Restaurant number two opens in just a few days! Wooohooo! We are so humbled by God to be right where He wants us to be, using our gifts to serve our family, community, local church and beyond, but goodness it has taken a lot for us to get here! Tons of tears! Tons of therapy! Tons of mentoring sessions with people who poured into us when we had no clue if we were coming or going! There were some hard days! Some unemployment days! Some financial despair days, but FINALLY YALL! We are days away from opening our 2nd restaurant! WOW! My husband, our partners, and our amazing team and your prayers have made this possible, with God, and we could not be more thrilled about what God has done through Eggs Up Grill Killian and Eggs Up Grill Camden! But let’s back up a bit! Let’s chat about how we got here!

So my husband and I met in the restaurant industry about 14 years ago! I was a senior in college, he was a restaurant General Manager. I was a struggling college student/aspiring actress, and he was this serious business guy, super responsible and solid. I worked 3 jobs to pay my way through school, while he was making almost 6 figures (although I had no idea at the time what he made nor did I care). We were just so different. We came from different worlds. I came from no money, single family home, and mainly in the South. He came from the North, a bit more money, two parent family most of his years. But somehow God brought us together.

After about 3 months of dating, I got pregnant with our daughter. Michaela. I wasn’t living for God, he was agnostic, and we were just having fun! We barely knew each other, let alone wanted a future together! But really quickly, we were joined together by this amazing gift, so we decided that because of her, we were going to be together. We didn’t necessarily want each other, BUT we knew we didn’t want a broken family. So we fought for our family because of our baby girl, Michaela.

When Michaela was a few months old, Nate got a promotion to move to South Carolina! It was a huge promotion, and he would be overseeing 10 restaurants at 27 years old! It was such a huge accomplishment and something he had worked so hard for! So he came to me with a brand new car (no ring), and asked if I’d be willing to forego school to move with him to South Carolina. I was so close to graduating, BUT I felt I really wanted to give our family a shot! So I did! We moved to Columbia SC June 2008, and it was so rocky! We had never lived together, and now I was in this new place without family and friends. Nate’s job took him to different parts of the state all throughout the week, and so it was very difficult to connect and be a family. I wanted out, and ran home to my mom in North Carolina many times. Each time, Nate came and got me. He was always this steady, loyal, willing to fight when I just wanted to run and flee. I just wanted out because our relationship sucked, and we did not know how to love or respect each other. He traveled. I stayed at home and felt so isolated and alone with a new baby. When he came home, the focus was on our daughter so we really didn’t do life together. We were just doing it for our daughter, and that was not enough! But God! But God had such a redemptive plan for our lives and we had no idea that our life was about to change forever! That God was going to use our brokenness, our “mistakes”, our hardships to help so many people! We had no idea that years later, we would open our own restaurant, Eggs Up Grill (Killian), and a year later, open our 2nd Eggs Up Grill (Camden)! It all sounds crazy if you ask me and saw our crazy beginning! But God!

So how do you find hope in the hardships? Hope during job loss, marriage problems, infertility, financial despair? How do you find hope in the darkness when all signs point to divorce or all signs point to the situation NOT working out in your favor? The first key is pray and fast like your life depends on it because it DOES! When the enemy came to destroy us, we prayed and we fasted! And goodness, I’ve prayed and fasted every month for the last 3 years. So if you’re in a point in your life where you are desperate to see God move, I would absolutely encourage you to PRAY and FAST and press into what God has for you! Do not allow the enemy to win! You have come to far to give up now! Your breakthrough is coming friend! Do not quit! God has a great plan for your life!

Come back in a few days, where I will be sharing Part 2 of our journey to Eggs Up Grill!

Until next time friends,

Shelly