It  is wonderful to walk into the house that you are photographing and just start talking to the people that hired you like you were just hanging out yesterday, but it had actually been three years since you'd seen them. That's what it's like to work with Josh and Dusty Blasko. This couple is SO fun, so easy to get along with, and a riot to banter with. Come down memory lane with me... Josh, Dusty, and I go way back. Back to before I photographed their wedding in 2013. Back to when I did Josh's cousin, Katie's wedding on my birthday on August 1, 2009. After Joe and Katie's wedding in 2009, I started getting hired by other family member's of Joe and Katie. I think it was partly because of this epic family photo that I took there. I was picking on the people who weren't paying attention and saying all sorts of goofy things to keep everyone's attention. I guess they all appreciated my sarcasm. I loved this family! August 1, 2009 Four years later, almost to the day, I had the pleasure of doing Josh and Dusty's blast of a backyard wedding on July 27, 2013. The rain didn't stop any of us from having fun. Once again, I did that giant family photo, only with 45 people instead of 40. Fast forward five and a half years to January of 2019 and we are doing their family photos. Mind you, this was in Buffalo, NY. It was cold, but we wanted to do photos in front of my freshly white painted barn before heading inside for photos in our kitchen in front of one of our wood walls. Photographing a family of seven in that small of an area is no small feat. Wait till you see the last photo. It's hilarious.  Are you a fan of this couple yet? ;) I know I was. In fact, we got together a handful of times while we only lived a few minutes away from each other before I moved to Orlando, FL. They came for our family Halloween party with Katie, their cousin whose wedding I did. We went over there to swim a couple times. Yes, I like many of my clients that much. Ok, NOW I'm gonna do a little testifying here. This past September, I reached out to a handful of my old clients in Buffalo, including Dusty and said that I would be in town the next month for Fall photos. Within minutes of my text message, Dusty responded with, "I would definitely be interested! We sadly have not done pictures since you left. I can't find anyone I trust with them...Also, if you need more bookings, I do have a project that I need to photograph for my social media and team pictures I need to do also. I would totally book that to fill up any time slots you might have open." When we talked on the phone a handful of days later, I learned that only an hour before I had sent that initial text message, Dusty was in a staff meeting and had told them that she needed updated photos for their website. That, my friends, is how God loves to work. On the phone Dusty said to me, "You’ve always made me be able to relax and you’ve always been able to get my natural side...I am that awkward person that does not know what to do with myself...And if you don’t have that connection (with the photographer), it’s hard." Wow, what an unexpected compliment! I was sure glad I was taking notes about the potential job or I would have not been able catch those sweet words from her. A couple weeks later, I was walking into the house to photograph the three rooms they along with their talented staff and painting partners, Chameleon Coatings  restored. While I was there, I also did staff photos for both companies. It was an absolute pleasure working with Josh and Dusty again. It was comforting for me to work with and photograph people that have known me for fifteen years. These are things you don't think about until you move 1200 miles away. After only seeing the first one hundred photos, Dusty said to me, "Oh my goodness, I am in love with the photos!! I am only into the first link and can't wait to see the rest, thank you so much ... You my dear are amazing!" After seeing all of them, I received another email from Dusty that including these encouraging words, "I cannot thank you enough for these photos and how you captured the true beauty of the kitchen and the personalities of our crew (I even love my photos!)...I look forward to Spring-Summer of next year for the HUGE house we are doing in the city." Yes, God willing, I will be returning to Buffalo, NY to photograph an entire house for them once they are done working their magic on an old house in the city. What an honor! They aren't the only company planning to hire me for work in the Spring/Summer. I am grateful for God's provisions through my photography again. He is at work, as I often share on my personal blog, www.simplycampbell.com . Josh and Dusty are a hard working, talented, devoted, down to earth, and trustworthy couple. Their vision for the rooms I photographed was incredible. The amount of rearranging they did to make them look as stunning as it is, is a true gift. Their website, which Dusty designed and manages, is full of more of their beautiful work (click on photo below to check it out!) www.rbrconstruction.net Thanks for spending time reflecting on the past fifteen years of photographing this wonderful couple with me! :) Now, for the photos! Enjoy viewing candids, the owners of the home, Rust Belt Restoration staff, some of the Chameleon Coating staff, owners, Josh and Dusty along with an amazing kitchen with three different colored cabinets, a bathroom with custom Buffalo wallpaper, and another bathroom with the most beautiful light fixtures. And that's just one of the MANY cool things for each room. Oh wait, I have to mention the brass floor vents, too! I'm in love! Phew! That was a mouth full! ;) If you're interested in hiring me, go to my contact  page, and let's chat! :)

How do you start a post about someone you have adored for so many reasons and for sooo many years? This beautiful mama and I go way back. We spent many years in school together, as she was a grade below me, but were never in the same classes. In fact, I didn't really even know Allie until after we graduated high school. I only knew of her because there was a local company in our town with the same last name as her called, Whiting Door. It wasn't for a few years out of high school that I got to know this incredibly beautiful, smart, delightful, and savvy woman of God. She was a mutual friend of mine, named Krista who hosted a bible study at her parent's house in 2013 and 2014. It was there that we formed a great bond. Our time together is always easy, uplifting, and full of laughter! When Ralph and I moved into our first house, her younger brother and I were neighbors. God just kept intersecting our lives. Over the years, I have had the privilege of attending Allie and Eric's wedding and taking photos of her and her newborn son, Tucker ( https://www.courtneycampbell.net/post/baby-tucker ) . Over the summer, we tried booking a family session, but couldn't get our schedules lined up. When I was considering going back to Western New York for Fall sessions, she was one of the first people I informed. In between our hectic schedules, we managed to squeeze in a shorter session at dusk at Akron Falls Park; a place we both grew up around. Every time I do photography work, I am both humbled and honored to be chosen. It is not an easy thing to be the one in front of the camera. The Satellbergs not only did great, but were delightful. I had fun bantering with them and bringing everyone at ease for this session. How precious are these moment's captured in just forty minutes?? I love when little moments like this happen, too. They are the kind that Allie will appreciate were caught years down the road. If you're interested in a session, go to my contact  page, and let's chat! :)

One Minute slideshow of my fav photos: This old soul was such a pleasure to photograph while my family and I were in Western New York for a couple weeks. I had the privilege of photographing Leo and his parents in 2008 when he was only three after he had recently been adopted and then again in 2018 at my home . Leo was a bundle of joy then and still is today! He has brought so much purpose and life to his parents. They have loved and supported him from the day he was brought into their home! Their hearts well up with pride for this delightful young lad. I love that I was able to capture the musical, serious, sentimental, and silly side of Leo in the forty minutes we spent together for this. Leo is such a bright, endearing, and loving young man. My prayer is that this year and in the years to come that he chooses to seek God with all of his heart just like one of his favorite artists, Johnny Cash, did. I know that he wouldn't regret doing so. For those that don't want to watch the slideshow, below are some of my favs from this session! Thank you Heidi for snapping a few photos of me in one of my favorite elements! :)

Way too many kids! I'm just kidding. They aren't mine, so I'm good! Ha! During our visit to Western New York, I was able to see Heaven and meet her scrumptious and delightful baby, Kaia! Heaven has two sisters with children as well and they have been wanting to give their parents the gift of a portrait of their six grandbabies. That's where I come in handy! ;) I first introduced Heaven on my other blog when we started doing music together around seven years ago. Then when she got married, I of course brought my camera with me and snapped a few photos , along side her cousin, Jenilee who is an amazing photographer . For those that have been following along on this blog for the past two years, I posted one of my favorite recordings . I have missed our time in my living room in Akron, NY producing music together. Since moving to Florida, Heaven got married, which I shared her wedding photos on my other website. And then, as I already mentioned, she had her first baby in November!! This session was all sorts of fun and crazy. I love how different each child's personalities are. I enjoy watching both the shy and the outgoing. It is not uncommon for me to allow the children I am photographing to take my camera and take their own photos. I find it especially amusing watching the parents react, secretly praying their children don't drop it because they don't want to buy a new camera for me. ha! This photo of me was taken by seven year old, Rory. Kids bring out the sillier side of me... I have found that giving kids a turn with the camera really helps to loosen up kids. It can bring out their natural side, which I know isn't the easiest thing to do during a portrait session where money and time is on the line. Getting the camera back isn't always the easiest process though. Here's me allowing a four year old take a photo of her sister during another session . When you have six kids under nine years old, babies that want to nurse, go to sleep, and boys full of energy it is challenging to get photos of all of them in one shot. You'll have to let me know how I did. ;) I LOVE to document and catch people in a candid moment as well as consider it a compliment when I can capture their natural smile. I don't ever mind when kids are kids. In fact, I love to capture pouts, goofy faces, tears, and of course big ole giggles. At the exact same time, I love the challenge of getting them to smile and look at the camera, because though I know moms and grandmas love candid photos, if they are putting something on their wall, they prefer to see people looking and smiling naturally. I am ALWAYS honored when I get to photograph someone no matter how many years I do this. This session was no different. May Heaven, Hope, Angel, and their parents cherish these photos for all of their years. There are so many treasured moments in here! The links I included in this email are: www.courtneycampbell.net https://www.courtneycampbell.net/post/james-and-heaven-s-wedding https://jenileephotographyphotos.com/ https://www.courtneycampbell.net/post/mary-did-you-know-cover https://www.courtneycampbell.net/post/kokanovich-family

One minute slideshow of my favorite photos from this session: While living in Akron, NY, our family always enjoyed going over to visit the Kokanovich family at their farm. Our boys would have a blast climbing on the giant hay stacks in their barn, snuggling with the baby kittens, and catching the chickens to hold. For Liam's 8th birthday, they brought him a chicken named Caramel as a present and he loved it!! A year after we moved to Florida, they, and some other good friends of ours were vacationing in Cape Coral, Florida so we drove the three and a half hours and stayed two nights with all of them. We have known some of these friends for over fifteen years, spent many hours at their homes in Bible study or for parties. Ralph and I are where we are in our marriage, faith, and even Florida because of some of these people's influence. We love these people! Everyone had such a blast catching up, swimming, and going on the boat. We were also able to see some burrowing owls near the playground. Devin, our middle child had just been learning about them! While we were there, ANOTHER friend of ours, named Candace from the same New York area was staying only thirty minutes from our other friends so we met up with her and two of her kids at Steak and Shake just to be able to give each other a big squeeze and catch up for a wee bit. We LOVE that people vacation in Florida and getting to see them! When we were going to be in Western New York in July for my twenty year class reunion, I was delighted that Tiffany wanted to hire me to photograph her family during! On the day of their session, I showed up a little early on the farm. One by one, the kids started coming out of the house not to see me, but to see my boys. Not only had they come, but so did Ralph. All the girls were anxious to get their photo taken. Abe, their only son, was content to keep playing until needed. Jada, their oldest had even practiced her poses. Grandma, a hairdresser and salon owner of D'Tangles in Alden and Corfu, came to help with all of their hair. Mom is also a hairdresser, but as you can imagine, her hands are full with homeschooling five kids and running Healthy Living Farm. Jake was not excited for this session. Most men aren't. While I got started taking photos of the kids, he was still on his tractor in the field. When he returned, he said to me, "You've got fifteen minutes." I responded, "I can do it in less." I did it in 13 minutes. Phew! Ha! This family is an absolute riot. There is rarely a dull moment and I love that I was able to capture just some of the fun that they have. May they cherish these photos, like they do each other forever.

