I know that I have been MIA recently. Life has been CRAZY, crazier even than usual for me. And that is a bit hard to do! But I have missed writing A LOT, and hope things settle down soon, so I can share more consistently!
Did you see THIS post?
Well, if not go read it so you understand what I am about to say.
After that day, meeting with the husband the next day and so serious prayers on all of our parts, I HAVE A NEW JOB!!!!!! I am so excited for this opportunity, and I did start this past week even though I am still working out my notice at my night job. It made for an exhausting week. Being the single mom I am, dealing with all of the doctors and therapist appointments that dictate the day of a special needs child, running my business, starting a new job and learning so much about the company AND pulling late nights at my old job. Wow. Talk about tired. But it was all good. I could do it, I can do all things with His strength!
Well, that was until the unexpected call on Wednesday morning....
I was deep into the pot of coffee to be functioning and racing about trying to get things done at Butterfly Boutique when the call came. I knew within seconds of answering that it would be one of those pivotal points in my day.
On the other end of the phone was a woman in tears. As she began to take deep breaths and talk the picture became clear. It seems that this woman was getting ready to get married. She had hired someone to make her wedding gown. She gave the other person the material and the dress to copy. It seems that she had gone for a fitting that morning and the other woman handed her back the bag of material, all cut up into pieces, and told her that she wouldn't be able to make the dress after all. Poor woman! Nothing like a shattered dream.
But the biggest kicker???
The wedding was taking place TODAY, just 3 short days latter!
My mind raced. I looked at my week and saw absolutely no way to find any time in the week to make this dress. I WANTED to help. I have the talents and experience to help. I even have the heart to help. But I just couldn't see the TIME to help.
Then she dropped the bomb shell. The "I have called so many places. No one can help. And the last three people said YOU are the only on for the job. PLEASE can you help me?"
Oh Lord! What is there to do???
I took a huge deep breath and said "Of course!"
I knew logically there was no way to do it, but I really felt that the Lord lead her to me. Somehow the Lord and I could do this together, just don't ask me how....
When she arrived I did see that it was a simple design, and that would help a lot. And she really was the sweetest little thing. As soon as she left from dropping the dress off I was able to sit right down and put the dress together. That was a huge blessing, because I had to send her to buy some stuff that wasn't with the dress and there was NO WAY I had time to go to the store. She happily went along to get the stuff, and when she returned I had the dress together for a fitting! She was so happy to SEE what she was dreaming of, and see that it was possible to finish it in time. After she left from the fitting I had to set the dress down and get on to my other work.
Wednesday night at my night job was interesting to say the least. Someday I will have to write a lessons from the gas station post, man have I learned a lot there! And this particular night wasn't so different.
We had our usual assortment of colorful characters assembled outside at the tables. When I went outside for a break I noticed that a couple that I met few weeks before was there that night too. I hadn't seen them since they first came into town from another state, and their trip here had not been so easy. I took a few minutes to chat with the wife and see how things were going for them. She is a sweet woman and there are four small children in their family. We chatted a bit and she admitted that she was depressed, lonely and frustrated. I looked around and saw that all of the people out there besides she and I were men. I told her I had to go back to work, but to come in a chat with me while I worked if she wanted.
Throughout the evening she would come in and chat with me, then go back outside. I noticed some regulars come and go. At one point I noticed one semi regular fellow come up to the group. ow this fellow really bothers me and he seems to bring trouble wherever he goes. I debated on mentioning to this woman that he was rouble, but then he left so soon afterwards that I didn't say anything. Next thing I know the woman is inside talking to me when the trouble maker comes back. Within minutes the whole place is swarming with police officers.
I won't go into the whole of what was going on, but I will say that it seems that where this couple came from the police were NOT friendly, nor were they helpful. Basically if the police showed up, your life as you knew it, was over. I was blessed to be able to talk with the wife and pray with her while everything was going on outside. I felt like God placed me and my soft heart for people right where it needed to be on this night, and it felt so good to speak His love and His grace to her in a time when she was freaking out. I know that the words were not mine, that they were the words that the Father wanted THIS daughter of his to hear on that night. And I love being a mouthpiece for him! His words always sound so much better than mine :)
The other thing that this did for me was to affirm that I need to work out my two weeks notice there. I am so frustrated with that job that it was VERY TEMPTING to just walk away. And with the time demands on my week I even felt kind of justified in thinking about it, but the bottom line is that I need the last two weeks pay checks, so I am sucking it up and working those last two weeks. But IF I had walked away, I wouldn't have been there on this night and I would have missed this opportunity that the Lord provided for me!
