God has a sense of humor, I see it all the time.
For some reason, God really likes to play the Ultimate Comic in our life, and I can't help but chuckle over it.
This past Tuesday morning at 9:30 AM, God was belly laughing looking down on Dominick and I, as we signed documents to complete the sale of a new business we purchased.
Yes, finally, after what has seemed like an eternity of prayer, waiting, exploring, and fearing we would soon be packing up our home to try and start a new life, we found laid out before us the solution to our employment concerns for Dominick. Despite our incredulity, and with a great shaking of heads along with an "Are you SERIOUS?", it became clear that God had a surprise for us.
We are the happy new owners of House of Spirits, a wonderfully busy little liquor store here in Montrose.
Yup, the couple who absolutely does not, and ever has, touched alcohol now owns a liquor store. Ironic, isn't it?
Not when you listen. We took Matthew's sage advice and really paid attention and were patient, trying very hard to discern what God wanted to us. And true to form, when it is right, everything falls in place...not without a lot of struggle and hard work, but it became evident almost immediately that this was "the thing" that was supposed to be part of this next phase of life for us.
Not only that, but it fulfilled every single desire on our Business Wish List! Our "Ultimate Heart's Desire" list included the following:
1) Dominick wouldn't have to work physically as much anymore.
2) It would bring in enough income for us to at least maintain...or come close...to the lifestyle we have now. We are at the stage that we don't have a whole lot left we can cut without it being things like life insurance, etc so we needed a base amount that came close to what we were earning before.
3) It would be a business I could run if something ever happened to Dominick and he had to be out of work for awhile.
4) It had employees so income didn't cease if Dominick went on vacation.
5) It was a business that had a position available for Kenny to eventually work into, where he could feel satisfaction in a job well done, but would be supervised well for as long as it took for him to be able to work at and remember the daily tasks involved.
6) We could find a way to finance it.
7) We really wanted to stay in Montrose
We knew we would have to give in on a few items, as we knew we were seeking a lot, but if one is dreaming, they might as well dream big, right?
It is a long story, almost too long to tell, but this was obviously the exact thing God had in mind for us, and we are ever-so-grateful to have every single one of our dream wish list items fulfilled. The deal was prayed over together by both Dominick and the old owner, there were connections all over the place that helped make it happen, everything fell into place in what was really only a 3 week period...and that means we were able to sell ALL the restaurant equipment without ever having to move it ourselves AND the detailing business ended up in the hands of the young man who had worked for us this past year with things falling perfectly in place for him as well as we and others circled him to give him a chance at a new future. This may sound silly, but I am almost more happy for him than I am for us, for it was obvious he was deeply moved by some of us taking a chance on him and believing in him.
So, for the first time in almost 20 years, Dominick will have one job, and we might eventually get to see him more! Well, not for awhile, for as I am typing this he is still not home yet at 10:30 pm and he was there at 6:00 am. There is a learning curve, and a lot to do to get him up to speed, but he will do very well with this, and I haven't seen him this happy in years.
We are going to struggle. A lot. For years. More than we have already. This was an enormous leap of faith, our biggest yet. We robbed Peter to pay Paul, and Peter is now in debt seemingly forever...HAHA! This really did end up being our "Hail Mary" pass, and at our ages that is very, very scary. However, our family never seems to do things the way others do, so maybe the fact that it was a big leap is most fitting for us. The kids are thrilled over this, and all of us feel firmly that this was the thing we had been waiting for, the opportunity that God wanted for us to move forward with. That lessens the fear a little :-)
So, without further ado, here are the pics of our newest addition!
.JPG)
We are relieved. We have handled the stress well, but it has not been easy to live with the threat of losing everything hanging over our heads. There is a new concern of being able to handle the debt load, but we talked it over with the kids thoroughly, who really are our business advisers, and we all agreed that it was worth it even if we have to do without. What a group of amazing kids we have, as each joked that we could always manage to get by on Top Ramen and hot dogs if we needed to, and you know what? They would happily do just that. We all know that short term pain might yield long term rewards for every single one of us if we can just make it through this next year or two.
So a new era has begun, we heaved a sigh of relief, and then we hunker down to work even harder to make it all work!
For some reason, God really likes to play the Ultimate Comic in our life, and I can't help but chuckle over it.