I make it no mystery on this blog and with everyone I interact with that parenting is my greatest challenge. Add homeschooling. Add the fact that we have little to no breaks because we have one family member in the same state as us. Add mine and Ralph's bends towards independence and not relying on others because, to be quite blunt, most people are disappointing or can't be trusted. It's simply easier for us not to expect help or ask for help, but I digress. That's for another writing...or a book once God has finished working on this with us. ;) It is also not a mystery (or at least I sure hope it isn't!) that one of the priorities in my life is investing in my children's souls. Ralph and I spend a considerable amount of time teaching them about Jesus, the word of God, prayer, the foundational truths of our faith, how to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit, and live out the purposes God has for us on earth. Without these, they will be swept away in the raging current of our culture. Taking them to church a couple times a week or even serving together isn't enough. Praying before dinner or getting in the word as a family only on Christmas and Easter isn't gonna do it either. Ask me how I know. Or wait until my book is published and read how confused I was in my teens, trying to understand where God fit in the mix. No, I am not going to do any of those things in hopes that my kids will survive in this twisted and confusing world. It takes work, commitment, determination, perseverance, and full reliance on the almighty God to do what Ralph and I are doing. It takes verses on our mantle that say, "Let us now grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9)." It takes the memorization of verses like Isaiah 40:8 that say, "But those who WAIT for Yahweh shall RENEW their strength, they shall go up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow WEARY, they shall walk and not be faint." This kind of investment, when the enemy wants nothing more than to destroy our marriage and family, is no small feat. That's why when our eleven year old decides to get baptized, I cry over the faithfulness of God. This wasn't a flippant decision of Liam's. He has been talking about this with Ralph and I for at least a year. The building that we have agreed we can refer to as, "church" and not it's formal name, which is " Discovery Church ," because it has become home to us, does this great thing every time someone chooses to get baptized. They bring all of the kids, from four years old and up to see it. After a couple of times of seeing this happened, Liam started asking us about it. I could tell he was feeling the conviction, but I didn't want to pressure him. "Does it have to be a pastor? Can't you do it? You're the most spiritual person I know. Can't we just do it in the bathtub? It doesn't matter where it happens, right? Does it have to be at church in front of all of those people? The Ethiopian was baptized without anyone else around but Philip (Acts 8:26-40). Why can't I?" All really good questions for which we didn't have clear answers. We would even bring it up to other friends of ours and get their take on it. Time went on and Liam witnessed more baptisms at church. More questions. He felt the conviction but he wasn't quite ready yet. Again, we were not going to pressure him. This is Liam's relationship with Jesus, not ours. We always reiterate that to him and his brothers. Liam asked Jesus into his heart when he was four and a half years old one night before bed. Young? Yes. But when his mom has been talking to him about Jesus since he could talk at less than two years old, is it really too young? (The texts I sent to Ralph when he was at work about Liam asking Jesus into his heart on May 31, 2017) The gospel is simple enough for children to understand. No one taught them how to steal a cookie from the cookie jar and then lie about it. It's us adults that make the gospel more complicated than it is, arguing over how passages should be interpreted. We were born broken, we need to be fixed, but can't do it ourselves. Jesus came to earth to rectify our situation, was crucified, raised back to life three days later, returned back to the heavenly realms, put us in charge of spreading this truth, and is coming back. There's a whole lot of amazing stuff in between all of that, but I am trying to respect my readers time here... My point is that Liam understood that simple gospel truth and embraced it. From that moment on, Ralph and I have been teaching him how to live out his faith. Baptism is part of that. It's more of the public part of it. This past June while planning for our trip to Western New York, I was texting a friend of mine from there named Candace who was pivotal in my walk with the Lord. She shared that they would be hosting a baptism night at their house and asked if any of our kids had been baptized yet. I shared what had been going on with Liam and she said to mention it to him to see if he would be interested in getting baptized at their house instead. The man that would be doing them was the same man who baptized Ralph twenty years ago. When I thought about that, I kept tearing up. How memorable would that be if Wes Aarum, who baptized Ralph twenty years ago would be able to baptize Liam even though we live 1200 miles away now? I kept quiet about it. I asked friends for prayer. One afternoon, I simply said to Liam, "The Thompsons are hosting a baptism night at their house while we will be in town." Immediately he said, "OK. I'll do it." Ralph and I then proceeded to reiterate the significance of the choice he was making. We asked him why he felt he was ready to do it now. He said, "because the Holy Spirit keeps bugging me about it and saying, 'get baptized, get baptized, get baptized.' When He does that you need to listen to Him." Fair enough. This baptism brought all of our family in Western New York together to witness such a monumental occasion in Liam's relationship with Jesus. It brought family members that didn't know Jesus, but are now asking questions. Through this Liam is getting to see how God can use him and how our choices have an eternal impact on ourselves and others. Ralph was able to be a part of the baptism. It was a beautiful, memorable moment that I didn't expect to happen while we were in Buffalo surrounded by our family and friends. It was an encouragement to stay the course on our parenting journey. To not give up when we are often tempted to. It was evident fruit from our many years of labor. After the baptism, Liam shared how relieved he was. Tell me about it, kid. If only at his age I understood how to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit and then obey Him. I would have had a lot less heartache and pain. We are so proud of him for hearing and then obeying. Raising warriors for Christ is not easy. It's the hardest thing we've ever done. When I say that we need prayer, I mean it. Our time is short and the distractions are real. These posts are written by real people and not AI. If you would like to read more REAL writings by REAL people with REAL gray hair, and REAL varicose veins, click this link  to be notified of our next post! For those that want to see Liam's baptism on video, you can watch that below. Liam's is at minute 5:25. I also put together a slideshow of all of the baptisms from that evening. I did not actually get photos of everyone with my good camera because I was also dealing with our five and eight year olds who wanted to take photos, videos, and talk. I screen shotted the moments missed from my Go Pro that was also running. That can be watched below:

(Click to watch this one minute slideshow) Ok, friends. This is a sentimental one. The first time I remember this young lad, he was a crying toddler at the daycare center I was working at about fifteen years ago. His mom, Jessica worked as a therapist for a short time and so he would be there, too, but not in the same room as her. He didn't like it. This sweet boy wanted to be with his mommy. The next time I remember Hayden, he had just turned nine the day before and was splashing around in a tank with our four year old, Liam. We had walked over to meet Hayden's family down the street. I didn't realize that he was the same kid at the day care center until later on or that his mom was one of the therapists I saw working there on occasion. (Photo of Hayden and Liam, taken June 9, 2017 Up until that point, we had only met Hayden's dad, Farmer Darren, the name our family affectionately started calling him almost right away. Darren had introduced himself briefly when we first moved in during the Fall, but we had hibernated for the winter before we ventured out to meet the rest of his wonderful family the following Spring. For the next five and a half years, our families spent lots of time together celebrating special events, hanging out, swimming, and working outside. Often, we would pop over unannounced for various reasons and would find ourselves talking for forty-five minutes. This family was a gift to ours that we still treasure! The Wights were the hardest neighbors to leave when we moved to Florida. When you share a deep love for Jesus, the bond is naturally stronger. I told them when we moved, that they were stuck with us because we would still come visit and we have maintained that. Over the years, Hayden and his siblings spent many hours with our boys. He would take them for rides on the Kubota, play with them in the hay loft of their barn, show their eager eyes his lego sets, and sit on the floor to go through his "old" legos. My boys loved Hayden and his siblings. (Liam's first time on a Kubota at four years old) In our home, I often say to my three boys, "I am raising you to be a man in a man's body, not a boy in a man's body. This world doesn't need any more boys walking around in men's bodies." Though they don't fully understand what that means yet, I give them plenty of examples of both. Hayden is well on his way to being a man in a man's body. First and foremost, he has known and followed Jesus since he was in elementary school. He is respectful, looks a person in the eye, and hard working. He thinks of others. He is not afraid to try new things. He is generous with his time and resources. He honors his parents. He glorifies God with his gifts and talents. The list goes on. I am proud of the young man Hayden has grown up to be and thankful for the example he has set for our three boys. (As we were walking to the field, I pointed to the hay bales and said, "I'd love to do some by those. It hadn't occurred to me in that moment that the first three letters of his name were "Hay." I also learned that his grandpa has called him "Haystack" for years.) I had the privilege of photographing not only Hayden's senior photos, but his other three siblings, Lauren, Tyler, and even Noah's after we had moved to Florida. What an honor! In preparation for his slideshow, I asked Hayden's mom, Jessica for some of his favorite