2016 - Where we are and where we plan to be

      This past 2015 was a year a accusation and foundation building for the vision we still strive for through Chrysalis.  As we closed the year down we reflected on efforts and began planning the new year ahead of us.  2015 was a transitional year for all of us.  We spent the year settling into Phase 1 of our hope and took the first steps into Phase 2.  Building the N2 Publishing business and gathering resources has been the priority for us and although behind on our goals we find peace in where we have found ourselves.  Both magazines are doing well and we have acquired all we need to move forward efficiently in both the magazines and Staci's new start-up.

  
      That said we have added a second business to Phase 2 of our hope.  As a reminder Phase 2 is capital raising to manifest the funds needed to start Chrysalis.  However, serving women will always be our ultimate goal and the priority of each phase of the plan.  This is why Staci has begun to serve women during birth again!  She has been blessed to assist women on 2 births thus far in 2016 and started building new midwifery relationships here in the area.  She has come alive in this new season and I for one can't help but smile when I see her in the midst of this new phase of our lives.  This new business will help us fulfill our outreach hope as well as support the capital raising goals.  We can't be more excited about it!  If you know of a women in the Northeast Ohio Area looking to partner with a midwife for the birth of her baby please give Staci a call at 541-517-4150 or email her at midwifemommy@gmail.com

       The kidos are more than awesome and seem to embrace the chaos two working businesses can create.  We are doing our best to keep them first and one great way we have committed to this is our family's new found love of climbing!  In Cleveland's crazy winters it's been nice to find an indoor activity to get us out of the house and focused on overcoming fear.  Check out one of our little monkies, Niah age 8!

        As Staci and I work towards the vision we have committed our lives to, we hope 2016 can be a year of amplifying Phase 2 of our plan.   That said, we have begun to discuss the final location and cannot avoid the stirring to move out of the Greater Cleveland area. With a farm at the center of this hope we want to ensure we are in a place raising food can be most efficient. This means we must consider out of state and country options.  We are focus on Cleveland for the next 18 months but Cleveland does not seem to be a place we can find encouragement or support for this hope.  Although we see a glimpse of sustainable lifestyle choices here, we find it to be more...as our sister-in-law put it best...hype.  Here ideas like organic, holistic, local, sustainable, craft and renew are more marketing concepts that can help businesses step into the current economic demands than true transformations of thinking and lifestyle.  We hope to find a place where, although most likely a minority, many like-minded individuals support one another for the real reason...needed change.  We do not think we will settle anywhere until this environment can be felt by all those who want to spend the rest of their lives in the midst of this hope of serving women while crating a sustainable economy for all involved!