Journey to Gratitude

Journey to Gratitude: Day 21

A few days ago, I heard a sad story about a woman who gave birth to premature quadruplets and subsequently passed. The story has been weighing on my mind, because my story could have ended like that. We sometimes forget what a miracle it is to conceive and carry a healthy baby to term, and how miraculous it is for the mother to survive. I feel for the friends and family of those quadruplets, especially the father.

Today, I am thankful that I am alive and healthy to enjoy my Bella. Though we miss Bristol, we are so blessed to have at least one healthy girl and that our daughter has two parents.

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Journey to Gratitude: Day 20

Bella is struggling right now as her two-year molars try to pop through. Additionally, she may have some viral bug on top of that. So she is miserable with a painful mouth, runny nose, persistent cough, and fever.

Today, I am thankful for the ability to be able to work from home, so that I can stay home with my poor little Sweet Pea and still get some work done. Here’s hoping she is on the mend soon!

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Journey to Gratitude: Day 16

Because of her prematurity, Bella has been part of the Early Intervention program since about a month after we brought her home (i.e. about 3 months old). When she started the program, she was slightly behind in all skills, so our goals were simple things: holding and playing with toys, rolling over, holding her head up and steady, etc. We saw our Early Intervention worker weekly, and Bella made great strides. By a year old, Bella had caught up to her age group on mostly all skills, so we scaled back to bi-weekly visits.

We had a visit yesterday, and in addition to our Early Intervention worker, our state case worker was also present. Both were amazed and astounded with how well Bella is doing. Not only has she caught up to her age group on all skills, but she has even surpassed her age group with several of her cognitive and language skills!

Today, I am so very thankful for the strides Bella has made. Apart from her size, you would never know she was a preemie. Thank you, Lord, for such a blessing!

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Journey to Gratitude: Day 15

Growing up, our family always struggled with money. My parents didn’t have the best financial skills, and therefore didn’t teach great habits to us kids either. As an adult, I continued to struggle with money until I was faced with filing bankruptcy. During that process, I had to take some courses on budgeting and such, and only then did I learn what it meant to be smart with money.

When I met Blaine, he was already worlds ahead of me. Two years later, he began realizing his vision for an investment in foreclosures that he could turn into rental properties. In 2012, he bought the first rental house, with the goal of buying one per year for 10 years. Just over 2 years later, we have 6 properties. As of today, he signed contracts on 2 more, bringing our total to 8 (well, 9 properties of you include my condo in Knoxville that has been rented out since I relocated to Bristol). The plan has escalated faster than I think either of us ever imagined, and it has been a lot of hard work renovating the properties and finding good tenants (especially since 7 of the 8 properties have come about in just the past 14 months). But when all is said and done, it has been a tremendous blessing!

Today, I am thankful for my husband’s ambition and foresight to build this side business, which will ultimately secure our family’s future. With all of the other obstacles and tragedies we’ve had to deal with these past couple of years, it’s nice to know that money is not an added pressure amidst the life struggles.

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Journey to Gratitude: Day 13

Three years ago, I started down a path to be a “coach”. I wasn’t exactly sure at that time what that meant or how to make it happen, but I had done some research on coaching, and I was convinced that it was what I was destined to do.

Then life happened. I was laid off from my then job, I found out I was pregnant with twins, the twins came early, and I lost one after 9 weeks in the NICU. I tried to get my footing back by blogging about my experience, but then I went and got a “real job” when Bella was 8 months old. Four months later, my mom passed tragically and unexpectedly. A lot of life happened in a short amount of time.

Finally, after several discussions with my boss about what he saw as my strengths, I began researching the coaching path once again. This time, I ended up in a certification program with MentorCoach, and accredited training program by the International Coach Federation (ICF). What a wonderful journey this has been!

Nine months later, I have completed 2 classes, and amidst 2 more, and have 4 classes left to complete my certifications. Outside of my “day job”, I have been diligently working on marketing myself as a Business and Life Coach and have been making some terrific strides towards building my own practice.

Today I am thankful for the journey on which life has taken me, each event adding another piece of the puzzle that brought me to coaching. I am also thankful for how all of the pieces of my life fit together now – a great “day job” that allows me to practice my coaching skills and is flexible enough to allow me to work on coaching on the side, financial stability that allows me to work part time (again giving me flexibility to work on coaching), marketing skills that allow me to build this coaching business – all coming together at *this* moment as though it was perfectly planned this way. What an amazing journey! I’m excited about what 2015 has in store!

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