songs. She called him an old soul when she sent me several screen shots of his Spotify playlist. The first set was full of oldies songs like, "Son of a Preacher Man," "Yakety Yak," and "I Want To Hold Your Hand." I thought it would be fun to do something from that list, but as I was going through the next list of contemporary Christian music, the first song I saw surprised me in a good way. It was, "The Only Name (Yours Will Be) recorded by Big Daddy Weave in 2012, but written by an old friend of mine and Ralph's named Benji Cowart. I used to serve and lead worship with Benji and his wife, Jenna at The Chapel in Getzville, NY. We sang, "The Only Name (Yours Will Be)" as a congregation before it ever hit the radio. I knew I didn't need to look further. It was not only perfect for Hayden, but meaningful for me. I hope if you haven't already watched the slideshow, that you go back and do so. The time I spent with Hayden and his mom for his senior session was such a joy for me. I remembered him taking piano lessons and hearing him play. I saw him practice playing the guitar with our mutual friend, Theresa Hoffman. I remember him playing in a worship band in the gazebo at the park in Akron, NY. Now I was hearing of his participation in this year's school musical, the piano piece he played there, and the surprise by many in the school of his talents. This 6 foot farm boy, who was also homeschooled for a couple of years, is standing out amongst his peers. It felt surreal photographing Hayden in the field that I used to gaze at every day when we lived across from it. I could see our house as I photographed, but it wasn't ours anymore. At the same time, it felt as though we had never left. God is so cool. Shout out to our eight year old, Devin who joined me for the tractor and corn field part of Hayden's session and took this very cool photo of Hayden! During his session, I reminded Hayden that God has gifted him with all of these amazing talents, that I see him with, for a purpose. The amazing opportunities that he has already been given, and will have in the future, are intentional and that he should not forget to give God the glory for them. That his actions will be remembered for years to come by his classmates. If this old soul continues pursuing Christ like he already is, the things that God will do through him will be a sight to behold. He's already talking about being a preacher. YES! Hayden's favorite Bible verse: " And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 Quick link to Hayden's one minute long slideshow: https://youtu.be/4bV2QZhZ7DM

To the Akron Class of 2004: 20 year class reunion. I bet you didn’t know that those four words could stir up so many emotions and memories until you read them and heard ours was coming up! As it nears, I would imagine some of those feelings are intensifying. Excitement, fear, pride, anger, pain, shame. The list goes on, right? And they couldn’t be helped because your thoughts went back to those days. I have had the pleasure of reaching out to just about every single one of you. Some, I had to settle on a second party, but I was determined to connect with all of you to make sure you knew about this reunion. For those that weren’t afraid to be honest with me or respond, the responses have been all over the place. As it nears, I felt led by God to share these thoughts and encouragements with you. First off, you are not who you were twenty years ago. For some of you a, “Hallelujah” may have come out of your mouths immediately. For others, you may believe these were your best years and wish you could go back. Maybe you are indifferent to all of it. Whether you realize it or not, we spent more time with each other for 13 straight years than some of us even spent with our own families. We were together five days a week, seven hours a day, nine months out of the year, and did this for about thirteen years. THAT’S why you have all of those emotions when you hear the words, “20 year class reunion.” Secondly, we ALL said and did foolish things to each other in middle and high school. We ALL STILL say and do foolish things as adults because we are human. Do we have to let these moments define us for the rest of our lives? Our answer should be a resounding, “no.” This ALSO means that we shouldn’t be allowing the things that OTHER people did to US define them, too. ;) We were sick together and often were generous in passing our viruses along. We celebrated birthdays, vacations, births of babies, and other events together. We fought and made up. Maybe some of us never recovered from the fight. We cried together and comforted one another when we lost loved ones, our parents separated, someone moved away, or we were called a name we never forgot. We partied together, made some choices that maybe we don’t even remember, and maybe some had lasting consequences. Thirdly, the invite was extended to students who had moved away, dropped out, failed, were held back, or expelled, but were at some point in our graduating class of 2004. If you are one of those that fall under this category, I hate even having to write those words. Most of you didn’t choose any of those things. Your parents, guardian, or the school did. Sure, you played a part in some of them in perhaps not doing the work the teachers assigned or not making the wisest of choices, but you were a teenager. For some of you, you were trapped in a life that you didn’t ask for, or even want. Fourthly, social media came around just as we hit our adult years and has completely changed this world. Can I remind you that what everyone posts on there is only a glimpse of time? Please do not let what you have seen on classmate's profiles dictate your final opinion about them, be your reason for why you won’t go to the reunion, or interact with them when you come. We are all on this journey together of seeking the same thing: love, truth, and purpose. Fifthly, something that happened to you, or that you did, shouldn’t keep you away. I can guarantee that we ALL have something that we regret or were hurt by that happened in our school years or later. It is a beautiful thing to come together despite what we are going through now, and what happened then. To those who think they don’t "have it all together” and are scared to come, I say in response, that’s a lie straight from the enemy. Come anyway. It is also tempting to want to appear to be more put together, in our prime years, and successful than we are. There is, of course nothing wrong with success. This is what Akron tried to teach us and we all have strived to reach it. It just looks different for all of us and comes at different times. So, I encourage you at the exact same time to SHARE your successes so we can celebrate with you! Be proud of what you have accomplished or learned in the last twenty years. Share your wisdom and knowledge in that area! Network!!! I hope you hear my heart in all of this. I long to see most of us together again at this reunion, but I know that’s not realistic for even logistical reasons. Regardless, I believe that this is a wonderful opportunity to reunite with those who were a big part of our formative years. You never know what God could do through this reunion. Over the years, I have described our class as special. No, not special ed.  ;) Truly special. We were in groups and had closer friends, but I remember seeing a constant cross over. We ALL interacted with each other. We didn’t let those invisible lines separate us. In a world where there is so much division, what a beautiful thing to pause and remember about our class! I am SO excited to walk through the halls wearing my Backstreet Boys tee shirt at the school, hike with your families at Akron Falls Park, and hang out with you and our favorite teachers at Arrowhead till after the sun goes down. Let this day not only be one full of fond reminiscing, joy, and laughter, but also one of healing and restoration. I know that I have some apologies to make. Anyone else wanna break out in the song, “Kum ba yah “ now? HA!! For real, this is gonna be amazing and memorable!! Go Tigers! Courtney Campbell (McFadden) P.S. If you haven’t heard the song, “People Need People” by CAIN, I recommend you listen! :)

*This has been audio recorded and can be listened to here* In some ways this feels overdue, but in most ways, this feels like it’s exactly when the Lord wanted me to write this. For many weeks now I have thought that I needed to get an update written, but the timing hasn’t been quite right. I was originally planning to just hop on camera with Ralph to share, but that is much harder for me to do in my present life circumstances. I currently have three extra people staying in our 997sq ft house for the next nearly three weeks. I cannot possibly film and produce a video to share our update in a loud and cluttered house. Therefore, my words on a page will have to suffice. Writing has been the one thing that I have been able to do without much interference. I can write in the car, on my bed, at the park, or in the middle of the night. Currently, I am sitting on my pillow in my pajamas with only a night light on in my bathroom. I can hear heavy breathing outside the door because the boys are sleeping just outside of it. We gave Gramemaw their bedroom to sleep in so there are five of us in one room. The boys would do this every day if they could. I was able to creep out of bed at 5:00am this morning using the light from my phone in order to avoid stepping on any children. For the last six weeks, I have been awakened between 4:30 and 6:30. This is not like me. And no, it’s not because of hormones. This is the Lord’s doing. I knew it was Him waking me up the first week it started, but I didn’t know how long it would last for. I still don’t. It’s been nice to read the word and pray without wondering if one of my boys will interrupt at any moment. For a few weeks I was using my remaining time to catch up on computer work. Now that our office is being slept in by my sister, I’ve resorted to writing this update in my bathroom. I can’t work in my living room either because my niece is on the couch sleeping. I am thankful for my laptop. (How about a toilet for your background?) As we shared in our Faith Journey Series, fourteen months ago, Ralph left his 9-5 job and came home. It’s hard to believe it has been that long already!! We get asked often how it’s going. Trying to give a short answer is tough because there are so many layers to this. We have shared through email with those that are subscribed to the blog and touched on it in our Christmas post in December (click here to read "Abundance in Simplicity"), but have not taken the time to write in detail up until this point For anyone that knows Ralph and I, or has been following along, we make it clear that we aren’t the ones ultimately making the decisions around here. We let God lead. It’s done imperfectly of course, but we are very intentional with asking Him to speak to us and direct us in whatever way He