Perseverance

I’ve tried several times now to share our 2025 year in review, and I am finally able to do so.  Yes, it’s mid-February.

See, sharing my year wasn’t about business this year. It meant that I needed to share some deep emotions and that left me feeling vulnerable.  But I realized that this is what community is for, right?  Doing life together.  Sharing hope with you in these real moments is what motivates us to keep going. 

 ___________________________________

Hope

Perseverance - persistence in doing something despite difficulty...

This one word perfectly describes 2025 for us. 

Imagine this with me for a minute…. seeds don’t grow without being planted.  And once planted, flowers don’t stop growing.  Flowers certainly don’t harvest themselves.  And floral arrangements don’t design themselves. 

In 2025, we endured 3 sudden deaths and our 12yo daughter had mysterious seizures and it was the hardest and busiest year of our lives. 

If you’ve been following our story, you’ll remember that our stress level was already at an ultimate high.  We expanded our business in 2025 to prepare for Steve to be here full-time in 2026.  To say we were juggling many balls in the air is an understatement.  Throw into this mix the balls of grief and despair…well, as many of you know, life does not stop when we grieve. 

Many flowers were harvested while sobbing.  Many weddings were designed with tears streaming down my cheeks.  Many nights were lost to sleeplessness.  Brain fog set in while life continued.

Believe me, we stole moments of peace when we could but running a farm and selling a highly perishable product while raising 6 kids (1 with significant disabilities) already doesn’t leave much room for moments of peace. 

Yet please understand that none of this is meant to be complaining.  Rather, I’m sharing it because of the tremendous story that resulted from that perseverance.  See, we lost our sight of Jesus at times and drowned in the mess.  Sure, we had moments where we were strong with His presence, but too many times we tried to carry it all on our shoulders.  We felt empty and desperate and that made our marriage hang by a thread.  What a burden all of it was.

But God is so good and never leaves us.  He led us to where we are today and it’s such a better place than before.  Our lives are full of such richness and beauty in ways that we never had before.  Our prayer life as a couple and as a family has been greatly improved.  Our understanding of earthly loss and eternal life has been revealing.  Our desire to live with better intention is powerful.  Our tendency to do this without Him has been greatly reduced.  We are nothing without Him.  He is our hope.

In the end, if this resonates with at least one person, then that is why I share this story. 

Romans 5:1-5

Peace with God Through Faith

1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, wea have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faithb into this grace in which we stand, and wec rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. 3Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

xoxo

Leslie