This past Tuesday morning at 9:30 AM, God was belly laughing looking down on Dominick and I, as we signed documents to complete the sale of a new business we purchased.
Yes, finally, after what has seemed like an eternity of prayer, waiting, exploring, and fearing we would soon be packing up our home to try and start a new life, we found laid out before us the solution to our employment concerns for Dominick. Despite our incredulity, and with a great shaking of heads along with an "Are you SERIOUS?", it became clear that God had a surprise for us.
We are the happy new owners of House of Spirits, a wonderfully busy little liquor store here in Montrose.
Yup, the couple who absolutely does not, and ever has, touched alcohol now owns a liquor store. Ironic, isn't it?
Not when you listen. We took Matthew's sage advice and really paid attention and were patient, trying very hard to discern what God wanted to us. And true to form, when it is right, everything falls in place...not without a lot of struggle and hard work, but it became evident almost immediately that this was "the thing" that was supposed to be part of this next phase of life for us.
Not only that, but it fulfilled every single desire on our Business Wish List! Our "Ultimate Heart's Desire" list included the following:
1) Dominick wouldn't have to work physically as much anymore.
2) It would bring in enough income for us to at least maintain...or come close...to the lifestyle we have now. We are at the stage that we don't have a whole lot left we can cut without it being things like life insurance, etc so we needed a base amount that came close to what we were earning before.
3) It would be a business I could run if something ever happened to Dominick and he had to be out of work for awhile.
4) It had employees so income didn't cease if Dominick went on vacation.
5) It was a business that had a position available for Kenny to eventually work into, where he could feel satisfaction in a job well done, but would be supervised well for as long as it took for him to be able to work at and remember the daily tasks involved.
6) We could find a way to finance it.
7) We really wanted to stay in Montrose
We knew we would have to give in on a few items, as we knew we were seeking a lot, but if one is dreaming, they might as well dream big, right?
It is a long story, almost too long to tell, but this was obviously the exact thing God had in mind for us, and we are ever-so-grateful to have every single one of our dream wish list items fulfilled. The deal was prayed over together by both Dominick and the old owner, there were connections all over the place that helped make it happen, everything fell into place in what was really only a 3 week period...and that means we were able to sell ALL the restaurant equipment without ever having to move it ourselves AND the detailing business ended up in the hands of the young man who had worked for us this past year with things falling perfectly in place for him as well as we and others circled him to give him a chance at a new future. This may sound silly, but I am almost more happy for him than I am for us, for it was obvious he was deeply moved by some of us taking a chance on him and believing in him.
So, for the first time in almost 20 years, Dominick will have one job, and we might eventually get to see him more! Well, not for awhile, for as I am typing this he is still not home yet at 10:30 pm and he was there at 6:00 am. There is a learning curve, and a lot to do to get him up to speed, but he will do very well with this, and I haven't seen him this happy in years.
We are going to struggle. A lot. For years. More than we have already. This was an enormous leap of faith, our biggest yet. We robbed Peter to pay Paul, and Peter is now in debt seemingly forever...HAHA! This really did end up being our "Hail Mary" pass, and at our ages that is very, very scary. However, our family never seems to do things the way others do, so maybe the fact that it was a big leap is most fitting for us. The kids are thrilled over this, and all of us feel firmly that this was the thing we had been waiting for, the opportunity that God wanted for us to move forward with. That lessens the fear a little :-)
So, without further ado, here are the pics of our newest addition!
The store...House of Spirits...is 4900 square feet!
A Wall of Beer!
Dominick working at the counter :-)
The Wine Room
More Wine
We have it all!!
.JPG)
Dominick checking everything out!
We are relieved. We have handled the stress well, but it has not been easy to live with the threat of losing everything hanging over our heads. There is a new concern of being able to handle the debt load, but we talked it over with the kids thoroughly, who really are our business advisers, and we all agreed that it was worth it even if we have to do without. What a group of amazing kids we have, as each joked that we could always manage to get by on Top Ramen and hot dogs if we needed to, and you know what? They would happily do just that. We all know that short term pain might yield long term rewards for every single one of us if we can just make it through this next year or two.
So a new era has begun, we heaved a sigh of relief, and then we hunker down to work even harder to make it all work!
3 comments:
Wow - congratulations! We're so happy for you crazy people! Janet
Wow! What a sense of humor God has. Best wishes.
Teresa F
congratulations! you and your family are in my prayers!
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