I am literally buzzing from that amazing weekend I had with my three best girlies at the time, and the cherry on top was God answering my prayer. My “I don’t feel like I’m doing what you want me to do anymore, so what’s next?” prayer. He led me to the door and showed me what was behind it. It was scary and exciting and a little bit crazy, but aren’t your dreams supposed to frighten you a little bit? That’s what “they” say. “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough”. Well, it was massive and very scary to say the least. I was ready to run straight into it though, because I knew God gave it to me. And, in the Bible, there are countless times that God had people doing things that seemed crazy to the onlookers. Me and God had been rocking with each other for quite some time, and he had established with me that I could trust him to lead me. I had already been living a submitted life and decided that I’d live according to His will, so after my birthday weekend, I was READY. I was gonna jump off the cliff.
I started shifting my mind at work to “get all you can out of this time with these people you enjoy, because there’s only about two more months of seeing them everyday”. I started making changes discreetly, as I didn’t want to stir up any suspicion lol. I don’t know if I succeeded at that though. Anyway, it was the end of April when our contracts for the next school year came out, and before I submitted my intent to resign, I had to speak to my principal and to my partner teacher. I told my partner teacher, let’s call her… Tori, that I was gonna resign at the end of the year to go into business for myself. Tori was my “work” bestie (because I met her at work but really she was just my bestie). She was one of my birthday weekend friends, but only Ashley was at brunch that Sunday, so Tori didn’t know that I was actually leaving. As I expected though, Tori was supportive. She did write my recommendation letter for me to get into my Coaching academy, so she was at least a little bit aware of my budding desire for entrepreneurship. Well, after that fateful Friday, it was official. My principal knew, and Tori knew, so next I had to break it to my grade-level team and my kiddos, and I was not looking forward to that. I did eventually tell them though. I got my affairs in order, packed stuff, gave stuff away, and then it was time for summer.
From my birthday weekend in March up until June 1st, the first day of my “summer” break, I had been diligently working on my business plan and proposals, organizing my thoughts, and communicating regularly with Ashley, too. Everything was going well: I was still talking to God and hearing from him regularly, the business ideas were flowing, I was registering things with the State… I was feeling so confident in the plan. By about July, maybe the end of June, I created an online boutique which was connected to the original plan, after seeking God for direction. Another God-ordained step, because of how easily it came to be. Or so I thought. I worked on it for about a month, designing the products, organizing the website flow, checking the product quality, etc. I was ready to open it up to the public, finally. I thought the thing was gonna explode, because God gave me the idea for it, and opened the doors swiftly. Not only that, but I was going to be out of pay soon and them bills would be knocking soon.
Before launch day, as I was in my house, I noticed my central air was not airing. I’d have it on for hours, and the house was not cooling. In a South Carolina summer, you do not want to have issues with your HVAC. I had to call around and some folks came out, assessed my situation and guess what? The whole thing needed to be replaced. Apparently it was out of the cooling stuff, and to my great fortune, the stuff my particular unit needed had been outlawed in 2020. Not unavailable. Illegal. ILLEGAL! I’m listening to the technician and I’m thinking about how I just resigned from my job and don’t have a paycheck coming in at the moment, and wondering why God would even put this on my plate right now. Well, I had good credit, so I was approved for financing and they moved quickly. I was beyond grateful that it at least got resolved quickly. They got it installed and my house was comfortable again, but I had just incurred another monthly bill, with no income. I just knew God was going to come through in a big way, because at this point, what other option was there? I applied to work at a few different places, including a gas station near me, to try to pull in some coins, you know, since everybody was hiring. I wasn’t hearing anything back from anybody. The gas station people called me for an interview, and didn't call me back. The gas station. Well since nobody would hire me that meant He was doing something different, right?
August 1st was the official launch and I was excitedly posting about the opening on my socials. I paid my mortgage and car, and all the other monthlies, but I was tapped after that. So I was waiting for God to blow my mind with his provision through this store. Did that happen? Nope. Sure didn’t. September came and went. Still no major breakthroughs, but somehow the smaller bills got paid; cell phone, wifi, car insurance… Not the car payment though. At this point, my boutique has had like five orders total, and I think I was two of them. I had been going to noon-day prayer at my church faithfully since school got out; listening to and sharing with the Saints that were there. Of course I was also praying and seeking clarity from God about how we was gon pay these bills! Well October rolled around. I got an offer to work at a local dessert place through a connection at Noon-day prayer. Based on my prayers, I thought this was another answer, so I followed the directions I was given and applied. I got hired and was so excited, but I learned the start date was not until the end of November. So it's safe to say that at this point, I thought God thought it was funny, and that he was playing in my face.
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