While I'm a gal that enjoys everything that each season has to offer, the fresh produce from our garden makes summer at the top of the list.

I never thought I would be this girl. Maybe I dreamed it, but growing up in a tightly packed suburb of Baltimore City, Maryland, I just never gave "country living" much thought. Maybe I didn't even really know what that term meant. I grew up in a neighborhood that was very crowded but it didn't feel that way to me, as a kid. That was what I knew. I could look out of my bedroom window and see into the living room of the house next door. I could probably read their lips and see what they were eating if I had tried to, but I kept those blinds shut! That's just to give a picture of how close the houses were. 

I loved it! I had friends on every street and I was free to roam the city from a pretty young age. I didn't know people who farmed or grew their own produce. I have memories of seeing farms when I would visit an aunt in a neighboring county. It looked foreign to me or perhaps even a novelty. 

However, I LOVED it. I loved horses and wide open spaces. When Dixie Chicks first released, "Wide Open Spaces", I knew that song was meant for me. I even had all of my hair chopped off just like the lead singer, Natalie. I craved wide open spaces. I had lived in a neighborhood my entire life where people were around and about constantly, either walking, in vehicles or in their yards just a few feet away. 

The grass is greener on the other side, perhaps? I knew city life well. It's a part of me and it definitely has helped to develop who I am today. My childhood was so amazing and I really wouldn't change a thing about it because it's filled with every nostalgic memory I could ever want. 

God sometimes gives us the desires of our hearts, before we even truly realize the desire is present. He knows us that well. When I met my husband, he had grown up on a vegetable farm, just 12 minutes from my house. His parents had a nice piece of property, nestled amongst the hustle and bustle of the town, tucked away out of sight. Growing vegetables is what he had always known. 

Fast forward over 20 years and we are now tucked away out of sight in North Carolina with our own little piece of property and our own little (ever-growing) farm. 

If you would have asked 12-year-old me if I would have this life when I'm 40, I would have thought it seemed like a fairytale. I would never have imagined that we would grow our own produce and enjoy wide open spaces. 

Yet, here we are. God knew the desire in my heart before I did. He fulfilled a dream within me that began the day I met my husband and has been building ever since. 

Following God's lead in your life isn't always easy and sometimes it doesn't seem to make sense in the moment. As I look out into my flourishing garden, I am reminded that every bloom starts as a seed. It blooms where it is planted and so have I.