Simply Southern Cottage

Friday evening, on our trek back to North Carolina, Opal saw a sign on I-20 that the exit for Minden, Louisiana was eight miles ahead. Granted, we had spent the last 10 days road-tripping to Louisiana and Texas, and we still had 10 hours remaining on our drive home. But when she looked at me and said, you wanna stop, it was a no-brainer!

While some may have never heard of the small town of Minden, this little gem of a town holds a special significance to us. A few years ago, I stumbled upon a social media account for Simply Southern Cottage. Honestly, I don’t know how I found it, but here was this person who was restoring a historic home in my home state of Louisiana. The historic restoration is what drew me in, but her testimony to her faith and trust in God and the lifestyle she had created for herself is what kept me there.

I found her social media posts at a time in our life when we were questioning everything and seeking something vastly different than the life we were leading at the time. So much of Sara’s story resonated with me, and I was constantly sharing her journey with Opal as we were simultaneously discovering ours. The more I read, the more connected I became.

Last year, after we took the huge step to unbind our life and made the 1,000-mile move across the country to live out a simpler life in our 117-year-old historic home, I reached out to Sara. Turns out, so many parts of our stories are eerily similar and we have more in common than I ever realized. To this day, we continue to receive inspiration from her journey and ideas on how we can continue to build the life of our dreams.

So, when we unexpectedly saw the “8 miles to Minden” sign on Saturday, we knew we had to at least make a quick drive-by. I reached out Sara to confirm the specific location of her famous house, and we remapped ourselves there. To our own kids or perhaps some passersby, we may have looked a little crazy grabbing this quick selfie. But to us, this house and the impact and reach Sara has had on the world because of it, remains a beacon of hope and inspiration to us.