Our back story

Just a little back story on us. I'll pin this post as well. 

My husband, Bill and I started an e-commerce business several years ago as a 'side hustle' in our basement. We grew out of our basement pretty quickly and needed a bigger space. We moved into a flex space so Bill could have an office and the business would have the needed storage. 

While we were at the flex space my dad ended up in the hospital, stayed there for quite some time and then to rehab. Once he was better, we had a conversation about the future. He agreed to go to an assisted living facility.  He'd lived a hard life and deserved to have his own space. He was in a nice 1-bedroom apartment, the facility was gorgeous, and the people were great. We would take him to work just about every day where he had a little workspace to tinker with his tools. It was nice. 

He took a sharp turn downhill and we found out he had cancer. He started chemo but after his diagnosis he only lived approximately 6 weeks. It all happened very quickly. I was taking him to doctors appointments and the hospital all the time. With being gone all the time, our e-commerce business took a huge hit. I couldn't manage both and keeping my dad well was the priority.

Bill and I knew we enjoyed what we were doing but wanted to do so much more. I was having a very hard time staying in a space that held so many memories with my dad. He has left a huge void in our lives. We decided we wanted to start a nonprofit and do good with what we had. We had a huge inventory that could easily roll into a store. 

So that's what we did. We got word that a business was moving into a new space. So, we reached out to them, and it felt like it was meant to be, everything worked perfectly (or so we thought). One year ago we moved into what we thought was going to be our future. We met some amazing people that we now call friends. We worked harder than we ever have and spent a ridiculous amount of money that we didn't have.  

It lasted 5 months but we knew pretty quickly that wasn't where we were meant to be.  After we moved in, it seemed like everything was a struggle. I lost a lot of my faith in that time. I had unwavering faith that we were doing exactly what God wanted us to do and in the place we were supposed to be in. It felt like we were losing everything. We still had each other though and that was the most important to both of us. We learned a lot, made a bunch of mistakes but we knew what to do if the opportunity presented itself in the future. 

We closed the doors to that building in September and left a piece of our hearts when we did. It was so hard. We looked and looked and looked and looked (our poor realtor, we drug her through it but she's amazing and she held on). We would get our hopes up, or I would, Bill's a little more level headed than I am, just for a space to not work out. We looked all over, Shelbyville, Knightstown, Avon, Franklin, we wanted this to work so bad. 

I was so frustrated with the economy, stupid politics, stinky greedy people taking advantage of all of us, the fact that we can't afford to even survive anymore. I felt it all and I was not in a good place emotionally or mentally. It was taking its toll on me. I just wanted to help people, I wanted to help the sahm who needed clothes for their growing kiddos or the underpaid whoever that had to resell to make ends meet or the lonely widow who goes thrifting to have people to talk to. We know what it like to be in your shoes. 

I was so fed up and so was Bill. He said, "go drive around and see if you find anything". I drove without a plan just taking a route I was familiar with. I turn down Madison Ave from Fry Rd and see this crooked home made 'for lease' sign. Then, what do they say, the rest is history? It's been a long road. We've grown, we've learned, I've bled quite a bit (I run into things a lot), we've raised our voices, we've struggled, and we've cried. 

We are still riding a bit of a roller coaster but it's finally slowing down. The space we are in has been terrific. The landlords are amazing, and our neighbors are great. The connections have just flooded in. We've met all kinds of people in the charity world. This is just the beginning of our story, and we hope you guys continue to hang on to see how it goes! 

The photo was 1 year ago, where we were. You know where we are now!