Gotta Wuvit!

Good evening everyone! Today started as a day of discouragement and has ended in encouragement. Psalm 13 was definitely my song today. Let me share it with you in case you've never read it before:

1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome [her]," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

See how the psalmist starts off in sorrow and ends in joy? That's what happens to a soul saved by grace. Everytime I get this way, God makes sure that I get reminders of how much I am blessed and highly favored. Not only did God comfort me in my tears, but I received many emails, phone calls and visits today showering me with so much love. Ok, I have to share this story because it touched me so deeply. Due to the accident, I had to cancel a monthly event called Inspirational Birth Stories that was scheduled to occur today . It's a breakfast networking event where a successful mom in business comes to tell her story of how she birthed her business, and offers advice and tips to help the women who aspire to start a business or who are already in business. So, due to miscommunications, she only learned last night that the event was cancelled. Thinking that she would be upset seeing that it was the 3rd time I've had to postpone her, this is the response she sends me:

Ahhh! Dear Kareen

You are a walking miracle. How many times especially after a day’s work have we all in our own way slightly closed our eyes for a mere second … just to rest and woken ourselves in fear imagining what could have actually happened if we had truly falling asleep at the wheel. Our eyes responding quicker & opening faster than a mere second takes to close them… I can totally relate to what you are saying about closing your eyes or falling asleep at the wheel for a very brief moment. And I’m sorry, terribly sorry, to hear about your car accident.

A life can change in a fraction of a second … you are truly blessed Kareen. Perhaps in your recovery it’s been a time of reflection, a time to count your blessings that you are still alive and a time to ask God how you can serve Him through this experience. The giver & taker of life who has a plan for you who is in His care. It is a time to trust you will be serving Him somehow …

Last night, thanks for responding so quickly to my email & advising me of the changes due to your car accident situation. I was unaware and no one notified me. I’m glad you did.

Please keep me posted on how you are doing & I will, in time, be delighted to speak at your Mompowered Inspirational Birth Story Event.

Remember Kareen your story now is also a blessing – a very inspirational & empowering story to tell in helping other women with self care or helping other women with listening to their intuition or their body language or with stopping long enough between tasks and truly connecting with self (& God) to know that a drive home to meet family needs instead meeting our “women needs” can be fatal.

In this very special time of recovery, take a few moments to imagine a warm healing bright white light in your body, soul, mind, & spirit moving every so slowly to give you comfort, love, healing, & joy … I’m happy you are alive, blessed and able to recover…

God bless your journey

Isn't this powerful?!! It set the tone for all the other encouraging emails I got today. I shed so many tears today that I'm probably very dehydrated right now!!! But it's all good, it's all part of the process.

Another great comfort measure (this time for my physical aches & pains) is my Wuvit! Yes, you read right! LOL! Have you never heard of the Wuvit?? It is a wonderful product that an amazing woman of faith and mom entrepreneur called Kim Lavine created on her kitchen table! A spa therapy pillow that you heat up 2 to 3 minutes in the microwave. You can check out http://www.greendaisy.com to get your own! Last year Green Daisy was estimated to be worth 9 million dollars!!! That's right! If Kim did it, so can YOU! Anyway, when she so graciously agreed to come and be our keynote speaker at the launch of MOMpowered (check out the launch party pics here: http://www.mompowered.com/picture_gallery_birthingthedream.html), she brought one just for me! This story is yet another testament of faith I tell you. This woman did not know me from a can of paint and she had no reason to accept my invitation. But she did with so much enthusiasm, I was stunned! It's after reading her Mommy Millionaire book and visiting her mommy millionaire community (http://mommymillionaire.com) that I got up the nerves to ask her to come all the way to Ottawa, Ontario (she is from Michigan). Check out Kim's latest interview that occured last Friday on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet here: http://www.mandjshow.com/videos/working-from-home-continued.

I encourage you to believe and ask so you can receive!

Alright y'all, I'm going to get back to enjoying my Wuvit! See ya at the next post!

Taking a step back...

Evening bloggers! Here I am, taking a step backwards in my journey. But how many believe that often times when you take a step backwards it can also help you leap forward? Just picture an athlete right now...do you see it? Yes, after such a halting experience, one could either give up, give in or take the time to reflect, make the necessary changes and move on to bigger and better things. I must be honest in saying that it took me a few slaps in the face from loved ones and a lot of prayer to get me to say this and really mean it! Now I have to hold myself from doing too much too soon. I'm trying to take things one day at a time. My husband is on my case everyday so that I don't work too much so that I can actually recuperate right. How many feel me when I say that it's very hard to take it slow when you're so used to being on the go? After I got over the 'I'm so stupid, how could I let this happen' phase, I really could receive the thought that this has been good for me. As it says in Romans 8:28, ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. This is unequivocally true for me I tell you.

