Thoughts on Starting a Small Business 2

   This has been an interesting month for sure! I am very thankful and excited as I see God using this new business endeavor to work on my character and challenge me in new ways. I have to admit that it hasn't been easy, but it has been so positive, and there are three specific things I'd like to highlight in this post.

   1) I have seen a running pattern of weaknesses that God has been dealing with in me these last few years: poor communication, procrastination, and lack of discipline. When we started the process of making Marvin a permanent resident of the United States, I kicked and screamed over my part in the process. I hated talking on the phone, and I very much dis-liked all of the paperwork I had to fill out. It was frustrating to me how months could be lost in the process on a small mistake. We never received some important notifications via mail due to the poor mailing system in Honduras, and I was the type to just keep waiting and waiting instead of proactively find a solution. When Joel was born, however, I realized that if I wasn't disciplined and didn't get over my insecurities when it came to contacting people, there could be serious consequences for him in the timing of the surgeries. I became disciplined and no longer procrastinated, but often times, I still kicked and screamed. I have been so humbled this past year when, at times, after bad attitudes on my part towards our insurance company and all of the "inconveniences" I felt I had to go through to get Joel's medical care covered, I have been hit by the realization of how thankful I should be for such great provision and grace for us. Slowly, my attitude has changed towards the paperwork I do from an attitude of dragging my feet to a realization that I don't deserve this, and it is the least I could do. So, starting this small Mary Kay business has stretched me even more in all of these areas! I am going to have to make the very communication I previously felt was so uncomfortable a normal part of my life. I am going to have to learn to be disciplined and not procrastinate. And I really am so thankful that God is helping me to start growing in these areas that I have done so poor in!

   2) I see a root of insecurity and fear of man in my heart that needs to be uprooted. In my previous post, I mentioned how I was struggling with feeling rejection and thinking people didn't see me as a valued person in a few experiences I had. Yes, I am learning to see people from a different perspective and encourage others in their own endeavors, but at the same time, I am realizing very quickly that I am big part of the problem! I need to be at complete peace and offer the service I have with my whole heart! I am looking to serve my husband and my family through this endeavor. I am also looking to serve the women that will become my customers, but ultimately, I want to serve God in this endeavor! I understand that if someone says no or not now to me or isn't interested in what I offer, that is not a rejection of me, and I can feel confident to keep offering around without fear! If someone truly does reject me or treat me bad as a person, I know that He was treated much worst when he didn't deserve it, and I can keep on going! But really, I have to feel completely confident that what I have to offer is special and valued by my Creator, and He is the One who knows and can lead me to the people He wants to bless through me and use to bless my family, and as I knock on doors, some will be closed and others opened, and that is completely okay! I need to be in the habit of faithfully taking this to Him daily and asking Him to be the guide of everything I do. I need to keep trusting Him, finding my identity in Him, and doing everything I do in this business with great love. He is my source. He is my Shepherd. He is my everything, and I am excited to grow in my identity with Him!

   3) To go along with the last point, I am so excited to learn how to let Him permeate and be the motor of this small business! There is such a conflict in my mind between serving Him and living in the career-focused world around us. It is hard for me to understand how to sell successfully in a way to honor Him completely. This business cannot become an idol or it has to go. Money cannot be the motor of what I do. I cannot use and abuse people around me through sales to rise up my own ladder of success. Serving the Lord, being faithful to Him, and sharing His gospel must be the motor and the focus. I must continue my learning process of being a servant through this. I want to learn how to be Christ's disciple, and I know that just as I struggle with laying down my life and my pride daily in all other areas of life, I will struggle in this area too. However, I pray and hope that I will learn to lay myself down through this business and see this only as a tool to glorify my Creator.

   If you think of me this week, please pray for me that I will honor the Lord and His character will grow in me through my Mary Kay business!

Thoughts on Starting a Small Business!

   It has been a while, but HI! I am back to writing about things other than Joel. Definitely a main focus of the lessons we have learned this past year have centered largely around our experiences with him and moving to the States to find him medical help. But as we are phasing out of that intense stage, our focuses are starting to shift to other things.

   One of the things that has had my focus recently has been the new Mary Kay business I just started! Now, before you have any misconceptions about what I am about to say, I just want to state that I am not about to promote my business through this blog post! In actual reality, my intention was more along the lines of sharing a lesson I am learning through this process.

   I had a small salon back in Honduras for a time. However, I wasn't too serious about building up a strong clientele. I was in a stage of life where we very much loved our flexibility and traveled regularly, and we didn't really have a big need for the extra income, so I didn't do a lot of promoting. I had my little clientele which was built up and spread through word of mouth alone, and I enjoyed keeping it small and doing it on the side!

