Good Things Come: April

April has been a quite a month. We said goodbye to Brian’s grandfather and welcomed a new nephew (Brian’s sister Teresa had a baby) within a few hours of each other. True sadness combined with joy all at the same time. I watched as Brian served as a pallbearer for his grandfather, a man he deeply admired. As saddening as the occasion was, what a blessing that Brian has been able to have his grandfather as a part of his life for so long. A few short weeks later, Brian and I had to make the difficult decision to say goodbye to our sweet dog, Harlee. He’s been our constant for so very long. We rescued him in October of 2001. He’s moved with us 6 times, traveled to the beach, swam in the ocean, multiple lakes, floated the Guadalupe, Comal and Frio rivers. Harlee was our baby before we had our babies. As much as we wanted to keep him with us longer, it would not have been fair to him. Explaining things to a 4.5 year old was not easy, and she doesn’t completely understand. During prayers recently, I was going through our usual gamut and I said, “Harlee.” Kennedy started crying. Then she said, “Jesus wanted a dog. That’s why he adopted Harlee?” Are we going to get to see Harlee again?” I explained that he isn’t hurting anymore, and he doesn’t have trouble walking. He is watching over us and protecting us. One day we will get to see him and play with him again.

On a brighter side of things, we had a Grand Opening Celebration for our brewery this month! Family, friends and about 400 East Texans came out to celebrate with us! It was a HUGE success! This would not have been possible if it were not for our many wonderful volunteers who gave their time to help make sure things ran smoothly. Of course we have stayed very busy with the brewery, and happily we have hired our first full time employee! We have another employee who began the beginning of May. Much of our hiring boom is owed in part to the community of Tyler for their support since we opened our doors, and also in part to an EDP-Plus Grant we just received.