chooses. This is MUCH easier said than done. The enemy is crafty. The distractions are real. With that being said, I will backtrack for a few paragraphs to help jog some memories for those that have been faithfully following along with us. Also, this will bring up to speed those that have no idea what’s been happening. Then I will share over the course of the next few weeks how it's been going and what we have been learning through it. The name, “Faith Journey Series” has continued to be a very fitting one. We invested in two online schools/communities in the summer of 2022 after attending LifeSurge in Orlando (click here to read "LifeSurge"). One was for stock trading called Tradeway (click here to read "Tradeway") and the other for online business called Flipped Lifestyle (click here to read "Flipped Lifestyle"). We viewed Tradeway as something that had the potential to eventually replace Ralph’s current income and bring him home to his family. When we invested in those, we saw the trading thing for Ralph and the online business thing for the both of us. We decided that Ralph would learn trading first so that we could have some steady income while we slowly learned about the online business stuff. I would be behind most of the online business though since I had the knowledge in web design and photography. At the end of February 2023, Ralph came home earlier than we expected, but it was clear to us that again, this was the Lord’s doing (click here to read "A Time to Be Free"). We had a reserve in savings that we would use to pay our bills until we could generate an income. Now Ralph could concentrate better without feeling mentally and physically exhausted while going through Tradeway’s material. As he describes in one of his posts, it was a flood of information. At the same time, we were settling into our new home that we had only been in for a month when Ralph came home. Since it is only 997sqft, we had a ton of organizing to do. It took a good six months to get it functioning in a manner that was conducive to having five people living in it. For me, that was a priority because it is hard to function well in a home with stuff everywhere. It’s been about fifteen months since we started to move into the house. We love it here. It is EXACTLY what we needed for this time. We also have had it in the back of our minds since we bought this house to rent it out when we are out of town. We repainted the vanity in one of the bathrooms already and now I am in the middle of painting the kitchen cabinetry the same black color (hence the photo with the old paint already off the lower ones). My goal is to have it ready for this summer’s trip to Buffalo for my twenty year school reunion (that just aged me). My little brother, Tyler and his Catahoula puppy Milo were staying with us for a few months while he was transitioning between housing and work. The boys absolutely loved it and I was happy to receive Tyler’s amazing hugs and back cracking every day. It was good confirmation, too that our family was not ready for a dog...if ever. Though I will confess that Milo is my favorite dog, three boys are more than enough to wrangle! It is also hard to believe that we have been in Florida for two years. We still love it! There is more to do than time. Our favorite thing to do is explore all of the parks, hiking trails, and preserves in the Central Florida area. We often hike twice a week thanks to the Wild and Free groups we are a part of. Settling in this state was quick for us which we are grateful for. In fact, I have two writings about this that I haven’t posted yet (shocker) In addition to learning how to stock trade, Ralph has been selling stuff on Ebay and Facebook Marketplace. We had more stuff in our home than we could fit. We were taking trips to the goodwill to get rid of what we couldn’t sell online. It may sound absolutely crazy to some, but Ralph has been selling some items for $1.00. As a result, he has been getting good, steady reviews making him a more credible and sought out seller. He has 100% on all his feedback. We don’t know what exactly God is doing with this side gig, but it has helped bring in some money even if it feels like pennies at times compared to what we need to pay our bills. By the middle of July of 2023 and five months into Ralph learning how to stock trade, I asked him if maybe I could start learning how to do the online business stuff. He had finished going through all of the material for Tradeway and was trading regularly in the mornings, but it was still not enough money to cover our bills. We thought he could help with the kids in the afternoon and I could have a few hours to start learning this online business. Prior to that, we were trying to work on it together periodically, but it was slow going. As parents of three young homeschooled boys, we can only do so much. Part of what we paid for with Flipped Lifestyle was 24 private coaching sessions. What we didn’t realize was that we had to use those up within a year. We had a month left by the time I was able to direct my attention and energy into it. While in one of those sessions, the coach suggested that we ask for an extension. Immediately, I put in a request for it and it was graciously given to us. We now had about four months to get our coaching calls in without wasting our money. I then dove headfirst as best as I could into the online program and community called Flipped Lifestyle. I loved it! I enjoyed the people that were also a part of it, the mission behind it, and the couple that started it. Though I loved doing all of it, the challenge of balancing what the kids needed was still there. Despite Ralph being home to help more, I was finding myself still struggling to accomplish things in what I viewed as a “timely fashion.” The boys came in the room often and I did my best not to scold them while Ralph tried helping to keep them busy. I couldn’t tune them out if someone came in with an ant bite or wanted to show me something they made. Motherhood has always been my top priority. On top of that, I always knew that I struggled with focusing when other people were around, but now I was really seeing it and it frustrated me. I started to use Liam’s noise cancelling headphones which helped some. We had until December to wrap up our coaching calls before they expired and I really didn’t want to waste those. We were both plugging away all while trying to help our boys acclimate to our new lifestyle of everyone being home together practically all the time. It wasn’t easy, but I was so grateful to still have Ralph home and loved having him around more. In the middle of all of this, during the Fall, Ralph and I attended an eight week class through our church called Soul Care. Also, Ralph had the opportunity to get away by himself for three days with a bunch of men from our church. Both led us to face some challenging things in our past that had not been addressed for years. God was doing an amazing work which I am not going to touch on now, but hope to at another point. We spent so much time discussing, planning, and trying to figure out what our first online business could be. For a short time, I started building something relating to my photography business. It makes sense, right? I have eighteen years of experience that I can teach in that field, but it didn’t sit right with me. I needed to do something that had more impact on the world. What happened between Soul Care and Ralph’s time away confirmed that for me. I had a few directions that I could go in still though and didn’t know what to focus on first. I also wanted Ralph to be a part of the business for a few reasons. One being that I like to be with him because he’s my best friend. The second reason being that I love his perspective on things. Just like in life, Ralph would be a good balance for me. Between the coaching calls that we were in and the courses that we were taking, we decided to try the idea of creating an online community where we emphasize simple living with purpose. I loved people, we were living that way, and saw the many benefits of it. Seeing so much chaos in our world, we believed it had the ability to impact lives. My goal was to get this online business launched before our last private coaching call. Often those calls went until 1:30AM because our amazing coach, Steven Foust lived on the west coast. He was impressed by our dedication, loved working with us, and gave us his personal number with the words, “I don’t give this out to just anybody” if we wanted to reach out more after our coaching sessions ended. I worked every moment I could on this. We even flew in our old babysitter from Tennessee so that we could record a bunch of podcast episodes without disruption. I learned a brand new program and built a new website in two weeks. We were committed to making this happen. We were successful in launching it when we planned. We finished all of our coaching calls before they expired. We received great and encouraging feedback from our coach. Some others that saw what we were doing loved the idea and content. We just had one little problem. We needed people to buy, but we didn’t really have much of a following. We knew this going into it, but we struggled to build an audience at the same time. Trying to do both was just too much to manage for me on top of my regular responsibilities. The success of any online business comes from volume. That’s why you see hundreds of thousands of followers on an influencer's page. They built that up through a series of very systematic steps in order to sell something or become sponsored by companies. I see the methods every time I go online now. I knew that I had to market more and get more content out there, but I hated it. I diligently tried producing content, falling short. It was still too much to manage with the boys around. Ralph offered to help with some of it because, unlike myself, he didn’t mind it. I had so much tension in my body as I was trying to figure out how to sell this and as I was sending emails out about it. It’s not like I hadn’t sold something before. I was asking for much more money for my photography work than this. Through Flipped Lifestyle I learned that the first online business you start almost never pans out. I had that in the back of my head the whole time as I was building this, but like they say in the community, you have to start somewhere. I worked through every necessary step to build and launch this with my whole heart, but after we launched, it suddenly didn’t feel like it was it anymore. I decided to keep moving forward to see if it was just anxiety or my emotions clouding my judgement. We had a handful of people interested in the online community and some that said they would join, but there was something that still didn’t feel right with it. Something was holding me back from bringing people into the community. I was beginning to think that God wanted me to push the pause button. (Click here to be notified when the next part is posted!)

