The Crawfords: June 2011

So much has happened since my last post! Brandon had a great 6 months in Clifton as an independent contractor at Bosque Valley Chiropractic with Dr. Bergren and we even had the opportunity to purchase the other chiro office in Clifton, but as the last minute the owner backed out. We were pretty bummed, but at that moment I told Brandon what I had been holding in for the past months...that I really didn't feel like Clifton was going to be our home for forever. Let me back up and say, we moved to Clifton after Brandon was told by the company he was working for in Dallas that they would be transferring him to work with Neuro surgeons, but that he wouldn't be able to adjust. Keep in mind that this was when I was 37 weeks pregnant. Stress is not a good thing when you are trying to make progress and have a baby! We prayed about it and knew that we were not supposed to stay and work in Clifton. Dr. Bergren was more than generous to let Brandon work out his office on the days/hours he was not there. When the purchase of the other office didn't work out we had a decision to make. We could either use the money that we had to build our Clifton office, or we could use it as a down payment to purchase our dream practice. We decided that a practice in Clifton, a town that already had 2 established Chiropractors, could most likely only grow so much. We felt like we needed to look at Motion Chiropractic in Austin. So, on January 14, all 3 of us headed down to Austin to take a look at the office. We had prayed about it and asked the Lord to make it clear if this was what he wanted for us. It was a rainy, cold day but after looking at Motion Chiropractic and meeting the owners, who were just a bright and cheerful as the office, we really felt this was the practice for us. Not only is the practice very successful, the doctors had the same philosophy on health and Chiropractic as we do. To top things off, we would be able to live on the 2nd and 3rd floor above the office! Little did we know that it would take 6 months to secure financing. The last 6 months have been a roller coaster of valleys and peaks, to say the least. Not only were we trying to purchase a new business, but we were also living with family, and raising a sweet baby boy. We were so blessed to have family to live with during our time of transition, it took many burdens away that we would have added to the stress that we were dealing with. It is hard enough to try and purchase a house these days, but to purchase a business, with all the lovely government SBA guidelines ,it is almost impossible. This is especially true when you have the student debt from Chiropractic school and only half a year of experience practicing. In the beginning, our broker said, if we were able to pull this off, we would be the first in 10 years, that had not been out of school for over 2 years, to get this large of a loan. I guess my wonderfully, stubborn husband took this as a challenge and we went in head first. A lot happened that is just too much to go into, but long story short...we found a bank in California that would work with docs that have been out of school for less than 2 years and have less than the usually recommended $100,000 to put down. How in the world is the average American supposed to be able to open a business, and have the drive to do so, but wait! You must know someone or just happen to have that kind of money lying around. Brandon sent the packet of around 100 pages to Cali and we waited. Unfortunately it seemed like every time we had to wait around on underwriting, it was a 3 day weekend. We were getting pretty discouraged. A few Sundays ago at church, I was holding Nolan while he slept, so Brandon went down to get some prayed with. He told the guy at the front we were having a hard time knowing if this is what God wanted for us and were not sure what we were supposed to do. The guy prayed for him and also prayed that God would give him a dream to let us know what we were supposed to do. Brandon told me they guy prayed for him, but didn't include the part about the dream. A few days later, I had the dream. I dreamt that Brandon had came home for lunch and as he washed his hands told me that we got the loan. God didn't want to give Brandon the dream, because that could just be an opportunity for us to think Brandon had thought about it so much and made himself have the dream. The dream gave us comfort over the next few days until we got he call from the banker and they told us the bank would be moving forward on the loan. We were so happy. We thought the hard part was over, but it wasn't. What was supposed to take 30 days has ended up taking 45. Around day 30 we moved to Austin and have been waiting and working out all the last minute details so that the loan would close. Yesterday we went downtown to our lawyers office and signed the closing papers This afternoon around 3 o'clock the money was drafted and the practice became ours! We are so thankful to everyone who has made this possible for us! Brandon has been working so hard and it is hard to believe it is finally ours! Many times during this journey we have stopped and thought, are we fighting too hard for this? Is this what the Lord wants? For us, the Lord has always been pretty clear with his plans. We always thought it it is something he wants for us, then he will make it easy. Well, with the we were wrong. He has showed us many things and has opened our eyes to all that He can do. We have learned that He is in control and it took us having almost nothing for us to learn that. We would lay in bed at night, cuddling with our little Nolan and remind ourselves that this is all we need and the Lord will always provide. I promise to start blogging more, but I have had to keep this all to myself because we didn't want everyone to know we were trying to purchase another practice, until it closed. Many posts and pictures about our sweet little one will follow! He is getting so big!!