Kenny's career goals have always been to own his own Veterinary Practice. He felt like that where he was in his career, that he was now ready to take that next step. We prayed very hard about this big decision and always asked that we would be led in the right direction.
Kenny grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado and has a great love for it. He had a very good childhood. He grew up having amazing church friends, being able to hike on the Colorado National Monument, and to raft in the Colorado river. Every time we came back to visit his parents he would be giddy like a kid in a candy shop! He has always dreamed about moving back and raising our kids there too. Plus, Grand Junction is much closer to all of our family. We can now jump in our car and go for long weekend trips, which was the hardest part about living in California.
He always kept his ears open about Veterinary practices for sale in Grand Junction. We decided to really start looking there seriously. The journey we went on to purchase a practice was a whirl wind of emotions and stress! When we were visiting family last summer, we went and looked at All Pets Center. We went to dessert with the owners the Heidemans and were impressed with their business, but weren't sure at that point if we were ready to leave California. Then last Christmas Kenny started corresponding with an older Dr. who was ready and willing to sell his practice in Grand Junction. We had a lawyer drawing up papers and had talked with banks about a loan, and then his wife talked him out of it and we were left thinking maybe this wasn't meant to be. Kenny was frustrated with how things worked out, so he started thinking of just starting his own practice. We knew this was a riskier business venture, but a location was decided on, and we were again able to get a loan. However, the landlord who we were working with didn't respond for several months to the terms we had requested. Kenny however kept thinking this is going to happen, so I had already found a great family, the Griffin's, to rent our house! We were just waiting to sign the papers and to start construction. We prayed and prayed and felt comfort from going to the Temple and we both felt like we were supposed to move our family to Grand Junction. We relied on faith as we started packing up our house, not knowing if Kenny was going to be able to start his own practice. One morning he felt inspired to call the Heidemans and see if they had sold All Pets Center yet. As we waited to hear from the landlord, he contacted them and we were surprised to hear that they had yet not sold it. My "perfect" and supportive accountant father and our trusting lawyer spent hours going over paper work about All Pets Center and they both agreed that this was a successful practice, but that they were asking too much $ for it. We decided to make an offer that we believed was fair based on their numbers. At this point our stuff was being moved to a storage unit for the Griffins to move in!!! We negotiated with them back and forth for weeks. We moved out of our house and prepared for my family reunion, and then made plans for me and the kids to go to Grand Junction to live with his parents so the kids could start school. We didn't even know if this was going to happen, but we felt like this was the practice we were meant to buy, and we felt so good about it. We left our house, put all of our belongings in a storage unit, and went to Branson, Missouri to vacation with my family. I will not forget being in the amusement park, Silver Dollar City, playing in the Tom Sawyers river when we received an email saying the Heidemans accepted our offer!!! My fathers advice was right on the money and he helped us out so tremendously in being able to purchase this practice for a fair amount. We will forever be grateful for his love, support, and time he spent on this. The same day we knew we were able to purchase All Pets, the landlord contacted us and said they agreed to all our requests for starting our own practice. He had left us hanging for so many months, so by this time we heard from him, we felt much better about All Pets Center option. Our prayers had been answered on the Lord's timetable not ours! We feel like this practice made the most sense.
It was also at this time, during our process of figuring out what business path we were going to take, that our boss in California's son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. With Kenny not leaving California, when we had wanted to, he was able to stay and work for another month and be there at Banning Vet, while his boss was concentrating on his son. The Lord has a plan for all of us. We are reminded to be patient and to pray knowing that the Lord answers our prayers and feels the desires of our heart.
Its been amazing how quickly everything came together. We were worried our family would be separated for several months, however they should be able to get the paperwork all done in 3 weeks! The Heidemans have been a dream to work with and we are so grateful to them for allowing us to buy their Veterinary Practice.
So a lot of our summer we were busy PACKING!!!
Drew and Ian did the lifting and Owen and Mya did the climbing!
They quickly made a fort out of the new empty space.
The never ending boxes....
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| Our house was filled to the ceiling with boxes! I didn't realize how much stuff we accumulated over the last 9 years! |
It took several trips to haul all of our belongings to the storage unit!
Grateful for strong boys!
The moving Crew!!!
Our storage unit was packed to the brim!
Colorado Here We Come!!!
1 comment:
congrats congrats congrats! Colorado will be happy to have your family here!!! what an adventure -- moving always is! I loved reading about your leap of faith. So happy for you and am really hoping that you might want to take a long weekend over to our neck of the woods.
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