I have told Ralph for most of our years together that he is an excellent teacher. He has an incredible ability to patiently and effectively explain things. The same goes for teaching me how to stock trade. (One of the first times I sat with Ralph as he was stock trading.) Learning how to stock trade felt like it was coming out of left field for me. I am a producer. I love to create, not crunch numbers. I soon learned that it was MUCH more than that. I also thought this would be a good skill for me to learn should Ralph die while the kids were still at home. I would still want them homeschooled and would be solely financially responsible for them. I found stock trading fascinating. It was fun, exhilarating, and nerve wrecking all at the same time. I was seeing things on the charts that Ralph had not noticed. There are so many approaches to stock trading and so much information to analyze at once. It’s impossible for Ralph or any one person to see all of it. Just like how I have operated in my photography business, I started creating spreadsheets to figure out patterns in how we were trading. I was tracking everything we were doing even though the program we used could do some of that for us. Though Ralph didn’t need it, it helped me to better grasp what I was learning. For Ralph, in a sense, it was like starting all over again. He had to pause do a lot of explaining. I needed to start small and experiment. We were managing trades with a $1.75 profit as if it were $1,000. We were understanding the behaviors of stocks better because we were in more of them and watching them closely. Trading small and more often was something Ralph hadn’t really done. He shared with me that he had been driven more by the need to pay our bills. I don’t fault him for that. As the man of the house, he is driven to provide well for his family. I will never be able to fully understand that, as it's how God wired a man, and not a woman. Ralph shared with me that he wasn’t patient enough at times while watching the market. He had a tremendous amount of anxiety when he was losing money and would sometimes stop a trade even though it was within the parameters that he was being taught through Tradeway. Shortly after Ralph started teaching me how to stock trade in the mornings, God began pressing on me the book I had secretly started to write in the Fall. I wondered if maybe it was time to start taking it more seriously. I was really feeling the push to get our story out into the world as, I dare to say, it’s a powerful one. In order to make some real progress on it though, I knew that I needed to leave the house and be alone. I would need Ralph to handle the boys and their schoolwork. I brought up the idea to Ralph. He agreed knowing how much I felt that God wanted me to get this book written. This is where Ralph’s spiritual gift of “helps” comes into play. What I was trying to do was Kingdom work and his gifting is in helping in any way to see something that God is in, come to fruition. Ralph agreed to fill in the gaps that would be left empty when I wasn’t home. I began leaving a few days a week for a few hours in the afternoon. I found a quiet spot at a park only a few minutes from home with minimal distractions. It was exactly what I needed. I was extremely grateful!! While I was gone writing, Ralph was doing schoolwork with the boys. Afterwards, they would play together. After a week of doing this, I could feel the hope rising inside of me. Maybe I was actually going to be able to finish this thing! Still, it wouldn’t be any time soon before it would be done, much less generate any income. Just like when I started in November of 2023, I didn’t say much to anyone because I didn’t know how long this would last. Writing this book was challenging. I knew exactly what I was supposed to write about, but the content was painful. Without giving away too much detail, it is centered around love, brokenness, forgiveness, healing, and restoration. We continued in our new routine for a few weeks. Three to four days a week, we stock traded together in the mornings and sometimes late afternoons. I would write those same afternoons while Ralph did school work and played with the boys. On the other one to two days, we would go on our Wild and Free hikes with our friends. The evenings were spent reading aloud together as a family and we were going to sleep at a decent hour for the first time in years. That’s when God started waking me up between 4:00am and 6:00am. One night, God woke up Ralph and told him to sell his smoking pipes. That week, he put all of them up for auction on Ebay. Every single one of them sold within two weeks for a total of $500. It was the most we had made in weeks! While still waiting to hear from someone at the church about the job, Ralph went to men’s breakfast and updated Jeremy about what we were up to. Jeremy responded with, “my only reservation about you getting this job is that it will interfere with what you and Courtney are doing.” Ralph agreed, but told him that we were still OK with it if he got the job. We wondered if this job would lift some of the stress Ralph had. He thought that maybe he would be able to approach stock trading differently knowing there was more money coming in. Time would tell. Shortly after, we received the news that God shut the door on the job opportunity at our church. We were at peace. We still had about five more weeks before May 1, which was the deadline we had agreed on. We felt the push to just keep plugging away at what we were doing. Even though we weren’t making much, we were liking our new routine. We were beginning to think that God might be trying to keep us in it: Stock trade, write the book, and work on slowly, and organically growing Simply Campbell. It's a routine that I didn’t expect. Isn’t that so like God? I was simply delighted to see us working through stock trading just like how we did in life. We would pray before the market opened. We respectfully discussed and argued. We set goals, waited, and stayed united. We would have instances where we executed a trade well, made some money, and would be encouraged. Then we would have other trades where we figured out that we entered too late or the stock would change directions, and we would lose. It was quite the learning process for both of us. For a couple months we were just trying to earn more than we lost, protect our profits, and minimize our losses. Being profitable in the stock market is not an overnight thing. It’s more like a three to five year thing. Not every day is a good day to trade either. Ralph shared with me that someone with a lot of experience in stock trading within the Tradeway community said that you have to become numb to both winning and losing. Becoming numb to losing $300 and winning $200 is easier said than done. It takes a lot of patience. Ralph is only in year two and I’m just starting to grasp the main concepts that Ralph learned through Tradeway. These are solid, wise methods that they have curated. We constantly refer to what the coaches teach or recommend in the program before making trades. It has not been easy for Ralph to try to make money for his family at something so new. Add teaching me at the same time. I have a great deal of respect and appreciation for his patience with me and the time he has taken, and still takes, to answer my questions while we are looking at charts. Because he trusted me and believed that I was intelligent enough to grasp the concepts, he took another leap of faith in teaching me a completely new skill. Sometimes Ralph says to me while we are trading, “why didn’t you do this instead?” Apparently I picked up on it quickly, but that’s because he was such a great teacher. :) I always remind Ralph in those moments that neither one of us can do this well, alone. We make a great team. The banker needs the merchant and the merchant needs the banker, remember? (Photo credit belongs to Liam, our eleven year old) Ralph does not find stock trading fun. I could see very early on when I was sitting with him that it caused him great anxiety. This is because he has a banker mindset. He doesn’t like probabilities. He likes absolutes and there are none in stock trading. It has been almost four months since I started sitting with Ralph to learn this fascinating skill to make what traders like to call, the "easiest hardest money you'll ever make." As I have been understanding how it works and as Ralph works through it, I can see a great improvement in his anxiety. I bought him a fidget monster to tinker with while we are in the middle of trades instead of picking at his poor beard. Sometimes I have to push Ralph out of his comfort zone and it’s no different when we trade together. I force him to argue with me as to why a trade is a good one or why we shouldn't get into it. I have been able to help him enter more trades instead of just overanalyze them. He told me recently that he has been in more trades in the last four months than he was in the first year while he was trading alone. It was in the middle of all of this that my mom, sister, and niece came during the month of April to stay with us in our 997sqft house for 19 days. Imagine having little to no money coming in while your family is staying with you. You are trying to balance spending time with them, teaching/learning how to stock trade, write a book, and homeschool your kids, all while praying in front of them for God’s provisions because there is barely any money coming in. Sound crazy? Definitely, but I love my family and I don’t worry like most people. I have the gift of faith, remember? ;) It was during this visit in April that I wrote most of this update on my bathroom floor at 4:30am while the seven people in our home were fast asleep. I don’t want to get too far ahead of this moment in time because something I said was timely. This is what I wrote: “Doing well enough in stock trading, to be able to live off of it, is still yet to be seen. We never believed it was to be our only stream of income, but we had definitely hoped it would be providing more than it is now. In the end, God can provide in any way He sees fit. It’s in his timing and ultimately in his hands. The same goes for any person with a 9-5 job outside of the house. No job is secure. Anything can happen to change how a person can generate an income.” (Connor, our four year old snuggling with me on the floor in the bathroom shortly after waking up.) The deadline of May 1, 2024 has come and gone. We were still not to the point where our earnings could pay our mortgage, but our financial situation did improve some. Now four months into it, we are consistently earning more money than losing in our trades. We are not at the break even point that we were at when Ralph was doing it alone last year. I consider that to be great progress. For twenty years Ralph and I have HATED saying goodbye to each other. It took working separately all of these years to see that we work better together. We had no idea that our synergy could be for more than just marital compatibility. There is something special that happens when Ralph and I are together. The more we do together, the more I am confident in that. (Photo credit goes to Liam, our eleven year old.) We have called the last fifteen months our time of learning, not earning. We are continuing to sell just about everything that’s not being used, ridding our home and minds of so much clutter. I told Ralph we can sell the couch if need be. It’s just stuff. Liam, our oldest, said that we could sell his bed and that he would be more than happy to sleep on our bedroom floor every night. Ha! We are seeing more and more how so much of our money was spent on worthless things. We have coined the phrase, “the more stuff you have, the more that stuff manages you.” It is a first world issue to have to take so much time to manage stuff. We have been adamant about ridding our lives of as much of the stuff that consumes our time having to clean, store, or maintain. Our