Steve and I met when we were students at Bible college, and when we fell in love, we had no idea that our “life plan” would be radically different than what we expected. I tend to divide our life into the great “Before” we started farming and the “After” we started farming. Before, we were in full time ministry. We had babies. We were younger and carefree, had free time. We had even worked our way into being debt free… and THEN we started a small ag business. After that, we quickly had startup debt to our eyeballs, zero free time, and were unprepared for the way the business could control our lives. 
When we started flower farming in 2012, I began the venture as a hobby while Steve worked off farm, but by the middle of 2013, he came home to work on Triple Wren full time. Working together, living together, married together, parenting together: those first few years were an intense period of personal and marital growth unlike anything I’d ever anticipated. If I’d known the stats for divorce among couples who farm, we might not have even tried. There were many days when it wasn’t pretty, but with God’s Word as the foundation for our lives, and his grace to keep adjusting, stop sinning, keep short accounts, and to walk forward in faith, we are in a healthy place today.
We’ve had to work through boundaries and dependencies and trust and love and respect. Starting a business together was the best thing that could have happened to our marriage, but that’s only by God’s grace. He holds us together and helps us lay down pride and selfishness and learn deeper lessons about love. And we absolutely have to stay vigilant on these same issues. I don’t think anyone ever “arrives.” We all have to keep working every day, with our spouses, children, siblings, friendships. 
My heart aches for women-entrepreneurs who are walking where I’ve been in the past few years. Are you listening to the lie our culture trumpets that you can and should be ON all the time? Do you feel pressure to be the beautiful wife, Pinterest mom, stand-up friend, faithful leader at church, hostess with the mostest, serving on the best boards, and rocking the successful business woman (marketing, producing, accounting, strategizing, and more) ALL AT ONCE?! Friend, I’ve been there. I’ve pried my eyelids open every day and forced myself to keep going even when the joy was gone, and my body and soul were parched and weary. I’ve written over the past year about my journey out of that pit, and I’m thrilled for the opportunity to keep sharing what God’s teaching me about it all. I’m so “in-process,” so still on the journey, but maybe God can use some of what I’m learning to help you too. I’ll keep writing here, but on Saturday we’re announcing even another way I’ll be sharing. And to say I’m SO excited about it is a complete understatement.