Oh, you pretty things...

"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." - Ernest Hemingway

4.12.2010

Sorry....and...Well...Thank You.

I'm sorry.

We...are very sorry.

To everyone and anyone that attended our wedding. To anyone that gave us a gift or donated to LOVE146 in our name. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We are so grateful.

There are no excuses at all for us not to be thankful. We are so very thankful and in love with all of you.

It has seriously been on my heart lately to let you all know why there were no Thank-You notes sent. So, without further ado, here we go...
...Once upon a time there was a girl and a boy who received many gifts and donations to the incredible organization LOVE146 in their name...

...2 weeks before mine and Pearce's wedding, we were notified that Pearce was let go from his job. Winter in Virginia doesn't call for very much farm work. After our honeymoon, I went back to working and Pearce unpacked our moving boxes. The money I was getting to work at my job was a blessing and more than I probably should have gotten paid. But it was nowhere near the amount we needed to pay for bills and groceries. I worked from Sunday-Thursday and by the weekend, I was terribly tired.

My health started to suffer a bit. I was always so very exhausted and feeling less than energetic. Pearce started feeling the same after awhile. We later found out it was because the 'house' we were living in (which turned out to actually be an old mechanic shop) had a dangerous sewage gas leak that was poisoning us. Eek.

2 months after our wedding (February), I got into a terrible accident one night and totaled my car. Praise God that I was able to walk away with only some bashed up ribs and a bloody nose.

By May, Pearce and I had finally found a new-old car to replace my poor Esmeralda (Yes. She had a name.), and were also both offered jobs in Florida. We prayed and meditate over it for a while and felt like this was definitely a new journey we were to embrace. My mother's health was seriously declining at this point and I was really glad to be closer to my family during this time.

In June, we were urgently called home from work to be told by my parents that after a series of surgeries, my mom was given 4-6 months to live. (UPDATE: It's been over 9 months now, and she is as strong as ever. I honestly believe she is healed.)

In August, Pearce and I were called in to a meeting at our job. It was supposed to be a meeting that was scheduled by our boss to discuss a raise. Instead, we were told that due to the economy, the private school we were working at had lost a good deal of students. They couldn't afford to keep us on staff anymore. We were let go that day.

We had a month left in the house we were living in. We had no money whatsoever and it was a miracle that we could even pay our bills. Sometimes we literally had no food in our house and would go on scavenger hunts throughout the house looking for change so that we could by a few groceries. Quite a few times some of the loveliest people on the face of the earth had blessed us with money or gift cards or groceries to help us out.

In September, we moved in with my grandmother. She's fantastic and thinks it's the end of the world and has over 80 cans of soup in her house and thinks that rabbits and dogs cause cancer and thinks it's freezing cold when it's 86 degrees outside. I have been encouraged by many friends to write a book full of my grandma's quotes and stories...one day.

All of our belongings (except a few that are kept in our one room space) are in boxes piled in the garage.

In October, everything that I am was hit with a huge blow.

In December, I moved in with my parents. Pearce and I needed to take the entire month to be broken and cry out to God separately and on our own. Just like you have to re-break a bone to assure healing, sometimes you must become completely broken for your spirit to be truly and completely healed.

In January, Pearce and I were both offered jobs the same week which we took and were so thankful for. 2 months later though, I had to unfortunately quite my job. Long story short, there were some really shifty tax things going on, and I would have had to pay more taxes than I was even getting paid.
So now, Pearce is working more than full time and we are still living in a tiny room inside my grandmother's house.

Pearce and I are more in-love then we have ever been.

That's our story. Every day brings a new page. I want to thank you all for everything you have blessed us with and I hope that you can forgive us for the lack of wedding thank-you notes.
We want to give a FENN LOVE SHOUT OUT to:

-My parents for their prayer and financial help. Also, for their incredible wisdom and council. Also for my dad's amazing organic cooking...

-Miki and William Fenn for praying for us. Prayer is the glue that has literally held us together

-The Daves family for groceries on a day when we had nothing in the house but a tomato and a loaf of bread

-Aunt Cyrene for the house sitting and trip to VA

-Aunt Kim and Uncle Tim for a check in the mail when we couldn't afford our rent

-The lovely Pope family for all the house sitting jobs that have given Pearce and I the opportunity 'get away'

-CCC for their phantom Publix Grocery gift cards

-Kristin Burggraf for your lovely mail-order baskets that seriously blew us away and blessed our souls

-Sarah Daves for your emails and letters

-Tiffany and Kelli for your laughs at Starbucks, road trips, and scary movies

-Vanessa Evans for your beautiful spirit and friendship (and also random movie and dinner dates)

-Dan and Patti Pribus for giving a strange girl like me a job and not firing me for all my sick-day absences.

-Taco bell for your 89 cent menu and vegetarian items

The list goes on and on...

...Thank you.


lovelovelove,

6 comments:

  1. praying for you. always.

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  2. U inspire me! Keep writing!

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  3. I love you two very much and think and pray and hope the very best for you-always. I also want you to know that whoever was ever concerned about thank-you notes from ya'll considering your past/current 'staus' obviously doesn't know anything and are to be considered jack-asses. Thank you. And I love you.

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  4. My precious niece, You are incredibly spectacular and Uncle Tim & I are so proud of this beautiful woman that we have had the distinct joy of watching grow up.
    Love, love, love you more than you can know. <3
    Aunt Kim

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