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Charlotte Ashley

My journey to Diamond Bound 4.0

Essential Oils· Wellness

29 Sep

Jordan Schrandt is a name I’ve come to admire over the past 2 years. She is the daughter to a Missouri ag teacher, and has a background herself in Agricultural Communications. So naturally with my ag teacher background, this captured my attention fast! Her story is soooo inspiring, and quite frankly, a tear-jerker. She is a successful business woman (multiple businesses; check out The Farmhouse Movement) and mother to 8 children, 5 of which she adopted through her marriage to a widower, who lost his first wife to cancer, when their youngest was only 3 months old. Now, for about a year I have been hearing of an event called Diamond Bound. I looked into it and LO AND BEHOLD, Jordan is the brains behind this event too! Amazing woman I tell ya!

I desired to go so bad. But I couldn’t justify it because it would be too much of an investment at this point in my business journey with Young Living (what I kept telling myself). Also, am I even on a journey? Can I even claim this? OH the thoughts that cloud my head, on the daily. This business has sort of just captured me and pulled me along with it, and is developing into something I never imagined! Only by the grace of God! I give it all to Him!

So back to Diamond Bound… while the desire was strong to attend, I kept talking myself out of it. After all, it is in a big city (Chicago) and cities scare me a little. lol AND I would have to fly on a plane (also scary a little bit). But I have some amazing ladies in my life that kept routing for me! Telling me over and over how much they would LOVE it if I were there with them! Tagging me when they would see a ticket for sale. Tagging me when someone was raffling off a ticket to the event. ANYTHING, to help me make the trip to Chicago! So, I entered said raffle two weeks ago. But the odds were REALLY stacked against me, as so many thousands of other people were entering as well. But I told one of the gals, “I will be in Chicago IF I win that ticket.” So I prayed to God for guidance and for a sign of whether or not I should go. I (notice that little ‘I’) decided, if I won the ticket, I would go and if not, that was my sign. Ha! That’s not too much to ask, right?! Well, I didn’t win. So, boom! Just like that, it was settled. Case closed. Not going to Chicago.

Two weeks passed, I had accepted that I would just be stalking my friends’ social media all weekend, to try and sneak a peek at the awesomeness that I was sure would unfold. The #FOMO was strong with me; but, I was content. Well… Thursday, as I returned home from running errands, I noticed a text message had come through from an unknown number. I opened it and immediately began BAWLING my eyes out at what I had just read from a total STRANGER:

Photo Sep 27, 3 39 29 PM

I had asked God, that if it was my time to go, let me win that ticket from earlier. I didn’t win it, but I WAS BEING BLESSED WITH A FREE TICKET NOW! And in HIS timing; not mine. Ugh. He continues to show me who is boss. LOL!!! So… being that I had already researched plane tickets and had one ready to snag if I had won that ticket 2 weeks ago, I double checked with Nicki that this was in fact reality. She confirmed it 100%, and that I just needed to make my way to Chicago! I immediately ran inside and bought the plane ticket! (previously had discussed all of this with hubby and stuff, too. 😉 lol)

Now Saturday, I have had all the emotions flooding my head. Causing doubt to arise. Did I act too fast? Was that reeeeally a sign? Am I being selfish to my family? ALL THE GUILT. I couldn’t take it; it was wearing me down. I just needed to stop, be STILL, and PRAY (something I’m working on HARD here lately– praying about everything!) So as I wrestled with God about all my guilts, I opened the Dove chocolate I had snatched on my way to my seat, popped it in my mouth and looked down at the ‘promise’ written on the wrapper. Y’ALL. Oh. My. Goshhhhh. Look at this: (all while I was diffusing Peace and Calming. lol!!!)

Photo Sep 29, 7 05 29 PM (1)

Twice now, I’ve been smacked over the head with a sign from the good Lord above. So, I’m excited to say, I’ll be headed to Chicago soon, to dig deeper into the world of essential oils. I’m officially claiming that I am in fact building a business with Young Living, by educating so many about wellness; because it’s a journey. And I want everyone to be a part of the generational change that is happening!!! There is SO much to learn and I can’t WAIT!!! I still can’t believe this is happening. Feel free to follow my adventures all weekend over on my Instagram stories (@charlotteashley). I am ecstatic to continue this journey and see where the Lord leads it! If you would like to also join this amazing community too (turns out, Nicki is a part of my oily community!), we would LOVE to have you alongside us! It would be SUCH a pleasure to walk with you!

