So Karis is a little over 13 months old now. And life, after the party, has resumed. Oh boy has it resumed. She's walking and her teeth (all two of them) have made their grand entrance. Motherhood is in full swing for me and I still don't know what I'm doing. :)
Before Karis was born I was at a place in my professional (vocational) life where I didn't quite know what I should do with myself. I had many different options open to me but didn't know what to do. I had a job at JetBlue headquarters when the recession hit so 1 month short of my 1 year job anniversary I lost my job. Interestingly enough, I found out I was pregnant with Karis 3 months prior and hadn't told anyone at work yet. So here I was 3 months pregnant, out of a job and not sure what to do. How will I find a job in this recession 3 months prego??? It became a good time to just chill, regroup and rediscover God (long story, will share one day in the not-so-near future). :)
Six months later Karis was here and I was an overjoyed and overwhelmed mother. For a while I was content being a stay-at-home mom; being able to be their for all of her milestone moments has been pretty cool. And forming such a tight bond with her has been amazing... a bit much at times... but still AMAZING. Still something was missing. I needed to do something, to be creative to be innovative to exercise my business "muscles". I wanted to go back to work, to build a career. I knew I couldn't go back to the corporate world. I didn't like it. I felt restricted and a bit smothered. And I REALLY didn't want to leave Karis. I wanted to be there, especially at this young of an age. For some mom's staying at home works. And boy do they have their work cut out for them. It's fulfilling and their dream "job". For other mom's working out side of the home works. I was kinda in the middle.
I wanted it all. My "dream job" and the joys of staying at home with my daughter. So I began my search for a Work-from-Home job. There were ads everywhere... but I couldn't find one that I enjoyed doing. I needed to be able to take ownership of something. Build something from nothing (figuratively). I wanted a job that afforded me ownership, creativity, business/marketing elements and allowed me to put my daughter down for a nap in between. So when Karis was 3 months old I started working for Bella Pictures as a Photography Consultant. The job sounded perfect. I would work from home setting up appointments for my self and then go out and meet with couples getting married to share with them what Bella can offer them. I was ready to go. I had three meetings with three different couples and quickly was reminded of how much I dislike sales. At first the job didn't sound like sales, but that's what it was. I quickly became overwhelmed with the expectations of the job and having a 3 month old I was nursing. Something didn't click. I left Bella.
After that I searched and searched and couldn't find anything that met my criteria. I decided I may have to go back to school and find a new profession altogether. I went through all the possible careers I could go in to and once again became overwhelmed. I was just about to give up when God came through. I really hate to sound so cliche but I know of no other way to word it. He sorta set things up in a way that I could have never done.
As many of you know my sister had her own graphic design company on the side called ValleDesigns. She has slowly built up her clientele and was needing help to manage the accounts all while maintaining a full time job. I had previous experience working for an Interactive Marketing firm called Sharpe Partners and have a BBA in Marketing, and had nothing else to do so why not! Amazingly enough this opportunity afforded me the freedom, creativity, entrepreneurial and marketing experiences I had been looking for, all while beign able to change my daughters diaper in between! Woo Hoo!
Working with Veronica (my sister) has been awesome. I am able to do a little bit of everything. A bit of project managing, a bit of designing, a bit of marketing, a bit of client relations, a bit of business planning, A BIT EVERYTHING! It's so exciting to be able to build a business. It can be anything you want it to be...! And I can do it with my baby playing right next to me.
Now, I don't want to create this false image that it has been easy, because it hasn't. I've had to balance work/Karis time and some days Karis wants it to be "Karis time" all day everyday. And in terms of the job itself: working with difficult clients, tight deadlines, growing a business, and standardizing the way we work has been challenging, frustrating and rewarding all at the same time.
So, I am now a work from home mom, building a business and raising a beautiful daughter.
So to make a long story longer :) I am so grateful to the Lord for orchestrating this. To get to this point I had to go through a lot of difficult times (an understatement). There were a lot of tears, despair, doubt, sadness and many other emotions that preceded this destination. And funny enough I'm kinda thankful to the Lord for the journey that brought me here. He used some VERY tough times to form my character and set up an amazing situation. Don't get me wrong I totally wouldn't have minded not going through any of it but am still very aware of God's process (part of it, anyway) in forming me and blessing me, however strange the process. :)
To find out more about ValleDesigns click HERE. We design websites, and many print items: invitations, save the dates, menus, brochures, business cards, you name it we design it!