time is far too valuable and precious. (Photo courtesy of Connor, our four year old of Liam on our bedroom floor.) I keep saying to people that we have chosen this. We are not looking for anyone’s sympathy nor do we want it. We are trying to change the trajectory of our families life. It’s not a fast or easy process (and baffling for many). We have had food stamps suggested to us by some well meaning friends. After discussing it, we concluded that as much as food stamps would help ease our financial situation, in the end, we are still choosing this lifestyle. We are not incapable of going out and finding some other kind of work. We do not believe our situation has grounds for food stamps. I wish I could say in this writing that we’ve arrived. I’d love to say that we’re making enough money to pay for our mortgage and no longer relying on our savings account. Like I have written on this blog and to people who have been through hard times, God often waits to step in until it looks like all hope has been lost, so no one else gets the glory. On one hand I am in full faith expecting that. On another, I believe we both still have more to learn first. Ralph, more often than me, questions whether we are doing the right thing. In such a loud world and with so much going on, it’s hard to discern that. It is a skill that we have been trying to learn. In April, I signed Ralph and I up for a four week class at our church called, “Prophetic Training” to try and help with that. The titled scared me, but not enough to prevent me from wanting to understand more of what that meant. My curiosity was also peaked because Jeremy, the campus pastor told me many months ago that he thought that I had the gift of prophecy. (Taken during the class. I snuck the first photo of Ralph with one of his buddies, Kristopher. Second photo is with our friend, Abby, who I refer to in this writing) Before I lose some people (trust me, I get it), I will write out what I learned the first week. Prophecy is defined as: God’s act of communicating His heart to His people. The ministry of sharing impressions initiated by the Holy Spirit that call people up into their true identity in Christ. The gift of sharing an encouraging word from God. The timely message from God to a believer that results in their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort. This class has been great confirmation for me with how I already live. It has built my confidence in what I have believed was His voice, His words, His direction all throughout my life. I just didn’t have a name for it until now. If we are being honest, we have been reluctant to share with people what’s been going on, especially some of our close family and friends. We know that we are making many people nervous. Ralph said while reading this, "I even make myself nervous!" We are thankful for our missionary friends, the Hancock family, who live only a few minutes away from us. I have learned through our own journey that they have been in very similar financial situations as us. Praise God for his faithfulness in bringing them into our lives two years ago for such a time as this. They often nod their heads as they listen in full understanding of what we are going through. (Melissa also needs to write a book.) We have gone through so much change in the last two years. I told my friend Laura recently that for 15 years, I didn’t even have to think about it. I was a certified professional photographer and Ralph was a correctional officer. God has rattled our cages and awakened us to a point where we can’t ignore His voice and promptings. I am confident that one of His clear directions to me has been to complete this book. This is no small undertaking. I don’t want to rush the writing process, but I can’t be casual about it either. The supernatural push to get it done is real. I felt the exact same way about two years before we ever knew we would be moving to Florida. I remember telling Ralph that I couldn’t explain why, but I felt this push to keep working regularly on the house we were living in. Because of the diligent work we put into it, God blessed us beyond what we could’ve imagined when we sold it. (Just a few of the MANY projects we did at "The Rusty House," as we have been calling it since we first bought it seven years ago.) A couple of months ago, I was asking our friends privately for their prayers in my next steps with how to publish this book. God hadn’t made anything clear in that area yet. As I have been getting closer to completing it, the next steps are slowly coming into focus. Our prayer requests have shifted a little to the costs of publishing. How much it will be and how will God provide? That’s another unknown. Ralph and I have also been praying for months for God to start preparing people’s hearts to want to read it. We are asking for your prayers now, too! There are so many voices in this world. Many of them are loud and dangerous to the human soul, though they appear otherwise. I don’t love being another voice out there, but I can’t stay silent either when I see so much deception around me. My passion to encourage people to learn to hear from the only voice that matters, is greater than my desire to withdraw. Back in April, while working my way through 1 and 2 Corinthians, the verse “We live by faith, not by sight” jumped off of the page and into my heart.  I forgot all about this verse despite what Ralph and I have been going through these last two years. I am amazed over and over again at how God works through all things. It has felt at times that if Ralph and I make one wrong move, this whole way of life could go sour real fast. And yet, I have continued to have peace. Why? Because I know down to my core that God is sovereign. We have prayed for this. Long before we ever knew we would be moving to Florida, we said over and over in our prayers together, “we want what you want, not what we want. Give us wisdom. Help us to see, raise, and love our boys as you would. Make your voice the loudest in our lives.” Ralph and I don’t follow the mindset of “pursue your happiness.” It ultimately leaves you feeling empty. We don’t do the whole “follow your heart” either. It’s far too deceiving. We follow Jesus and the tried and true Word of God. We listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us because we chose to surrender our lives to Jesus over twenty years ago. Though it’s not always easy, this way of life has proven to be steadfast, fulfilling, and satisfying. (Photo credit belongs to Liam, our eleven year old) When you are living by faith in extreme ways like this, you baffle people. Though our faith journey is not nearly as crazy looking as Noah’s, we are content to be in such good company. We have chosen to take God for His word. He has proven throughout history that He can part the seas, heal the sick, provide enough oil to feed families, feed thousands with two fish and five loaves of bread. God has done countless miracles in our time, too. Will he choose to do anything with Ralph and I as he has done with others in the past? We can’t know unless we step out in faith, fully relying on His promises. We have been learning that often times, God doesn’t give clear timelines. He says what He will do and gives instructions to us in the meantime. Our job is to obey and wait. Noah, David as king, the coming messiah, and the 11 disciples waiting on the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended back into Heaven are some examples that I can think of off the top of my head. We’ve been waiting on the return of Jesus and have more and more signs of that promise being fulfilled sooner rather than later. We want to be living for Him in full surrender to His will till He returns. And if He doesn’t in our lifetime, we want to still be living for Him until our dying breath. We have good days and bad days just like everyone else on the planet. We know that trials will always come. We also know that we have chosen to be in this trial in order to bring forth refinement in our lives for the glory of God. Our family is learning gratitude and finding joy in simple pleasures. Our unity is beautiful. We are all closer today than we were fourteen months ago. The boys have a much better understanding of money. Out of everything, our family time in God's Word is our most cherished and protected. I say to our boys all the time that God is a God of order. Though we strived to have it for many years, there were so many interferences that made it much more challenging. No, we have not arrived in this department, but it has vastly improved. Together, we ask and thank God for His daily provisions, including our $1.75 earning in the stock market or $1.00 book sale from Ebay. In the midst of all of this, our mortgage and health insurance went up by hundreds of dollars. We're working on selling one of our vehicles to save money on maintenance and insurance costs. We continue to cut corners where we can by doing less driving and eating differently. We have become very creative with how we cook. We never ate out much to begin with, but none the less, that has just about completely stopped. Home is our favorite place to be. Though we still aren’t making nearly enough to cover our monthly expenses, we have agreed to still give from what we have earned. It’s yet another step of faith. As our friend, Abby, Jeremy’s wife said recently, “giving is the only thing in scripture that God says to test him on.” We are doing our very best to heed the wisdom of those God has used to speak into our lives. We are really trying to lean into what God is telling us to do as a family. We are constantly having to ignore the temptations that come from the enemy that says, “you can’t do this.” My response to Satan is this: Guess it’s a good thing we aren’t relying on ourselves. Philippians 4:13- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If you have been enjoying reading these or have found them encouraging in any way, please make sure you are subscribed to our blog! P.S. None of the links in this post are affiliates. ;)

This is a continuation of the blog post titled, "Continuous Faith: April 2024 Update.” To read that first, click here. Backtrack to about a month before we launched the online community in January so that I can give one of the reasons for why I was believing that God was telling me to push the pause button on it. One Sunday morning in December, Don Cousins, one of the lead pastors of our church was at our campus to share an announcement that I was asked to photograph. I sensed the Lord prompting me to talk to Don after the service about what was going on. We have spoken with him a couples of times before. He remembered us when we approached him. We briefly updated Don on our situation since we last spoke. He was encouraged by what we shared and with all that God had been doing. We told him that it seemed like we were at a crossroads again. Don looked right at me and said, “Write a book. Tell your story.” Don was not the first person to tell me to write a book. In the last five years, I have had many people suggest this very thing. There has always been good reason for why I hadn’t written one yet and my current reason was that I was in the middle of launching a brand new business. However, I had been sensing from God lately that the time was nearing. Don didn’t know this when he suggested to me that I write a book nor did I take the time to tell him. I also didn’t share with him a little secret that I was holding onto tightly. I had already started to write a book only a few weeks prior. I didn’t tell Don because I wasn’t confident that it was going anywhere. I couldn’t shake what Don said to me. He had never read anything I had ever written! It seemed evident to me that God was using him to tell me to take this book writing more seriously. It stuck with Ralph, too because in the car after church, he snickered and repeated Don’s three simple words. “Write a book. There’s another one telling you.” Writing has been