And for those of you wondering about my photography business, I’m still photographing when I can, under other photographers, but after two years of wrestling with what to do, God has slowly closed the door on that season of my life. That doesn’t mean the door won’t re-open in the future, but for this season, the doors of Charlotte Ashley Photography have been closed. But not locked! 😉 And please don’t worry… I know I have a few sessions still up and coming; you have already booked, so you are good to go!

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Meet Charlotte!

Hey, hey friend! :) I'm so glad you're here! God gives me all the strength to navigate this crazy, beautiful life of mine; and this is my attempt to keep it somewhat documented and organized! My family and I believe we are called to be stewards of the land and try our hardest to live a biblically-based, holistic life. You'll discover a whole lot about nature, photography, and being a creative entrepreneur if you poke around a little bit on the site! Enjoy. More about me...

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🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 6 🍉🌻

Mid-July we
🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 6 🍉🌻

Mid-July we got the family together out on the river! We got all set up on a sandbar for the day, to be able to just chill- have a picnic and let the littles play their hearts out. Well… that was our hopes at least. 🤦‍♀️🫠 About an hour later, ALLLLL the boats showed up (group of friends) and just beached it right where we were swimming with the kids. I will never understand this… I am just of the mindset if you missed out on the sandbar, you missed out. Not… “well, we’ll just squeeze right in here on top of y’all.” But whatever. 😵‍💫 AmIright? Is that not the unwritten, understood law of the river rats? 🤣

#riverrats #riverisland #muddywater #sweetsummatime


🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 5 🍉🌻

Beach days
🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 5 🍉🌻

Beach days are the best days!!! We were able to make 2 different day trips to the coast this summer. 

1. We are thankful for sweet friends who allow us to crash their family camping vacation for a day! 🤣 

2. And we are thankful for another group who are willing to up and haul their families to the coast for a day, too! 🤗

#beach #beachdays #vitaminSea #sweetsummatime


🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 4 🍉🌻

Two of my
🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 4 🍉🌻
 
Two of my fellow Clemson forestry/ wildlife pals and I managed to take that girls’ trip we had been chatting about for a while! It was so good for the soul!!! We went owling at night, and just looking for all the critters we could find. 😁

#ClemsonAlumni #CAFLS #clemsongirlsbestintheworld #owling #nature #getoutside #exploremoreً


🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 3 🍉🌻

Our old-so
🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 3 🍉🌻
 
Our old-soul, mancub hit a milestone birthday this summer. So, as an early birthday present, we hesitantly (😅) decided to take him and a friend to a Hank Jr. concert, since they are both big fans. Our thought process: “Hank Jr. is old now… sure his music is timeless, but it’s bound to draw an older, more calm crowd nowadays.” NOPE. 😆🥴 

The trip morphed into a group trip with the friend’s parents and sister, and my dad joined us, too! All was well until a thunderstorm sent everyone to the concessions area where we were packed in like sardines for TWO HOURS to avoid the lightening and rain best we could. 😳 Well, you can only imagine most people there had only one thing to do during the two hour wait, so that by the time we could return to our seats, it was quite the scene. 🙈 Our sweet, sheltered homeschooled children were awakened to some of the ways of the world that night, for sure. 🤣🥴 Gracious!!! 

But alas, Hank came out on stage and was GREAT, even still as an older man in his 70’s. He played alllll the instruments, and even still could throw his leg up on the piano! 🤣😳

#waylatergram 🤣


🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 2 🍉🌻

The boys e
🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 2 🍉🌻
 
The boys ended their first year of fishing for PAC last April in 10th place; which was amazing for them! They overcame many obstacles and learned to fish better as partners. This particular tournament happened to fall on Jason’s birthday (he’s their boat captain), so our friends camping close-by helped him celebrate. 🤣😁

#waylatergram 🤣


🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 1 🍉🌻
(We enjoyed

🌻🍉 Summer Photo Dump 1 🍉🌻
(We enjoyed it to the fullest and it FLEW by; so, slowing down to make posts didn’t happen. I don’t even know how it’s almost September. 🥴)

In April, we ventured to Beaufort with my family to see the Blue Angels in action. 🤩 They were awesome to see in person! 

#waylatergram 🤣



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