the next thing

I was thinking about it on my way home last night.

well, let me start by saying I missed 3 days of work last week for a nasty cold-turned-sinus-infection, so i was in some major-need of work-catch-up. i have one of those jobs where i am the only person who can do my job at my job. it's me. that's it. so if i'm not there, the work doesn't get done for me. (i know probably a lot of you have jobs like that. charlie's job is like that.) so i was feeling some major pressure to get a few things done so next week i will have time to deal with the catastrophes that happened at work while i was laying in bed dying. (yes, i'm being dramatic).

so after several hours of playing catch-up on a Saturday i had a meeting to get to for church. we just re-launched our church in a permanent building, which is lovely. the church (the body of believers) is still the same, but it's really nice to have a permanent building to meet in. but we had a meeting for volunteers to go over some of the changes to the service and to let us know how things will work in the new building.

after that, i headed back to our side of the river for charlie's debut farm-stand-on-the-river. there was a lot of interest--people goose-necking to see what we were doing--and several cars who turned around further up the road and came back to purchase things. it was a great first afternoon--i think a sign of good business to come.

i put it on facebook, but i'm SO proud of charlie. he is a man who is true to his word. if he tells you something, you can believe it and count on it. i love that about him. i love how incredibly dedicated he is to being a hard-working, honest business-man. he -truly- does not want to rip anyone off. he wants to give people the best deal he can so everyone can enjoy and afford quality produce (or pecans or crawfish). and i love that about him. ask him a question about his business or business practices. he'll tell you. sadly enough we've run across some people in the business who aren't in it for the same reasons--we've run across lies and deception and... greed. i pray to God He keeps both charlie and my heart pure. i have a feeling that's just how God made charlie's heart. i, on the other hand, am fairly certain it's a lesson God will have to teach me at some point or another.

wow so anyway. anyone still reading? to the point i was originally going to make. as i was driving home from the farm stand i was thinking about all of these things--me having a real job. charlie growing his business with sweat and love. having a church family we love and fit into--and are a part of! spending hours taking care of our paralyzed dog (with SO MUCH gratitude to charlie's mom for bearing the brunt of that!) (we owe you!) I even checked out a double cab truck on my drive home because i know sometime in the (nearish) future, we're going to need both of our vehicles to have a back seat! for things like booster seats or car seats for biological or foster children!

it dawned on me on that ride home that we're entering into that "next phase"--that part of life we've been dreaming about since we were married--before we were married--since i was young. i feel now, more than i ever have before, that we're adults. that we have--earned our right?--as adults. responsible people. contributing to our community.