(7/12) “After that day a dream began to grow inside of me. Maybe...

(7/12) “After that day a dream began to grow inside of me. Maybe I could be a chef. Maybe I could write my own cookbook, and share my recipes with the world. But it was bittersweet. Because at the same time, Sebastian’s dream was dying. Ever since I’d known him, he’d been trying to build a furniture company. It started with just a little shop. But during our marriage his vision kept growing. Sebastian could do every kind of job: acoustics, paneling, counters. He started getting orders from big accounts, and over the years his company grew to fifty employees. But it was always about so much more than money to him. It was his ministry. He saw the company as a way to lift his workers out of poverty. And his ultimate goal had always been to build an entire showroom. I warned him against it. It would cost so much money. And we were already dealing with Camila’s health problems. But Sebastian was full of faith. Whenever he has a dream, he thinks it is his destiny. He poured all our savings into the showroom. It was so luxurious. He imported all the furniture from Argentina. But as soon as construction was finished, the economy took a downturn. And nobody was buying luxury furniture anymore. Even then Sebastian would not let the dream die. We went into so much debt. He kept pouring money into the showroom. But even when the banks began to threaten us, he was full of faith. ‘God is always sending us signs,’ he’d say. ‘We’re just too stressed to see them right now.’ At the end of the year we took a trip to visit Sebastian’s brother in America. He lived in a town called Roswell, Georgia. And while we were there we decided to visit some gluten-free restaurants. There was one café I especially loved. Not because of the food; I ordered some muffins, and they weren’t as good as mine. But the building itself was magical. It didn’t feel like a restaurant. It reminded me of Little House On The Prairie, and I loved every detail: the wood floors, the furniture, the lamps. So many ideas were running through my head. I took pictures of everything, and I said to Sebastian: ‘One day I will open a café. And when I do, it will look just like this.’”