The Heirloom Podcast: A Framily Meeting
This week’s episode of The Heirloom Podcast is a “Framily” Meeting. Ben and Erin, Jim and Mallorie, and Emily and I sit down together to talk about Episode 4 of HGTV’s Inn This Together and reflect on the series as a whole.
It’s good to have friends stand beside you in unexpected times.
While our friends and closest supporters have known about the fire at The Heirloom for months, this past week the rest of the world watched a very unexpected ending. It wasn’t until people watched the show that they could really see just how much heart, sweat, and tears our team poured into this project.
We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the support, both near and far. We have learned that your closest friends help carry you, but that words from strangers, fitly spoken, can be like apples of gold in a setting of silver (Proverbs 25:11).
We really do live in a good world full of good people who care about their neighbors. It has made us excited about the future and reminded us that Laurel, Mississippi is not the only good little town in this world.
We worked so hard on that building. Once it was finished, I expected it to be the monument to our efforts.
But that hasn’t happened.
In one sense, the television show has become that monument. And I don’t mean the episodes themselves. I mean the people who watched them.
People like you.
People who tune in to see old things made new. People who celebrate little things and little towns. People who care enough to write a note, make a phone call, say a prayer, or encourage a stranger.
We cannot thank you enough for helping us carry this heavy load.
I couldn’t finish this article without thanking the show runner, Angie Tarrant, RTR Media, and HGTV for honoring my mother and telling my adoption story so beautifully.
One unexpected result of sharing that story is that it connected us with people we may never meet. The note below arrived this week.
“Episode 4 was special to my husband and me. As I have just ended my teaching career and we take a leap of faith into foster care, there’s a bit of uncertainty regarding finances, but we are trusting that God, who called us to it, will provide.
I have been praying for God to continue to show us that we are doing the right thing by putting our comforts aside for the calling to become foster parents. An hour after praying for His reassurance, a neighbor brought us four trash bags full of kids’ clothes!
Then, tonight, we watched Episode 4, and during Josh’s story I had to pause it multiple times just to cry and thank God for His reassurance.”
If this story encourages another family to open their home to a foster child, that would be a far greater monument than any building we could ever construct.
Keep building, friends.
Josh
