how far I've come

As we hit the one year anniversary of moving to our new home (also our 12th wedding anniversary) I have been reflecting on how much my life has changed since fleeing southern California and starting a new life in southern Indiana.  I thought I'd go through a list of things that I never thought I would be doing:

     Riding my old farm tractor instead of my police motorcycle
     Watching my son drive our riding mower and cutting our grass by himself
     I had to cut the head off of my daughter's "pet" chicken
     Working on my 1962 John Deere
     Raising my own chickens/eggs
     Raising my own goats
     Breeding goats for the purpose of meat
     Raising turkeys (well only one now that the other two died)
     Planning to slaughter the remaining turkey myself, for Thanksgiving dinner
     Going out to check on my animals at midnight... in the rain
     Shooting pistols with my wife in our backyard
     I had to instruct my wife, over the phone, how to dispose of a dead goat (I was away with USMC)

Last night we went to a friends house for dinner and in the course of our conversation he asked me if I was glad we had moved to Indiana.  I will tell you the same thing that I told him: I have never regretted our decision; I know we did the right thing.  I think that we would have been joyful and content in many places, but I love where we ended up and I am grateful that the Lord led us here.

As previously stated, I never would have imagined that I would be living on a small farm in the mid-west and rasing goats, but I have to say that I love it and I am curious to see what I end up doing over the next year.