Thursday was a whirl wind of my new job, homework with the kids, a SST meeting for Audrey at her school, finding out that I had to carve out time to go to Friday's Bear Hug, and then dashing off to my night job. I didn't have a second to touch the wedding dress. Thursday came and went without anything getting done on the dress, so I hit my knees that night and gave it up to Him.
"Lord, I know that you made this path for this bride to end up here with me. I know that YOU have a plan for how this gown is going to get done. And I know that YOU will make it all work together. Please show me the path YOU have chosen for me to walk." And then I collapsed in bed, sound asleep. (These hours are KILLING ME!!)
Friday morning bright and early, way before the kids had to be at school Faline showed up at my house. She was there to get the kids ready for school so I could go work on the dress. The Bear Hug assembly was at 8:45, so I had 2 hours or so to work. I went into BB and worked away on the dress. I judged my time and decided that I could add one last row of lace before dashing off to the kids school. Not a good choice. Not at all! The lining on the gown crept while I was sewing and by the time I finished I had a mess. I had to lay the gown down and dash off to school so I could catch the assembly. You will have to see THIS post about the assembly, because silly blogger didn't load my pictures right :)
But since we are talking about how God provided the way for this dress to get done I do have to mention a bit about the assembly. First, I was out of coffee Friday morning. No grounds, no beans, no money to buy any. So I was sleep walking through the first part of the morning trying to figure out how to get my hands on some much needed caffeine. Also, I had an appointment with the behavior specialist that I am working with for Nathaniel's behaviors and I realized that I had not finished my data sheets... again. Sigh.
So I grabbed my data sheets and a pen and headed into the Bear Hug. I figured I could use every second of down time I had that morning and would work on data sheets while I waited for things to get started. I was hard at work trying to remember everything when Faline walked in.... with something BETTER than coffee (at least in my books!). She had dashed off to to get us Chai Tea Lattes in the 15 minutes she had between dropping my kids off at school for me and the Bear Hug, which she was coming to to support Audrey. Thank you Lord (and Faline) for providing again! And then the next surprise was that the choir was singing at the assembly. So I was able to finish up my data sheets for my 10 am appointment while listening to the choir sing, then pay close attention while Audrey was surprised with an award. Sweet!
I did mention to Faline the mistake I had made on the wedding gown while we were chatting, and that I would have to pick that apart BEFORE the bride showed up at 11:30. It was going to be close. I had a 10 appointment in SLO that usually took an hour, plus 20 minutes drive time back to the shop, so I had about 10 minutes to pick out my mistake before the bride showed up for her fitting. Nice.
Next I dashed into SLO for my appointment, and somehow managed to get there 10 minutes early. I don't know how. God must have stopped the clock for me because that drive ALWAYS takes me 20 minutes from the kids school to that office complex. Always. But on Friday I made it in 10 minutes somehow. And no, I didn't get a ticket, nor do I think I was driving any faster than usual. But what it did mean is that I could straighten my car up and look for my missing sunglasses, lighter and smokes. Yes, I had lost all three of those VERY IMPORTANT items. And I found all of them in those 10 minutes too!!! Thank you Lord for taking care of the small things too!
Amazingly the Lord wasn't done creating time in my day yet. The appointment that ALWAYS takes at least an hour, and sometimes even goes over was only 30 minutes long this day. I was back on the road to BB a half an hour early! I was breathing deep sighs of relief that I could finish taking the lace off before the bride got there, but was I in for a surprise. As I walked into BB Faline was taking the last stitch out of the part that I messed up before she had to head out to her job! We chatted for a few minutes, I thanked her and she commented that I looked like I needed food. I told her it would take a miracle for me to eat today because I hadn't had time or energy to fix anything for lunch or dinner and I didn't have a dime to spare on buying anything to eat. Man do I miss the days when I could just call J and he would so kindly bring me yummy. healthy food for lunch! Faline headed off to her job and I went up to work on the dress. I was able to reapply the lace properly AND hem the dress before the bride showed up! All I had left to do was put it on her to mark where the zipper went and put the zipper in!
Did you see THIS post?
Well, if not go read it so you understand what I am about to say.
After that day, meeting with the husband the next day and so serious prayers on all of our parts, I HAVE A NEW JOB!!!!!! I am so excited for this opportunity, and I did start this past week even though I am still working out my notice at my night job. It made for an exhausting week. Being the single mom I am, dealing with all of the doctors and therapist appointments that dictate the day of a special needs child, running my business, starting a new job and learning so much about the company AND pulling late nights at my old job. Wow. Talk about tired. But it was all good. I could do it, I can do all things with His strength!
Well, that was until the unexpected call on Wednesday morning....
