When we first started thinking about moving back to my hometown of Hayesville, NC, many people thought we were just flat-out crazy. The endless comments about how small the town was, what rural life didn’t have, what we would be missing, lack of this, and the list went on and on and on.

Let me just say, I am a thinker by nature who can quickly get in my own head and worry about EVERY little detail. So..when these comments were made, that’s precisely what happened. My mind and Mama’s heart went crazy with worry about the impact on my daughter. I shed so many tears thinking and worrying about my daughter and what was best for her future.

When I finally took the time to step back from it all and really looked at the things being pointed out to me, they were just that. They were all things that could be physically counted in some way or another. But, while I knew those things mattered, they weren’t what mattered most to me.

“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count- Albert Einstein

What I wanted most for my daughter were those things that I felt were so priceless that they couldn’t be counted. I wanted that hometown where people knew my daughter by name. A place she could wake up and really breathe in the fresh mountain air. A place she could walk in the woods and see wildlife at every corner. 

We dreamed of her growing up with cousins her age and making memories that would last her a lifetime. A place that came together under the Friday night lights and a place that loved you no matter how much or little you had. I just wanted her to feel at home around every corner and know that she had people who loved her no matter what.

While my values may not be the same as others, they are mine, and they are what I dreamed of giving my daughter since the first pink line appeared. So here we are, back at home and living the life we hoped for, and with a little girl, we never stopped praying for.

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