I have an exciting announcement to share, but before I do, I need to tell you a (kind of unnecessarily long) story...as I have been known to do from time to time …
About 7 years ago, before Sword & Crown came to be, we moved to Wahoo, NE, with the hope that we would be able to live in a small town that offered a solid K-12 Catholic education for our 3 kids, who were - at the time - 4, 3, and 1. This seems like yesterday and a hundred years ago at the same time. In Wahoo, NE, we knew almost no one. One night, our parish hosted a “newcomers dinner,” and we decided to go. They were offering free childcare, so that made it a possible (and very attractive!) outing. We dropped our kids off in the school gym with the sweetest family, who watched them for an hour or two while we met and talked with actual adults (a rare opportunity for parents of little kids) and tried to find ways to get connected and make this place feel more like home. The whole night was a great gift! When we went to pick up our kids, a delightful and bubbly high school girl (the oldest daughter of the family who provided childcare that night) introduced herself to me and told me that she’d love to babysit for us sometime if we ever needed someone. I thought to myself, “Girl, you have no idea how much we need someone!”
Over the next couple of years, Halle became our kids’ all-time favorite babysitter. (They still ask for her to this day, which is hilarious because she’s in her 20s, married and has a family of her own.) She was a summer nanny for us when I started Sword & Crown. She graduated, went on to Wayne State College, graduated again, married her high school sweetheart (Tommy - we like him too), and together, they courageously joined FOCUS staff as campus missionaries after college. They welcomed their first son, Peter, just over a year ago, and Baby #2 will make his appearance in March.
It has been a joy to watch their story unfold. And even more, it has been a joy to experience a friendship with Halle. She is pure joy and just the best person! She always came to visit us when she was home from college on break, and somewhere along the way, this amazing young woman made a great transition in my life from my kids’ nanny to a dear friend. I am so happy that our paths have crossed, and am so excited to share that they will remain intertwined in the next chapter for both of our families…
Halle and Tommy approached us at the beginning of this year, inquiring about purchasing Sword & Crown Candle Co. after being inspired to do so in prayer. They are not the first people who have asked me about buying the candle business, but they are the first people I decided to talk with more about it. I know them, I trust them, and more than anything, I know they deeply understand and live the mission of this business and the “why” behind it. It was a no-brainer to see that it was God’s plan for me to say goodbye to my time with Sword & Crown and pass this great work on to them.
Admittedly, that’s been a little harder than I expected. I don’t know if I can convey how much it has meant to me to see the good work that God had in store unfold via candle. I have been so grateful to be supported by people I’ve known forever and people I had never met. I got to build friendships with people going through tragic times who found solace in candles we made. I got to rejoice with people who used our candles to celebrate milestones and birthdays and holidays and seasons and all sorts of other great life moments. I heard from several people who had fallen away from their faith that these candles inspired them to return. I got to ship candles to all 48 mainland US States! Owning this business was a blessing I never saw coming. How lucky am I that I got to do something I loved - share the love of Jesus and encouragement of the Saints with people all over the country - while I was staying home with my babies? The gift of this company in my life will never be lost on me.
But, you guys…Believe me when I say that I absolutely CAN. NOT. WAIT. to see what these two remarkable people are going to do with Sword & Crown Candle Co. going forward! Halle and Tommy are an amazing team in every way that will no doubt improve every single aspect of this business. I plan to pass along every ounce of the support that you all have shown me through the years to them, and I hope you will join me. They will seamlessly carry on the mission, style, and quality that our customers have loved, but will do it in a way that I never could because they’re just that great!
I am so proud of them. I am so proud of this company. And I am so proud to see it get new life under their leadership. A sweet little idea that God inspired in me while doing dishes one night turned into a mission that is going to carry on beyond what I ever imagined. Servant of God Fr. Edward Flanagan (Founder of Boystown) said, “The work will continue, you see, whether I am there or not, because it is God's work, not mine.” No words could more fully describe the peace I am feeling about this transition. It is and has always been God’s work - He invited our family to take part in it, which was a great honor and a super fun chapter. We did our best, learned so much, and always tried to follow His lead. Now he has tapped a new family, and I know He has big plans. Stay tuned - you won’t want to miss what He has in store!
And one last thing before I sign off for good…the effect this company has had on my own personal spiritual life has been immense, but there is one thing that sticks out that I’d like to share. Before Sword & Crown Candle Co., I admired many Saints, looked up to them and wanted to be like them. I even had a few that I considered myself particularly “close” with or had a special devotion to. These are really good things. But one thing God revealed to me through getting to know so many of the stories and quotes from Catholic saints is that there’s so much more to our relationship with them. Saints aren’t “a thing” in Catholic world just because we need role models or people to look up to or examples to strive for. They proactively seek out a friendship with us. Just like Christ. They are not on a pedestal, or high up in the clouds, watching and judging us until we make ourselves “good enough” so we can be one of them too. And any thinking along those lines misses the entire point of Christianity.
Saints, like Christ, come TO us. They are WITH us. They are FOR us. They come to us in friendship, in love, in times of great suffering and times of great joy. They run after us. They draw close. To encourage us. To empathize with us. To walk with us. To help us see our goodness and worth. They are never held up to make us feel like we’re not enough. God never intended that. They are always present in our lives to remind us that God is madly in love with us and would do anything to be with us for eternity (aka: help us become us Saints too). And they are always here to remind us that we are never alone. Even if it seems the whole world has abandoned us, they never do. They can’t. Because they are intimately united with Jesus Christ and He can’t do that either.
I get that can sound a little far-fetched for our human brains because we can’t, like, “see” them. But that is the truth. Look no further than the Saints if you ever doubt your worth in the eyes of Christ or the eyes of the world, or if you ever feel abandoned or alone. It gives them great joy to remind you that you belong to Jesus, just as you are, and that you are eternally loved. And it has been a great joy for me to share their love and encouragement with you in some small way by running this business.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for 6 great years of Sword & Crown Candle Co. Get really, really excited about what’s coming next! And please, never forget that the Saints are always on your side, cheering you on to eternity.
- Katie