something I have done naturally my whole life, but I had never viewed it as a gift or a way to earn money. Neither did Ralph. As I’ve shared in the past, it’s just one of the big ways that I process. I didn’t even think I was good at it. It surprises me every time someone compliments me on my writing. Other than Ralph, I had only told one of my closest friends, Melissa that I had started to write this book. I didn’t even believe that I would complete it. I have started things before and not finished them for various reasons. The only time that I was really taking to work on it was when we were driving for more than an hour, which was rare. Though we were so close to launching the online business, I didn’t question God’s timing when He began prompting me to start it. I just obeyed. I wasn’t going to worry about how He planned to work this out or IF He was even going to work it out. A few weeks after we spoke with Don, the online community was launched and for a couple of months we worked on building it up. As I shared in "Continuous Faith ", it seemed like God was saying to push the pause button on it almost immediately, but we didn’t want to be too quick to stop something that we just started. Finances were tight and this could help. Our campus pastor, Jeremy Schirle was also aware of what we had going on. We had spent time praying with him at church and regularly updating him. Having been in the corporate world prior and having some experience in marketing, Jeremy offered to meet with us and chat about it. In the meeting, he was insightful about how the two of us were wired. He complimented me on my ability to communicate well on camera and encouraged me to step into that more without feeling like Ralph needed to be in videos, if any. The funny thing to this was that our coach had told us the same thing. (Our four year old, Connor snuck this photo during our meeting.) Our meeting with Jeremy seemed to be confirming for us that something was still not quite right with how we were going about the business. A few tweaks and it could be successful. Yet, still, I couldn't put my finger on why it wasn't sitting right with me. We continued to pray. One of our closest friends and mentors from Buffalo, Curtis and Theresa Hoffman came to visit us for a couple of days. As always, both of them were extremely encouraging, offering their wisdom, ideas and insights. Again, as we would talk about this online community, it wasn’t sitting right with me, but I didn't know why. “What are we selling?” That’s the question we kept asking each other. We couldn’t seem to be able to fully answer that question for ourselves and others like the Hoffmans. After continued prayer and a couple of months of this feeling to not keep marketing for it, Ralph and I agreed to pull the online community ad off of our website. The additional website that the community was hosted on, where we had spent months designing, creating videos with slideshows, and PDF downloads was also paused. Since this was not the first time God had put a stop sign in front of us, we didn’t question it. Our coach was encouraging through this saying that pivoting is normal. It’s especially common in the world of entrepreneurship. This was a hard thing to do when we had just devoted so much time and energy into it. Plus, the savings account was continuing to dwindle faster than we could fill it. Ralph was basically breaking even in his stock trading. Though that is very impressive for only learning how to do it a year prior, we both expected him to be making more through it at that point. Almost exactly a year after Ralph came home, he was approached again by Jeremy who tells him about a job opening at the church. Jeremy was simply being obedient to what God asked him to do, but like us, didn’t know what God was doing through it. Ralph and I prayed about it and decided to give it some time for the idea to settle. Something like that was not on our radar. Meanwhile, our reserve money was dwindling. Ralph thought he had heard from the Lord for a couple of months to turn in all of our gold that we had purchased over the years, but he was very reluctant. I was a tad nervous about the idea, too. As the the time went on, Ralph and I were seeing that we were headed for some very rainy financial days. We were realizing more and more that some of the investments we had made as well as the food that we had stored up over the years were to be used for this exact time. The Lord was providing through the things we already had sitting in our home. Ralph was obedient and sold all of our gold on January 30. We let the boys hold the coins and explained to them the importance of what we were doing before it was all turned in. God only knows the significance of that moment as our kids watched their father live out his faith and release more things that he held onto tightly. Selling our gold would cover a handful more months of mortgage payments, which increased by $360/month during this time period. We had no idea how much more time we needed. We just knew we had to take this step of faith once again to find out. Though the word, “liberty” has significant meaning on a national level, it also strikes me on a personal level as I read the coin sitting in the palm of my hand. Would we be able to have our freedom for much longer to continue to do what we believed God was calling us to do? There was only one way to find out. (Click here to be notified when the next part is posted!)

(Photo taken by Connor, our four year old) Life rarely turns out as you so often might imagine. It can be hard to see initially why it made a hard left turn or an abrupt stop. When I am in the middle of a big change, I struggle with articulating with others about it. I need time to process. What I am about to share is different for me in the sense that it’s still fresh. I don’t feel as though I have much of a conclusion. I am not sure if God has revealed all that He wants to in this. And yet, He is saying to share… That being said, this is a continuation from our Faith Journey Series. To be updated, simply go to that link and read the previous post. :) In the beginning of February of this year, while my sister and niece were visiting for a few weeks (this is a DIFFERENT set of three weeks from the one I mentioned in "Continuous Faith || Part One."), we received word that the job position that Ralph's friend, Jeremy told him about at the church was open to apply for. We had to hide in our bedroom to have a hard conversation and pray about our situation and whether or not to apply for this job. The extra income would be helpful, but Ralph was still on the fence about it. He really wanted to make what we had going on work. We agreed that we had enough money saved to be able to try for two more months. We gave ourselves a deadline of the first of May. If things didn’t improve financially by then, we would reassess. In the same conversation about the job at church, Ralph was talking about his frustration and struggles with stock trading (he talks about this in his writing, "In The Wilderness". If you have not read it yet, go now! ;). I have a sudden thought. “Maybe I am supposed to be helping you stock trade, Ralph.” As we often do, we end our time in prayer. It is our way of releasing whatever the situation is to God. Immediately I sit next to Ralph to watch him stock trade. We can’t know if we should be doing this together unless we try. My sister and niece were around for the rest of the week so they were able to help some with the kids. At the same time, our close friends, the other Campbells from TN, are in Leesburg, Florida visiting family. We were able to spend the day with them, along with my sister and the Miller's from our Wild and Free group. We all went to Orlando Wetlands together and spotted over 30 gators, but our highlight was a big one very close to the trail (see photos below). Afterwards, they came over to our house for dinner and stayed until late in the night. Our time with them was edifying, merry, and encouraging. We always walk away closer to Jesus than we were before we saw each other. It doesn't get better than that in all of our opinions! It is never easy to say goodbye to these dear friends of ours, but thankfully we didn't have to say goodbye for long. This is because whenever they are in town, they attend The Fellowship Church which is pastored by a man named David Miller that we both knew. David was the family pastor at The Chapel in Buffalo, which was the church we both married in, met, and served at. Backtrack with me for a sec. When we first moved down to Florida in 2022, the other Campbell’s visited us almost immediately. We went to David Miller’s church in Leesburg together and had a fun little reunion with him after the service. Only a handful of weeks later, I met a woman named Sherry Yablonski in the Wild and Free group that I just started going to with the boys. I learned that Sherry had just moved to Leesburg. I immediately told her about David Miller and The Fellowship church in that area. Shortly after our convo, Sherry and her family started attending that church. I love how God works. :) Fast forward two years and now Sherry’s son and Liam have become buddies during our weekly Wild and Free hikes. Our family drives to Leesburg to meet Sherry’s husband, Tim, and to spend more time getting to know this family. We all click and continue to get together. So now, three months ago in February, when we hear that the other Campbell’s are coming to town, we know that we will be going to The Fellowship Church in Leesburg again. This year is different though because now the Yablonski’s attend and serve at the church. I have this fun idea to ask Sherry if she would be open to hosting a gathering after church with us, the other Campbell’s, Pastor David Miller, and his wife, Darlene. She delightfully agrees and so does everyone else despite the fact that it was on Super Bowl Sunday. It is amazing how God intersected our lives that day. We had the coolest conversations. I loved how the past was blending with the present in Leesburg, Florida. It felt surreal bringing up memories of our church in Buffalo, NY with the Campbells, who now live in Tennessee, the Miller’s who were now pastoring The Fellowship Church in Leesburg, Florida, and the Yablonski’s who were regularly attending The Fellowship Church (Were you able to follow that? I had a hard time trying to figure out how to write that out!). (left to right: David and Darlene Miller, Tim and Sherry Yablonski, myself and Ralph, Lauren and Ben Campbell) That wasn’t the only cool thing God was doing during that gathering and it’s the main reason for why I am bringing all of this up. Towards the end of our visit, Ralph and I shared with David what was going on in our lives. We gave him a brief summary of the last approximate two years. David then asked us if we had ever heard of the Core Values Index, to which we responded with, “No.” We learned that it was an online personality test that he uses for his staff members and volunteers at church. It’s used worldwide. According to one website, it is a groundbreaking evaluation that goes beyond personality and actions, uncovering the enduring forces that motivate people and delineate how they are innately designed to make a difference in the world. The test costs $50 to take, but David generously said that he would be happy to cover the cost for BOTH of us because he believed it would help direct us in our next steps. We were so grateful for how God was using David in such an intense time in our lives. Before he left the gathering at the Yablonski’s, David looked at his wife, Darlene, pointed to Ralph and said, “I bet he’s a banker and she’s a merchant.” We had no idea what that meant, but we were looking forward to finding out! We wasted no time the next day and took the test. David was right. Ralph was a banker and I was a merchant. We still didn’t understand what any of that meant yet though. We needed to inform David that we had completed the test before he could pay for them and give us access to the area where we would be able to learn more. The day after we took that test, I was sitting with Ralph again while he was stock trading. He was starting to teach me some of it. When we received word from David that we could read about our core values index results, we immediately signed in and started reading because we were so curious. (I snapped a photo of us reading about it that night) What I learned was that the core values index breaks personalities down into four types. There is the banker (knowledge), builder (power), merchant (love), and innovator (wisdom). My highest was merchant with innovator very close behind.  