House of Alcina

Moving to the Panhandle. We’ve taken quite a few risks when it comes to location, but I’ve never been a person that wanted to be stuck in one place. I grew up in a small town, and I knew from a pretty young age that I wasn’t gonna stay there my whole life.

That’s a whole another story, but I think this is probably the best decision we ever made on a whim. I thought I’d be able to say it was our move to Land O’ Lakes, but the despite a few good things, Gary hated his job, and the kids never got to see any family. We realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t exactly what we had dreamed of.

But this has been. We still haven’t found our forever home, and we may even end up on the outskirts of here, but the panhandle feels like home now. Close enough to home, far enough to feel like we have our privacy, which is something we both really long for. A little distance from things is sometimes good and healthy. It also really teaches you how to be independent when you move to a new place where you don’t know anyone. It also encourages you to meet people and be neighborly.

I just love everything about this place. 5 miles from the beach, three hours from home (Ms. or La.), and the best weather ever. We gambled a lot on being here, but it certainly paid off.

At one point we were paying our mortgage in Land O’ Lakes, Jay’s mortgage after he passed away, and our Airbnb we were living in until our house sold (7 months). And then we paid Jay’s mortgage for close to a year until we sold his house. It was a LOT. That was a really crazy and kind of scary time. Luckily it all paid off.

You just can’t plan for things like that. People die, life pivots, and you have to keep going. No one would’ve ever thought in a million years we could pull that off but we did, and somehow came out on top.

God is good, and it is also very true that sometimes there is no reward without a serious risk. Don’t ever be afraid to take one. If they don’t work out – pivot. God has a way of taking care of care of his children, and doing things in ways that we could have never imagined when we put our trust in him.