In 2011, JW wanted a place to get away: to hunt, see his parents, be on his land, and get away from me. He wanted to move here and I didn’t – so he began building his camp. Before it was completed, our marriage fell apart, and then it was restored. Then we kept having babies, and it became this burden of something to complete that really began from roots of bitterness, unhappiness, and a desire for separation. We didn’t know what to do with it, nor had the time to finish it.

Fast forward to 2019, when, in the middle of Ariel’s leukemia treatments and just getting out of the hospital from a UTI, our septic system stops working and it’s too wet for anyone to fix it for 6 months! We had to go somewhere. So, we put it in high gear and finished the camp enough for us to move in – it had no kitchen, no bathroom, no floors! We literally built a kitchen after we moved in! Our family of 6 had to abandon our 2 story brick house to move into an unfinished 800 sqft camp in the middle of the woods! The baby stayed in our room, while the other three kids squeezed into the laundry room and slept in a triple bunk! (I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a triple bunk!)

We knew God had moved us here, but we didn’t know why. So we sold the brick house once it was fixed, with the intention to build here, except that Covid made building materials skyrocket! So we stayed cramped like that for almost 2 years until we expanded the back to give the kids an ACTUAL bedroom, another bathroom, and much needed space. However, all 4 kids are sharing one room and our kitchen is still a temporary facility.

Now, almost another year has passed, and we’re beginning the front addition of our house. It’s no longer “The Camp.” Today, we took off the front porch, which has held many memories these past 3 years, and made a barn. 🙂 When the barn is complete, the framework will have come from the trees we took out for the pool, the walls from the front porch floor, and the roof from the camp’s tin skirting. The roof of the porch will make the animal shelters on either side of the barn. I want to make and place a sign on the barn that reads: “Here lies The Camp; the rest we made a HOME.” 😀

It’s symbolic, that little barn. We repurposed what was originally created as a way to get away from marriage into this wonderful place for our farm animals that we can sit and watch from our new porch of the home we built together as a family!

P.S. That same new porch now directly sits in view of the very spot JW proposed to me over 20 years ago – the very place he wanted to build his house, his family, and his life with me!

Genesis 50:20 – You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.