 2016.
Through this unexpected change, our dream became a reality, even though it was not the way we planned it at all. With this change came lots of discussions and decisions about what to do next. We came to a crossroads where we had to decide if we would continue this website (with all of the financial expense and time involved in maintaining it), or abandon it altogether. We decided to step out in faith and establish Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood as an LLC to pursue a family business focused on educational pursuits. Because of our vision to develop products to bring truth, goodness, and beauty into homes (and schools) across the world, and because of our desire to continue to connect with and encourage parents in their homeschooling journey, we accepted the unexpected change as an opportunity to pursue the dream.
Really, this is a huge dream. And five years later, we’re still moving forward to make this a feasible long-term reality. If you shop through any of our affiliate links, you are a part of it. If you have used any of our Script-n-Scribe Charlotte Mason-Inspired Resources or Our Mission: Great Commission curriculum, you are a part of it. If you recommend our website or products to others, you are a part of it. Your financial support (through affiliate links, donations, and product purchases) not only offsets the rising costs associated with this website, but it also gives the support needed for our family to invest the time it takes to continue updating links and providing resources and encouragement for families across the world.
Our prayer is that we will successfully build our family business here at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood. We will continue stepping out in faith to keep our website in operation. Sometimes this all seems too big, but we remind ourselves that nothing is too big for our God. Your prayers and support are appreciated more than I can ever express in words.
Just…. thank you.
In His Grace,
Brandy