Stay with me while I share about some of this because it is preparing you to better understand what's later in this writing. I began laughing out loud as I read. I was laughing so much that our boys were coming into the bedroom asking me what was so funny. I had never read an assessment so accurate. “Your cornerstone core value is love. Building and sustaining relationships is central to your life's strategy. You are constantly working to know and understand the truth about yourself and others…You like to have a good sense of connection between what you are doing today and what you see in your future. You like discovering new possibilities, and you consistently watch for them.” “Choosing your words carefully works well for you…You like a new charge in your life and you like to be the charge in the lives of others. You like to trust people and to share yourself with them freely. You enjoy lots of different people and activities. Charm and enthusiasm are part of your arsenal for success…You have the ability to help people feel hopeful and courageous…It is important for you to see people and things as they really are.” (Liam, our eleven year old snapped this one as I was just standing there and he sitting on the bench. He has such a good eye!!) Ralph’s highest scores were banker (knowledge) and builder (power). He was being enlightened as to how he was hard wired. I read it, too and agreed with much of what it said about him. “Your cornerstone core value is knowledge, supported by your strong desire to create justice in the world…You like to follow a prescribed course, especially when you are involved with setting the course. Having the right information is important to you. You do what you say you will do. Facts and data are the foundation of your conclusions. Building protection against possible risk comes naturally. You work diligently to gather resources together and save them. You like steady, solid situations with limited change.” “Life is easier when people and things are reasonably similar. The reliability of your words and actions is critical to your sense of self-respect. Chaos is your enemy. People and situations should measure up to commitments. When things get messy, you may get testy. Once started, you don't give up easily. Knowing the past provides evidence for the future.” (Unplanned photos of Ralph are my favorite. I snagged this one while we were watching a family of armadillos in the woods) It made so much sense as we read! Many of our strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies were accurate. Why hadn’t we done something like this thing before? I was blown away. I loved how God had instructed David Miller to invest in us by paying for the core values index tests for us ONLY DAYS after I had suggested that I start to learn how to stock trade with Ralph. The timing was not coincidental. “Bankers (Ralph) get along quite well with innovators (myself) since innovators have a high level of regard and need for the information which bankers have.” Also, “Business leaders who are predominantly merchants tend to build well-diversified companies…Without a banker sitting on their shoulder to hold them back, they can be reckless. It also helps merchants (myself) to have some builder (Ralph) characteristics and some innovator (myself) problem solving and strategizing…” For so many years I believed that Ralph and I worked better together than apart. That we needed each other’s qualities to balance us out. Now I had this information to support what I already believed. “Once a banker (Ralph) is placed into a high-risk situation where resources are limited, his drive to get back into a secure position may cause the banker to rely more heavily on the merchants (myself), innovators (myself) or builders around him.” For anyone that read Ralph’s writing, “In the Wilderness,” this should also make total sense: “Bankers (Ralph) have the hardest time as entrepreneurs. This is because they are most effective in an environment that needs management of complex, effective systems, and that requires balance and information.” We are in an extremely unknown/risky time so that statement rings very true for how Ralph and I operate. We were SO grateful to David for seeing this need in our lives and filling it. I began saying to Ralph, “The banker needs the merchant and the merchant needs the banker.” It gave us a much better understanding of how we operate. We always knew each other's tendencies, but now we had names and supported research for it. The Core Value Index isn’t something that generates a direct income, but I believe it to be a tool in our arsenal of success that we have been lacking. This wasn’t the only enlightening thing for us. In addition to taking that test, and before we ever even knew it existed, we had been signed up to take a three week class at church about discovering your spiritual gifts. In fact, the first class was happening the week we were at The Fellowship church with David Miller. It was clear that God was still at work. It was Ralph who had listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to sign up for that class. Even though he was already serving in a fitting area, he wanted to gain some more insight into what God was trying to do because he was still struggling. I felt as though I was where I should be in leading worship, but I decided to take it too. I am always open to what God wants and not just what I prefer. And, I like to be with Ralph. :) (Our friend, and campus pastor, Jeremy Schirle) In the class there is a 161 question test that you take online to help you narrow down what your spiritual gifts are. These gifts, or spiritual super powers, are specifically given to people who possess the Holy Spirit through the salvation they obtained when they surrendered their lives to Jesus. Though Ralph and I have both been in a relationship with Jesus for at least twenty years, we have never taken the time to learn about these, nor have we really been given the opportunity. Our church (https://discoverychurch.org/) offers this class a few times a year as they see the importance in helping followers of Jesus know how God equipped them. They then help by guiding them in an area of service that is most effective within the body of Christ, but also immensely fulfilling for the person. Ralph’s highest scores were craftmanship, helps, and discernment. I scored on a bunch, which I’ll explain shortly. As I read more about each of the things we scored high in, it made total sense. I’ll briefly explain what the book we used, “Network Participants Guide” by Bruce Bugbee and Don Cousins said about each of them because, again they tie into some future things in this writing. Plus, if it can help encourage those reading this to figure out theirs, I would be overjoyed! Ralph’s highest was “craftmanship.” People with this gift can “make things that increase the effectiveness of others’ ministries, enjoy serving with their hands to meet tangible needs, work with different kinds of tools and are skilled with their hands.” They are creative, handy, resourceful, practical, behind the scenes, and helpful.” This is definitely Ralph. Ralph’s second highest was “helps.” People with this gift “serve behind the scenes wherever needed to support the gifts and ministries of others, seek the tangible and practical things to be done and enjoy doing them, sense God’s purpose and pleasure in meeting everyday responsibilities” and “enjoy knowing that they are freeing up others to do what God has called them to do.” They are available, willing, helpful, reliable, loyal, dependable, and have a whatever it takes attitude. Again, SPOT ON with my man!! My highest score was a tie between hospitality and faith. People with the gift of hospitality “provide an environment where people feel valued and cared for.” They are friendly, gracious, inviting, trusting, caring, responsive, and warm. This made total sense to me between the intensely strong conviction that I have to homeschool our boys and what other people have said to us over the years after they come over to visit. Prior to this class, I did NOT know that faith was a spiritual gift. I thought it was just automatic. People with the gift of faith go above and beyond the typical amount of faith that most believers have. When I read it’s description, I was shocked by it’s accuracy. In the book it said, “The gift of faith is the divine enablement to act on God’s promises with confidence and unwavering belief in God’s ability to fulfill his purposes (bold mine)." People with this gift “believe the promises of God and inspire others to do the same, act in complete confidence of God’s ability to overcome obstacles, demonstrate an attitude of trust in God’s will and his promises,” and they “ask God for what is needed and trust him for his provision.” People of faith are prayerful, optimistic, trusting, assured, positive, inspiring, and hopeful. I also had two others that tied and scored only one point under faith and hospitality. Those were creative communication and word of knowledge. People with the gift of creative communication “have the divine enablement to communicate God’s truth through a variety of art forms.” They “develop and use artistic skills such as drama, writing, art, music, etc.” They “use variety and creativity to captivate people and cause them to consider Christ’s message.” They are expressive, imaginative, idea-oriented, artistic, creative, unconventional, and sensitive. This one was of no surprise to me. I LIVE to share Christ through anything I produce. I'll spare you the rest of what we learned since it doesn't directly tie into this writing. ;) These spiritual gifts can shift some depending on life circumstances and your spiritual growth. You may grow in one more than another. Other times you might not even realize you have one because you have a misunderstanding of what it is, such as prophecy or healing. What a gift (no pun intended) to better understand how God wired us in order to help us better live into his purposes for our lives. In typical God fashion, the timing of all of this was perfect. With all of that newfound information we learned about ourselves, our compatibility, and confirmations, Ralph decided to apply for the job at church that was still available. He now had a better idea for how he was wired and could see how this job could be fitting for him. We didn’t know or even care how much it paid. We wanted to remain open to whatever God wanted for us. We needed to see if God would shut the door on this job. We couldn’t know that unless Ralph applied for it. Even though we both had loved Ralph being home and wanted to maintain that, we agreed that the steady income would be helpful. While we waited to hear from someone at the church, we continued trekking forward with what we already had going on. Ralph continued teaching me how to stock trade. Not long into this, something that I had been working on quietly and infrequently, began to move to the forefront of my mind. I knew what I needed to do... Link to Part Two: https://www.simplycampbell.com/post/learning-more-than-earning-part-two If you have been enjoying reading these or have found them encouraging in any way, please make sure you are subscribed to our blog! P.S. None of the links in this post are affiliates. ;)