The Beginning of Our Forever

For as long as I can remember, I have always been a hopeless romantic. I loved a good Disney Princess film from a very young age and would even cry at the sappy parts even at 3, 4, and 5 years young! This eventually led to my obsession with all things Hallmark Channel which led to the perfect plan for the perfect future that I constructed in my mind. And, didn’t I just say Hallmark Channel? So, OF COURSE that perfect plan involved small town life, a long driveway that leads, through beautiful grassy plains, to a big beautiful white farmhouse with a porch swing, chickens clucking around everywhere and the sunsetting behind beautiful rows of planted vegetables ready to be harvested for a homemade supper. But, since those things are all pretend, life didn’t happen that way… right away. I did meet and marry the PERFECT man, have the two most PERFECT babies and make LOTS of PERFECT memories over the last 19 years and my whimsical dreams didn’t go away, I just finally had somebody to share them with and he loved them just as much as I did and wanted them to come true too. Life isn’t a Hallmark movie and it CERTAINLY isn’t a Disney fairytale, but all the imperfect moments write the most beautiful story. The last 19 years have been full of imperfect moments, and yet when I think back on every day of my life since October 25, 2003, I have nothing but the most comforting, warm and joy-filled feelings. The kind of feelings you get when you know you’re “home.” However, I know the imperfect moments were there. I know there were even HARD ones, even painful ones. I know there were moments when the only thing that held us together was the hand of God and the dreams for the future He had given to us both. We could see it. We could always see it. Exactly one year ago, we sat out on the adventure of a lifetime. We set out to find our forever. Exactly six months ago, we purchased our beautiful 21 acre farm. Exactly three months ago, we named our piece of the earth, Wisdom Way Farms and this week, we have begun to break ground. This is the beginning of our forever. Our farm sits on the outskirts of a quiet tiny town. We have a hometown barbecue place that all the local residents eat at and everybody knows your name, a quaint little hometown drugstore where you can get your prescriptions filled in no time, and the locals sell produce on the sidewalks through town on Saturday mornings. And soon, when I pull into my gate, a 1200 foot stretch of road, will lead through a beautiful grassy field and up to a big white farmhouse. Sound familiar? It’s ALL familiar to me. So very familiar. It’s the dream that I thought that Disney gave or Hallmark Channel gave me, except that it isn’t. It’s the dream that my creator placed in me when he knit me together in my mother’s womb. It’s the story that He’s been whispering to me at bedtime since I was a tiny little girl. It’s His purpose for me. Tomorrow is the beginning of our forever, but the end of our story has already been written with Mercy’s Pen and my soul knows that it is a beautiful ending.

*The photos by Shantel Smith from the Shantel Smith Photography gallery below were all shot on the new Smith Family Wisdom Way Farms. From the very beginning this place has been a place where memories are made and love flows abundantly.  

Credits:

Shantel Smith Family Photo pictured above of Jeremy, Shantel, Tucker and Miles Smith taken by Nickie Alexander Photography

Building our beautiful custom farmhouse: Golden Standard Construction 

https://www.facebook.com/goldenstandardconstruction/

https://www.goldenstandardconstruction.com/