Hi, my family and I are restoring a 100 year old schoolhouse into our family’s dream tiny home and building our homestead on land that’s been in my family for 25+ years. It’s been a long-time dream to go small, living minimally and focused on nature and connection. We are raising our children to be full of wonder, to be wild in nature and to experience the Glory of the Lord in their everyday. We started on this journey nearly a year ago when we found our abandoned schoolhouse waiting to gain new purpose and, pun fully intended, teach new lessons! Cheesy as it may sound, it’s been the foundational truth of this entire journey. We've had so much support and encouragement from our community it’s seemed silly to focus on any negative but I’ve had enough dealing with people who have actively, outwardly and boldly shamed, ridiculed, cussed, attacked, and made arrangements and attempts to block what my family is doing on our own land. It is unfortunate that we have faced several trials throughout this journey caused by neighboring property owners who are giving pushback on our family’s dream to build and continue to strengthen our family’s farm and homestead. From verbal harassment, me being led to call the police at 8.5 months pregnant from being barricaded out from accessing our home and Parker being charged on, mocked, talked down to and harassed— I’m just done. We’ve been full-time at the schoolhouse for a little while now and have been working tirelessly on this dream one DIY project at a time, while also raising small children and giving them a sense of structure and normalcy again. Our current project coincidentally is our bathroom! It’s the last non-functioning part of our home aside from cosmetic finishings like trim, paint, decor and actually moving in our belongings and sentimental and collected pieces to fully make this HOME. This mama is beyond exhausted from toting the kids to shower, bathe, and potty everyday, so the bathroom (along with a few gardening detours) has been our main focus. We had the incredible opportunity to work with a compost toilet company that aligns with our goals and values with this homestead and were due to complete the restroom portion of the project in April. We never really had intentions, interest or funds set aside for traditional septic. With all that being said, our neighbors, who have had their nose, their lawyers, their eyes and their ears on everything we’ve been building, have now taken another step to try and disrupt our build and set road blocks in an attempt to see this fail. They have falsely reported us to the county officials, and we have now been cited and have a 30 day deadline to complete from start to finish the full installation of a septic system. Our compost toilet is unfortunately not on the approved state list of systems (TCEQ) so we are unable to uphold our commitment to a collaborative opportunity. Along with that, we are required to hire a professional installer and have it inspected and checked off on by the county in 30 days. If we are unable to do so, they are already in conjunction with the environmental crimes unit and we will be fined daily until completed. We have spoken with the officer in charge of our case, and he’s doing his best to work with us, as he supports our vision and dream for the homestead we’re making for our family. It’s disheartening that false reports were made on our behalf (there can’t be an odor when we don’t have a toilet installed), but we know their goal and angle as it’s been told directly to our face- “we don’t want you here” and they have proven yet again that they will stop at nothing to disturb and disrupt what our family is proudly pursuing. We believe the Lord will make a way! We’ve had so many people asking us to start a Go Fund Me to support our Homestead dreams and our schoolhouse restoration! So here we are! Honestly and humbly saying we don’t have the means to come up with this unexpected and costly resolution. Whatever happens, we trust the Lord and we believe in this dream for our family and are so grateful for your support and prayers for us as we navigate this! We don’t know what the future will hold, but we do know that God gets all of the Glory for whatever happens and our family will still trust him! Thank you for praying with us, believing with us and dreaming with us!