Among the many many benefits, this has been a time of serious soul searching that will have a great impact on the rest of my life. I'm sure that this happens to all of us that have had a near death experience. One thing I can say is that this experience has revealed that I am indeed a leader more than a manager. I found this really cool site where you can test yourself to see if you are a leader or a manager. Of course, I scored 13/15 for leader. Here is the link: http://www.schulersolutions.com/leadership_self_test.html. I'd love to get your feedback on how you scored!

This has also made more clear (as I've always known) why I would be more skilled as a business owner than as a self-employed entrepreneur. A business owner is a leader while the self-employed entrepreneur is a manager. But the self-employed have to be both leader AND manager, and this is where my issue is. I'm more of a big picture person so I've been managing the day to day operations of MOMpowered as a leader. I basically structured the company according to the big picture and then tried to manage the day to day operations of a huge corporation by myself! Obviously it was bound to catch up to me! So now I have no choice to switch from self-employed to business owner or I can kiss my MOMpowered dream good bye. Stay tuned for updates on this! Have a blessed evening!

I'm still here! PRAISE GOD WITH ME!!!!

Greetings Bloggers! You don't know how glad I am able to do this post tonight. After a prolonged absence, I'm writing tonight because I need to celebrate that I'm still here! I give ALL THE GLORY TO GOD!!! I am not proud to say that it's a crisis that has brought me back to taking the time to come here and blog. I want to apologize to my faithful readers and I am hoping that you will forgive me and decide to keep accompanying me on my journey! As many of you already know, I've suffered a major halt in my journey recently. But at the same time, I am realizing how much of a true blessing this 'interruption' has been. For one, I'm back to my commitment of writing every day. Aren't you all happy?? Ok, at least some of you are right?? LOL! I see it as a privilege now because last month's post could have been my last. As 8 is the number of new beginnings, it is no surprise that I feel a little bit of strenghth to write on the 8th of October. I can't really stay too long, you will understand why soon. But I did want to share two things:

1) A wonderful quote by Susan L. Taylor (ESSENCE magazine) that has brought a lot of light to me this week:

"In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change--breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place."
More on my reflections on this later...

2) I want to share my husband's note with you. His words have also brought alot of strength and encouragement to me and many others. For those of you who have already read it on Facebook, you get a refresher! I will start telling my side of the story as soon as I can. I promise.

Here it goes...

THE EVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE MIDST OF CHAOS
Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 6:28pm

On Monday night in our Life Sessions, I was teaching on how we as believers cannot think that nothing will ever happen to us; there will always be something to come and test your faith, test your substance. While I was teaching, I was mostly talking about married life. I met and counseled lots of couples and I have come to realize that there will always be something to test you. You cannot have it all, and the notion that because I’m a believer this means that nothing will ever happen to me is simply erroneous and quite arrogant I think. The Bible states in the book of Mathew chapter 5 verse 45 and on going that He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous....Often I hear that if I have faith then nothing will happen to me...... again, simply erroneous, arrogant and a slap in the face to those who suffered, never to see their promises but who yet STILL KEPT THE FAITH. Take Hebrews 11 as of verse 36 ‘…some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. **39 these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. **’

Our God is always looking for SUBSTANCE in us. IS IT IN YOU? The essence of your faith which is invisible can only be displayed in good times....absolutely NOT! LOL. It is when you go through trials and tribulations that we see your true faith. Now, that does not mean that I go out of my way glorifying trials in my life in a way that gives glory to the devil thinking somehow that the trials validate my faith. It is not faith in the trials that was counted for righteousness to Abraham, the father of faith, but it was FAITH IN GOD...I want to thank the Lord for what He did for my family, specially my wife. On Tuesday, September 30 around 4:45pm our faith, our substance was tested, mine and that of my wife and our entire family as my wife blacked out in the car and slammed directly in a duplex apartment window right next to our house. The pictures you will see will show you not how crazy the accident was but how great OUR GOD IS. Miraculously she was taken out of the totaled car with a few minor cuts, chipped teeth and scratches. TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!!!!!!!

My wife will her self tell you eventually her side of the story but this is mine...

As myself and the kids were eating at the table sharing a good time and waiting for mommy, around 5pm, I saw the lights of emergency vehicles right in front of our driveway. I decided to give a quick look through my living room window only to see a swarm of cops, medics and firemen. I told the kids to finish their food and stay at the table as I slipped on my coat and shoes to go outside to see first hand what was going on. To my surprise this is what I saw…

I could not believe it! I honestly first believed that it was a movie, in my head it was a movie they are filming or something around my home. I decided to get closer to the scene and when I saw the license plate on the vehicle…for a sec there I felt my legs go from under me. The next words I heard was she’s fine, she’s fine. From that moment I made up my mind that the only thing I was going to focus on is WHAT IS and not WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN.All things works together for the good of them that loves the Lord…TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

The end