I was deep into the pot of coffee to be functioning and racing about trying to get things done at Butterfly Boutique when the call came. I knew within seconds of answering that it would be one of those pivotal points in my day.
On the other end of the phone was a woman in tears. As she began to take deep breaths and talk the picture became clear. It seems that this woman was getting ready to get married. She had hired someone to make her wedding gown. She gave the other person the material and the dress to copy. It seems that she had gone for a fitting that morning and the other woman handed her back the bag of material, all cut up into pieces, and told her that she wouldn't be able to make the dress after all. Poor woman! Nothing like a shattered dream.
But the biggest kicker???
The wedding was taking place TODAY, just 3 short days latter!
My mind raced. I looked at my week and saw absolutely no way to find any time in the week to make this dress. I WANTED to help. I have the talents and experience to help. I even have the heart to help. But I just couldn't see the TIME to help.
Then she dropped the bomb shell. The "I have called so many places. No one can help. And the last three people said YOU are the only on for the job. PLEASE can you help me?"
Oh Lord! What is there to do???
I took a huge deep breath and said "Of course!"
I knew logically there was no way to do it, but I really felt that the Lord lead her to me. Somehow the Lord and I could do this together, just don't ask me how....
When she arrived I did see that it was a simple design, and that would help a lot. And she really was the sweetest little thing. As soon as she left from dropping the dress off I was able to sit right down and put the dress together. That was a huge blessing, because I had to send her to buy some stuff that wasn't with the dress and there was NO WAY I had time to go to the store. She happily went along to get the stuff, and when she returned I had the dress together for a fitting! She was so happy to SEE what she was dreaming of, and see that it was possible to finish it in time. After she left from the fitting I had to set the dress down and get on to my other work.
Wednesday night at my night job was interesting to say the least. Someday I will have to write a lessons from the gas station post, man have I learned a lot there! And this particular night wasn't so different.
We had our usual assortment of colorful characters assembled outside at the tables. When I went outside for a break I noticed that a couple that I met few weeks before was there that night too. I hadn't seen them since they first came into town from another state, and their trip here had not been so easy. I took a few minutes to chat with the wife and see how things were going for them. She is a sweet woman and there are four small children in their family. We chatted a bit and she admitted that she was depressed, lonely and frustrated. I looked around and saw that all of the people out there besides she and I were men. I told her I had to go back to work, but to come in a chat with me while I worked if she wanted.
Throughout the evening she would come in and chat with me, then go back outside. I noticed some regulars come and go. At one point I noticed one semi regular fellow come up to the group. ow this fellow really bothers me and he seems to bring trouble wherever he goes. I debated on mentioning to this woman that he was rouble, but then he left so soon afterwards that I didn't say anything. Next thing I know the woman is inside talking to me when the trouble maker comes back. Within minutes the whole place is swarming with police officers.
I won't go into the whole of what was going on, but I will say that it seems that where this couple came from the police were NOT friendly, nor were they helpful. Basically if the police showed up, your life as you knew it, was over. I was blessed to be able to talk with the wife and pray with her while everything was going on outside. I felt like God placed me and my soft heart for people right where it needed to be on this night, and it felt so good to speak His love and His grace to her in a time when she was freaking out. I know that the words were not mine, that they were the words that the Father wanted THIS daughter of his to hear on that night. And I love being a mouthpiece for him! His words always sound so much better than mine :)
The other thing that this did for me was to affirm that I need to work out my two weeks notice there. I am so frustrated with that job that it was VERY TEMPTING to just walk away. And with the time demands on my week I even felt kind of justified in thinking about it, but the bottom line is that I need the last two weeks pay checks, so I am sucking it up and working those last two weeks. But IF I had walked away, I wouldn't have been there on this night and I would have missed this opportunity that the Lord provided for me!
Thursday was a whirl wind of my new job, homework with the kids, a SST meeting for Audrey at her school, finding out that I had to carve out time to go to Friday's Bear Hug, and then dashing off to my night job. I didn't have a second to touch the wedding dress. Thursday came and went without anything getting done on the dress, so I hit my knees that night and gave it up to Him.
"Lord, I know that you made this path for this bride to end up here with me. I know that YOU have a plan for how this gown is going to get done. And I know that YOU will make it all work together. Please show me the path YOU have chosen for me to walk." And then I collapsed in bed, sound asleep. (These hours are KILLING ME!!)
