A lot has happened since my last blog post here. We went from being uncertain if we wanted to go through with the full purchase/payoff of our land, to making the full payoff (hallelujah), to having to separate our family for special reasons, to making progress on the home renovations and now being uncertain again if staying here is the right thing.

So, let me begin by explaining that in 2018 we were hit with the realization that something was wrong with our daughter. She was already three years old and not showing any interest in communicating nor the capability of doing so. We had her ears checked and found that she had middle ear fluid in both sides, immediately saw a specialist and had them drained and tubes put in. While we were going through that process, I put our DD on a wait list to start seeing a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) so that we could help her get on track with her development. During that short time we started seeing some other peculiar behaviors surface that made me worry even more that there was something else seriously wrong. I put the pieces together and made my own conclusions but waited patiently for her to be evaluated by the SLP. In the meantime I researched a lot, cried a lot, felt an immense amount of guilt and helplessness as any mother would that it made it really difficult to focus on anything other than our daughter. And that’s exactly what I did, and have been doing. Absolutely everything has been on hold from me until now, for her. Thankfully, she is rehabilitating beautifully from things that are far too complicated and controversial to share on a public forum. I honestly do not feel the need to explain the why, what and how here because of differences of opinions and beliefs from people. So I’ll just tell you that everything is going great with her now thank God! And I have faith that her future will be brighter than ever before! 🌈

The past 7 months we (our three children and I) have been staying at my fathers homestead back in Texas while our daughter went through therapy and we got more answers and treatment for her. It was a stressful experience being away from my husband, our animals and our home but totally worth it and necessary. During that time we had a lot of mixed emotions. We love Texas very much! The climate, the people/community, the overall feeling of being there again really had us questioning whether we are making the right choice of staying at our current location. Real estate in Texas is not cheap! We have 40 acres here in New Mexico and there is no way we could afford that in Texas. The climate in New Mexico is harsh and there is tons of negatives that I could list about it here that I do not like. BUT, this is ours. It’s OURS. We have so much now here that we’ve invested, not only monetary, but our time, labor, and our dreams of being self sufficient/reliant. We are slowly getting there. It’s taking turtle steps slow progress but we are moving in the right direction.

Last year we accomplished the main goal of owning our own land. ✔️ This year we have the renovation of our single-wide to finish and we are almost there! No matter how we feel at times about where we want to be, we will continue to pursue our dreams. If tomorrow that changes then so be it. Today, we are here.

This is a list of our goals for 2019. I want to put them out there to show everyone we are serious about this! No special order:

• Finish exterior trim out and paint of home
• Purchase Tractor
• Plant large garden
• Fix fences

Finish interior details

Plant trees

Plan for the build of 40×60 metal barn building

Prepare land for livestock (a pony and pigs)

Stay with us! We are getting there!