   This time around, however, I am serious about promoting this business and building up a clientele! I have no shadow of doubt that God alone is our provider, but I feel something poking and prodding me within and reminding me that we must be faithful in the little and persevere with determination. I know that as we wait and trust that He will provide, we must work and prepare for the future with His guidance, and the future (in human eyes) doesn't look too bright financially right now for us. My husband has not obligated me to help, but after a whirlwind year of moving to a new country and new language for him and his work situation and financial burdens looking very different from before, I desire to support him and, in a small way, help him work towards his goal of owning some small businesses that would allow us more flexibility to be involved in ministry and live using the business-oriented gifting God has given him. He is doing a great job with what he has, and I couldn't be more proud of how he is doing his work with such a joyful attitude and trusting daily in the Lord!

   Why is it, though, that at moments like these I feel like people are running away from me when I tell them I have started a business? By far the hardest part of this has been encountering that many people are not excited like I am about this opportunity and are very far from encouraging. I don't know what I really expected, but I am quickly coming face to face with the reality that this business will fail if I don't determine to persevere and push through the discouragement of rejection and even, at times, rudeness on people's part.  Finding the people who are truly interested in the service I have to offer will be a lot of hard work. When I post and share things about my business, I am realizing quickly that many people are not looking at me as a valued person with a life story any more. They see me as someone they are not interested in, another sales person who they don't have time to listen to. It is hard to be in that spot for me, yet I feel it is really good! It is good for me to be in this humbling spot of starting something which is only a dream at this point because it hasn't succeeded yet. I am reminded that it doesn't matter what anyone thinks of me, it doesn't matter if people don't care about why I am doing this or remember that a person, a family, a situation lie beneath the surface of this endeavor. All that matters is that the Lord delights in me and delights in the work that I am doing to honor Him first of all and my family. My theme verse has been Zechariah 4:10: "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand." I have been challenged to look at others differently as I have felt the humiliation of feeling that many do not care about something I am putting my whole heart into. How many times have I not cared about the hearts of others? How hard is it to give a word of encouragement? Help in some small way? Lord, change me and give me your perspective!

Merry Christmas!

We didn`t have a lot of time to prepare for Christmas because of our unexpected hospital stay with Joel! We got back to La Ceiba on the 22nd after an exhausting week and didn`t have many opportunities to be out and about after that. We had spent the month talking to Michayla about Jesus`birthday (and she has been all into birthdays), so in an endeavor to help her identify with what we were celebrating, I made a birthday cake for Jesus, and we had a wonderful time having a little party for him on Christmas morning. We kept it very simple, but it was special. We had spent Christmas Eve with Marvin`s family. I love the Christmas season-a time of the year to remember and focus on that special birth that changed everything. We need Him more than the air we breathe-every day and every moment. He came to give us hope and a future. Glory to God on the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men!

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus!

2 years old!

Wow! Is it really time to post about another one of Michayla`s birthdays? Actually, I am a little late in posting! December 19th, we celebrated Michayla`s 2nd birthday! Her birthday morning was rather hard for me as I was still with Joel in the hospital and wondering if I would be able to leave that day to be with her or not. We were so thankful to be sent home (to Mom and Dads` house in Balfate that is) by noon so that we could celebrate with Marvin`s parents, his sisters and their sons that night. Michayla is very aware of birthdays now!! She loves the cakes, the singing, the candles and decorations, so we were especially excited to celebrate her this year! 

Words really could never express how much we love this little girl-our "colocha", our "muñeca", our "preciosa", our "guapa", our "princesa". These are words we use regularly to describe her. She knows they all refer to her. I have this image in my mind of her running to our bed when she first wakes up in the morning in her pajamas with her curly hair flying all over the place. The smile I see on her face is one of sheer delight, and she is enthusiastically trying to wake up Mommy and Papa or getting into bed and cuddling with either one of us in a very wiggly manner. Some of her first words every morning are "hungry", or "Baby Joel esta dormido". She is in such a wonderful stage-a stage where she is soaking in the world around her, growing her vocabulary daily, interested in creating things with her hands whether it be a picture for someone, a necklace (with help), or a play dough project. She is "Mommy`s big helper"-the one who throws all baby Joel`s diapers in the trash for me, gets me the diapers when I need them, cleans up her toys, helps prepare meals, and wants to help with about anything. She is Papa`s little sidekick-the one who goes to work with him often, wants to go with him on any errand, wants him to "hold you" constantly, and just really wants to be with him as much as she can. She is baby Joel`s biggest kisser and hugger (besides Mommy of course!)-the one who constantly wants to touch and squeeze him, loves to pat his back and shush him with Mommy so he will go asleep and loves to hold his hand. She loves her little brother so much! This is the little girly girl who loves bows and headbands, lip gloss and lotion, clothes and shoes, purses and jewelry. To say she is a delight to us is an understatement. I am so thankful for the sunshine she sheds daily on our life. We love her so much and pray for her daily that the Lord will mold a soft and tender heart toward Himself in her, that she will love Him and serve Him and know him at a very early age. 

Sharon:a fertile plain. Michayla: who is like God? I really believe that names are important, and I think her name really does describe her to me. She surely is to me like a fertile plain-a little person with so much potential for growth and abundance of virtues and skills. I am daily amazed by this little person that God has placed in our home. She is a constant reminder to me of God`s greatness. There is NO ONE like God! 

