When we started the Broken Oak eight years ago our youngest was just a baby. This is one of my favorite photos we have of him sleeping on me when we started cleaning out the barn for the first time.
We had no idea what we were doing. I had this dream, an idea and this photo below is the night we told our dearest friends and family that I was going to be hosting a market in the barn in just two short weeks.
What I don’t have a photo of is the day I pulled in a the barn with all three kids and cried. Everything seemed too hard and too big and in what was then that I heard a calm, still voice say
” I want you to do this “
Our first market was small, but it proved that we could do it and people would drive out to the country to shop in a barn. Whenever I would doubt I would remember that day in the barn.
Fast forward and we have now hosted markets on this farm for eight years. The other day one of my kids asked me why I thought our market worked and others didn’t. I told him it was because of the Lord and his plan for it that it ever worked.
So, I shouldn’t have been surprised when that same voice said my time hosting y’all was coming to an end. My heart has been so tender as we prepare to host y’all one last time. I have gone through just about every emotion, but mostly I am just so humbled and grateful that it worked and we have been able to do it for so long. I am heartbroken that I won’t get to see so many of you who have become like a second family and that this chapter is closing. I told my friend that I have never had such peace, but also my heart break at the same time.
I don’t want people to misunderstand our why. We still love hosting and the market is continuing to grow and thrive each year, but my faith is the most important thing to me and in all I do I want God to be the center. So when He asks me to give up something that I love, even when it’s hard it is important to me to listen even when I don’t understand why.
Hosting y’all has been a dream come true. The market has grown in ways I never imagined possible and this has been one of the hardest things I have had to do. I can’t talk about it without getting choked up. I am just so grateful.
For the past eight years we have opened our farm, home and life to y’all and it is so hard to just let this big part of our lives go. I have no idea what I am going to do next and I guess that is where the faith part comes in.
You have supported us and our vendors in every type of weather, through Covid times, and so much more. I have said it before, but I truly believe some of the best people in the world gather under our oaks each year.
Y’all have come to mean so much to our whole family.
Thank you for believing in something that seemed crazy to some. Thank you for your kindness and support these past eight years.
It has changed all of our lives for the good and we will forever be grateful for the lessons learned along the way.
Not everyone gets to have a dream and watch it unfold into something they never knew possible. After processing this for awhile now I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude that I was able to do this and that God blessed it.
The people are what we will miss most. So many now familiar faces were strangers before the market.
Our kids have learned valuable lessons and got to grow up sharing their home and practicing hospitality.
It hasn’t always been easy, but now that we are approaching the end I look back and can say that I would do it all over again. Y’all have blessed our lives more than you could ever possibly know. We can’t wait to see y’all one last time on our farm next Saturday, December 7th.
Thank you for eight wonderful years.
Best,
Alyssa
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