Saying Goodbye

It's so hard to believe that it was 1 year ago that I took this Good Bye picture.  

I always like to take a "Good Bye" picture when we have finished the hard work of taking our booth down and loading it all back up in the trailer.  I didn't know that this would be my last Good Bye picture for the show that had taught me SO many lessons about business....    

1998 was my first booth at a "Big Show".  I know that booth was tiny!

To this 24 years later. 

I learned the importance of beautiful displays and how to create them in a way that attracts people to my booth.  

It's here that I also learned to be super organized due to the MANY mistakes and mishaps that happened throughout the years....but each mishap always lead to learning important things about not only business & being organized, but about working together as a married couple,  working together as a family, learning to ask for help, learning to laugh when things go wrong....because they always do.

  Learning to show grace and learning to highlight the strengths of each family member and allowing each to shine in their area of strength.  

The first year we moved to a larger booth space we were so busy we couldn't keep up, my then 5th grade daughter learned to master the cash register.   And my oldest one learned to personalize prints when mama got sick and couldn't personalize the orders.  

Wiring up all the lights and running all the cords came natural to my husband, but even he learned to create beautiful displays when the need arose.  

Show Time always seemed to attract crazy stuff like Evacuating show for a Tornado, sitting on the side of the road with broken down vehicles,  or equipment catching on fire and even our daughter's near fatal car accident just before the show were opportunities for not only our prayer life to be strengthened but also friendships....we needed them... 

As we grew, we realized that we were also dependent on others in order to continue to do what we were doing with our business and life.  

So many of our customers have become lifetime friends who have loved us and supported us through SO many family crisis and celebrated with us through many victories.  

They watched me bring in a grandchild as a tiny baby, to a preschooler sleeping under the tables, and an elementary boy learning to run a cash register and watched him grow to a 6ft young man helping his Papa load up the heavy stuff into the trailer.  

So this time last year, as we took our pictures and pulled off, I didn't know this would be the last time.    

It was at that show that a door was presented to me and I knocked.   Over the next months, that door would open, prayers would be answered, many more good byes and "last times" were to unfold BUT would also usher in many first times and hellos.   

   I can never Thank my Father enough for the opportunity He gave me in 1998 and each year after.  He allowed me to grow as a person, as a business owner, as an artist, as a wife, as a friend and as His daughter.  I'm thankful for the friends and family He brought into our lives to help us!

I never imagined when we were setting up our booth at our first "Big Show", that I would keep coming back year after year for 25 years.   It amazes me the grace and mercy that God has lavished on me, my family and From the Heart Art AND the new doors HE has opened!