Hello. I’d like to (re) introduce myself. 

My name is Brenna. I’m mama to 3 kiddos, wife to my amazing bearded Mountain Man, Jesus freak, food-lover, essential oil fanatic, and the occasional blogger. 

I fail. Daily. 

Case in point…this morning, I’ve given my children processed cereal (gasp!), allowed them to have a little bit of tablet time so I could have some quiet time (Jesus understands), annnnnd it’s been almost a YEAR since my last blog post?! Gracious. So you can see why I felt the need to reintroduce myself.

So what’s new with me? Well, if you have a moment, I’d like to fill you in. 

This past November, Mountain Man was offered a job working for a well-established home builder in Big Sky, Montana.

Wait. Let me back up. In order to paint a better picture, let’s rewind a few years. 

For the past 5 years, my husband had worked hard, building his furniture design business and gaining high-end clientele. He was darn good at his job. The only problem was that he worked ALL. THE. TIME. But he had to. He was a one-man show, and his work was nothing short of immaculate. (Don’t believe me? Just take a look at his portfolio)

After 5 years of working 60+ hour weeks, and not having many weekends to spend with me and the kiddos, he started to grow weary. He was fed up with missing out on life and watching his children grow. And honestly, I was pretty tired of missing him, too. 

We didn’t start the fire…but it changed our hearts. 

Fast forward a couple years to a very cold night in December 2016. The kids were in bed and I was baking cookies, while Mountain Man was relaxing in front of the fireplace. I kept smelling smoke and checked my cookies…but they were fine. After several minutes, I began to see a bright orange glow outside of my kitchen window. I screamed “fire!” and grabbed the phone to call 9-1-1, as we ran to the lower driveway to investigate. He was working on a new piece, and his wood-drying kiln was engulfed in flames. 

As we waited for the fire department to arrive, I remember screaming to God, asking Him to spare our home, as I watched the flames lick the side of my house. The house that we built together just 5 years earlier. My neighbor came and grabbed the children and brought them to his house to keep them safe. 

That night changed our lives. And more importantly, our hearts. 

Our house was spared, but the flames singed our hearts forever. It was at that moment, we were snapped back into reality. We realized we had been placing too much value on our material possessions, instead of the moments in our lives. 5 more minutes and we would have lost the house. We would have lost every material item we held dear. But God spared it. 

It was at that moment, we knew something had to change. We couldn’t stay on the path we had been on. So God began His work in us both…now that He was able to clear the smoke and show us what was truly important. 

He was going to take us out of our comfort zone. 

Little did we know that God was changing our desires into His desires for us. 

Fast forward to October 2018. Mountain Man had just returned from his annual fishing trip to Montana. It’s always a relaxing and reflective time for him. Being outside and spending time in Gods creation is his passion. Almost as soon as he returned from that trip, he started talking about his desire for us to be out there together more often. I didn’t disagree. Montana was the one place we both loved and agreed would be the only place to pull us away from North Carolina. But WE envisioned that happening after the kids were out of high school. You know, after they were off to college, and Mountain Man and I could spend some time traveling and maybe build a little cabin in Montana. 

Finally, tired of dealing with the rigamarole and stress of his job, he sat down at the computer one afternoon and on a whim, began searching for jobs in…you guessed it…Montana. Being stuck in the basement day in and day out, for long hours each day, he had begun to lose his passion for building furniture, and he knew something had to change before he despised it so much that he would allow his talent to disappear. He found and applied for two jobs. Both companies contacted him almost immediately and set up phone interviews. He was offered a job on the spot. And after a LOT of prayer and late-night “are we doing the right thing” discussions, he accepted the job. 

This was such a crazy, heavy decision for us to make. We were planning on leaving Boone. The only home my husband had ever known. The place where we had family, and close friends, a close church family, favorite restaurants, and amazing schools for our kids. The mountains that had meant so much to both of us in so many ways. Where we met. And started our lives together. Yeah, this wasn’t a decision we took lightly.