Friday morning bright and early, way before the kids had to be at school Faline showed up at my house. She was there to get the kids ready for school so I could go work on the dress. The Bear Hug assembly was at 8:45, so I had 2 hours or so to work. I went into BB and worked away on the dress. I judged my time and decided that I could add one last row of lace before dashing off to the kids school. Not a good choice. Not at all! The lining on the gown crept while I was sewing and by the time I finished I had a mess. I had to lay the gown down and dash off to school so I could catch the assembly. You will have to see THIS post about the assembly, because silly blogger didn't load my pictures right :)
But since we are talking about how God provided the way for this dress to get done I do have to mention a bit about the assembly. First, I was out of coffee Friday morning. No grounds, no beans, no money to buy any. So I was sleep walking through the first part of the morning trying to figure out how to get my hands on some much needed caffeine. Also, I had an appointment with the behavior specialist that I am working with for Nathaniel's behaviors and I realized that I had not finished my data sheets... again. Sigh.
So I grabbed my data sheets and a pen and headed into the Bear Hug. I figured I could use every second of down time I had that morning and would work on data sheets while I waited for things to get started. I was hard at work trying to remember everything when Faline walked in.... with something BETTER than coffee (at least in my books!). She had dashed off to to get us Chai Tea Lattes in the 15 minutes she had between dropping my kids off at school for me and the Bear Hug, which she was coming to to support Audrey. Thank you Lord (and Faline) for providing again! And then the next surprise was that the choir was singing at the assembly. So I was able to finish up my data sheets for my 10 am appointment while listening to the choir sing, then pay close attention while Audrey was surprised with an award. Sweet!
I did mention to Faline the mistake I had made on the wedding gown while we were chatting, and that I would have to pick that apart BEFORE the bride showed up at 11:30. It was going to be close. I had a 10 appointment in SLO that usually took an hour, plus 20 minutes drive time back to the shop, so I had about 10 minutes to pick out my mistake before the bride showed up for her fitting. Nice.
Next I dashed into SLO for my appointment, and somehow managed to get there 10 minutes early. I don't know how. God must have stopped the clock for me because that drive ALWAYS takes me 20 minutes from the kids school to that office complex. Always. But on Friday I made it in 10 minutes somehow. And no, I didn't get a ticket, nor do I think I was driving any faster than usual. But what it did mean is that I could straighten my car up and look for my missing sunglasses, lighter and smokes. Yes, I had lost all three of those VERY IMPORTANT items. And I found all of them in those 10 minutes too!!! Thank you Lord for taking care of the small things too!
Amazingly the Lord wasn't done creating time in my day yet. The appointment that ALWAYS takes at least an hour, and sometimes even goes over was only 30 minutes long this day. I was back on the road to BB a half an hour early! I was breathing deep sighs of relief that I could finish taking the lace off before the bride got there, but was I in for a surprise. As I walked into BB Faline was taking the last stitch out of the part that I messed up before she had to head out to her job! We chatted for a few minutes, I thanked her and she commented that I looked like I needed food. I told her it would take a miracle for me to eat today because I hadn't had time or energy to fix anything for lunch or dinner and I didn't have a dime to spare on buying anything to eat. Man do I miss the days when I could just call J and he would so kindly bring me yummy. healthy food for lunch! Faline headed off to her job and I went up to work on the dress. I was able to reapply the lace properly AND hem the dress before the bride showed up! All I had left to do was put it on her to mark where the zipper went and put the zipper in!
I snapped these pictures of her during this last fitting to show Bri and Josie, but I will show you too! This is SERIOUSLY the first time I saw this woman smile in the three days I dealt with her. I am so glad that God gave her her hearts desire and it made such a difference to her!
The dress is very sweet, and super simple, but it fit her personality completely. And by the smile on her face I think it was just what she wanted. And yes, this is the unfinished back, it looked much better with the zipper in there!By the grace of God I was able to finish this dress by noon on Friday for the Saturday wedding. Just 48 short hours after it was placed in my hands! But God wasn't done with his grace for the day yet!
I still had 20 Ergo orders to get sorted out and shipped out. A store to clean and a ton of other work to do. I put my head down and started to plow through the rest.
But do you remember what Faline told me before she left? That I needed food? Food that I hadn't prepared and couldn't buy? Well God must have thought I needed food too! Just minutes latter I got a text from two angels telling me that they were on their way to come help me process the Ergo orders, but that they were bringing me lunch too!
So not only did I get to hang out and share a meal with two wonderful friends, but they also were hands to the Lord and provided what I needed to make it through the rest of my day. AND they helped sort out the Ergo mess. AND they took all of the packages to the post office for me. AND I got a back adjustment and massage out of the deal. AND Faline and I were able to focus on some of the other things that we needed to when she got back because of all of the help these two angels provided!So I really an NOT kidding when someone asks me how I do what I do and I answer
"By the grace and strength of God!"
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