Please pray for our sweet Michayla this year as our family prepares for both exciting and challenging changes .Pray that the Lord will draw her to Himself and mold her little heart in the way only He can do it. Pray that we will have wisdom in parenting as we strive to present the gospel to her in our way of living and talking and strive to help guide her little heart. 

First day of life

Six days old

One year old

1st birthday party

         

2 years old

 

Unexpected Surgery

Wow! What a crazy week! Many of you are probably wondering what exactly is going on with us and why Joel needed to have surgery. I`m going to leave out a lot of details to try to make a long story short. Friday the 12th, Joel started to vomit more than normal (before this, I could count the times he had spit up in his short lifetime on my fingers). By Saturday morning, I was pretty sure he had some kind of virus.and started looking for signs to make sure he was not getting dehydrated. By that afternoon though, after throwing up constantly for hours and eating very little in between, he started to refuse food, looked very sleepy and weak and very yellow in color. So we decided to take him to the same hospital where I had given birth to him, Euro-Honduras, to get him on some iv fluids. After tests and no improvement as far as the vomiting, he was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis after getting an ultra-sound of his abdomen done on Monday morning. We were told that only surgery could fix this problem. We (and the doctors who saw him) have found no information so far that would indicate that children with Aperts syndrome are more susceptible to Pyloric Stenosis, so this came as a surprise to us. We headed to Hospital Loma de Luz on Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon Joel underwent the surgery he needed. We are so thankful that he is doing well after a tough week. The Lord gave me these verses the morning of the surgery from Psalm 33:   

  

No king is saved by the size of his army;

    no warrior escapes by his great strength.  

A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

    despite all its great strength it cannot save.  

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,

    on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 

 to deliver them from death

    and keep them alive in famine  

We wait in hope for the Lord;

    he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name. 

                                           May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
                                                       even as we put our hope in you.

This week was especially hard for us because we had to watch our baby suffer of hunger, yet know that whatever he ate would pretty much be vomitted. The Lord brought great comfort to me as I saw how His mighty hand not only kept our sweet baby alive, but provided in great ways for him and for us. Knowing that He LOVES us has ministered to my heart greatly this year. Really my only hope for the future is His love. We continue to thank him for this precious treasure he has entrusted to us, Levi Joel, who has changed our lives drastically and blesses us daily with his sweetness. 

Thanks to every one of you who have prayed for us, written to us and blessed us in a number of ways. We feel blown away by the ways others have served us during this time

   

Just out of surgery

First feed after surgery

Special Memories of Joel`s First Weeks of Life

Welcome baby Levi Joel!

Dear Family and Friends,

It is with great joy that we announce the birth of our beloved son, Levi Joel, one of the greatest treasures ever entrusted to us. In his first few weeks of life, he has managed to capture our hearts with his sweetness and softness. He is truly a gift and a delight. The meaning of Levi is: Joined, attached. The meaning of Joel is: He that wills or commands and Yaweh is God. I have prayed this last year that the Lord would give us a name for our son, and now more than ever I have no doubt that He led us to name our precious boy Levi Joel. I know even already that one day his name will tell a story about him and about the Creator who made him. It was after I got home from the hospital that I found out that Levi means: Joined, attached. At that point, we had already found out that our baby has what is called Apert Syndrome, a very uncommon condition that affects about 1 in every 160,000 babies, characterized by premature fusion of certain skull bones, as well as toes and fingers that are fused together. We knew nothing and had never even heard of Apert Syndrome before he was born, but we can already see God`s grace and mercy over us as a family in the ways He has been preparing us for just a time as this and believe that God has a very unique and special purpose for this little one`s life. Throughout my pregnancy and now that he is born, we have and continue to pray daily over baby Joel`s life. Our biggest desire for him is that he can know Christ as his personal Savior and bring Him glory and honor. We face many surgeries in baby Joel`s future and many health risks, but just today I was again reminded that it is Jehovah who establishes our steps. He is God, He who wills and commands, and we have chosen to put our trust in Him alone.  As of now, baby Joel is doing great and is a very easy and content baby! Marvin, Michayla and I are all so in love with him and enjoying his newborn stage.

We are so thankful for all of the love and support poured out on us by family, friends and our church body. We have felt the prayers holding us up throughout this time and have felt God`s presence in a very special way. We covet your prayers on behalf of our son that the Lord would even now prepare him for the road ahead and protect his brain, his eyes, his ears, his lungs, his breathing, his heart, his hands, his feet, and every part of his body, that he will love and serve the Lord, and that his life will be used to bring glory to our king, Jesus. Please pray for baby Joel`s breathing, as he has, at times, seemed to have some trouble. Also please pray for direction, wisdom and grace for our family as we look down a long road ahead of us with many changes and challenges and face many tough decisions.

Emmanuel: God is with us, and we trust in His great love. To Him be the glory forever and ever! 

With much love,

Marvin, Sharon, (Michayla and Joel) Lopez