Category Archives: faith

Like Love Letters

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I’m going through a semi-rough season right now. Semi-rough because since losing one of my part-time jobs, I’m thisclose to asking for my old gas station attendant job again. I have more bills because of my hospital birthday stay in Orlando, and with a smaller income — and having already made budget cuts — the lure of taking on any job is strong.

Don’t get me wrong. I actually enjoyed my brief time at the gas station. Minus the constant fear of robberies, that is, I loved engaging customers. I was lucky that I had that as a second job. In this economy, any single job is a huge blessing. What more two?

I have voicing projects and social media consultations on the fence so jumping back to the gas station is something I’ve been hoping I wouldn’t have to do again.

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The Non-drama Drama

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Kyera waiting in the holding area before her outpatient surgery.

“I’m equal parts afraid and excited…” Kyera said to Rob the day before her scheduled surgery to remove her preauricular cyst. (She has me to thank for passing on my gene to her. You’re welcome, love.) “That’s what faith feels like,” he replied. “It’s like you’re standing on the edge and you know something is about to happen and you don’t know what other than that God is gonna be there.”

So true.

The surgery went well and I now have another medical bill that needs paying off. I guess you could say I’m back on the edge myself, equal parts afraid and excited, how God is going to come through this time. It’s not a first in the life of a single mom where money is tight.

Today was the official end of one of my part-time freelance contracts so the thought of applying for a part-time job somewhere that involves coffee, shoes, purses, or clothes, beckons. Wait. I don’t think I could work around shoes, purses, or clothes, or I would end up in a bigger hole.

I resist. For now at least. I know my body needs me to rest.

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Psyllium, Water, and Ditches

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It’s been a week since this year’s Global Leadership Summit from Willow Creek Association and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on three fronts: career, health, spirit. My unexpected hospital stay couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. Spending a birthday in the hospital because of an emergency allowed me to rethink my life.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not about to wax poetic over my “wake-up call.” I will confess though that turning forty-two with a disease that’s common for people in their sixties did prove sobering. And it didn’t help that when I let myself wander over to Facebook, photos of my high school classmates looking better than they did when we were fourteen to sixteen year olds, added to my lucid, harsh realization that neglecting my body has taken its toll.

By neglect I mean, unhealthy food choices, working twelve to fourteen hour days juggling three jobs, sitting on my butt day in and day out. Every excess came crashing down in one micro-perforation in my large intestine.

I lay flat on my back—literally—for twelve hours on a twelve-inch wide cot in the ER and I let myself fall into God’s arms. I had no more excuses. “I have updates to post!”; “I have three audiobook summaries to record!”; “Emails need to be answered!” I was done, fully spent, and just grateful I didn’t need surgery.

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The One With My Birthday in the Hospital

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I spent my birthday at a hospital in Orlando, the city we left in 2009 in exchange for a better job for me in Nashville. The reason of our return to Central Florida was for work with a little bit of pleasure at our organization’s North American Conference at Disney World. I say “we” because Kyera also happens to work at the same office with me but in a different department.

The conference was from Tuesday, July 26, to Friday, July 29, so I flew south on Monday morning to do what I do best: communicate to the world everything that was happening at all the sessions and seminars through our official social networking channels.

I had it all planned out in my head, you see. I used to do remote broadcasts when I worked in radio. These “remotes” involved a small crew of technicians at a long table set with a mixing board and a microphone and an announcer. (We didn’t have a fancy OB van!) Said announcer basically painted a picture with words to get people to come to said location for goodies and treats and possible celebrity sightings. (The very first remote I did was for a fashion show in 1989. Will never forget it.) Now that I don’t have a microphone, I primarily do the same thing, but through Twitter and Facebook: live electronic updates. That was my plan.

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The things I learned when I turned 41

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My birthday came and went the last week of July without any fanfare. Kyera hates it that I don’t like being fussed over or celebrated with a party or special stuff. I don’t know why I don’t! Maybe it’s because being an only child, I was spoiled and had all the parties I could ever want when I was young so I feel all partied… out? (I need to think up another blog for why I’m not the self-birthday partying kind.)

I lost a friend in early July to breast cancer. Mine was just one life that she had touched by her friendship and faith and her losing her battle made me appreciate life in an even more profound way. (More profound because as an orphan, death had already left its mark on my life at least twice over.) Her battle was swift. She was brave and because I believe in Eternal Life, I rejoice that Maileen has ultimately won. Freed of her earthly body, she is now cancer-free for all eternity.

Maileen Hern and I may not have been best friends, but throughout the years, we shared moments wherein we connected — as moms, as fellow outreach leaders, as longtime members of Victory.

I welcomed my 41st year uneventfully perhaps because on some level I was afraid to change the status quo of my existence — wake, work, sleep, repeat — and rock the proverbial boat. Two days after my birthday, something in me changed.

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The Story of Our House

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I was caught off guard one Wednesday night in church last April when I was asked to share on stage what God did in my life during our prayer meeting. Caught off guard not because of the sharing on stage part (Trust me, as a former broadcaster and live show emcee, shyness in front of crowds is not one of my virtues.), but because I was expecting to do it on another day.

Since I haven’t blogged about the story behind our getting a house, I thought I’d share it here by letting you hear me talk about it at Bethel World Outreach Center.

Before you click to listen, I must warn you that I choke up in a few places so if that makes you uncomfortable, you’ve been warned.

Thelma Testimony

People came up to me afterward encouraged by my and Kyera’s experience and up until this day, someone from that night will approach me, reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness to this single parent, and tell me they’re encouraged.

I’m amazed myself. That a wretch like me, sinful to the core, could be loved by a holy God by sending His son to die in my place, and given a house with just $100 out of my pocket.

God’s Grace, Love, and Mercy blows me away.

Breaking the silence: My voice finds work again!

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Mr Blue in my ottoman; click image for how to set up a portable booth

Since I started reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It! and Seth Godin’s Linchpin, I’ve been inspired to take serious steps at resurrecting my old voiceover career. It’s been relatively quiet since I moved back to the US in 2007.

Imagine the blow to my once highly-sought after voice’s ego when my CD demos went ignored by the recording studios I mailed them off to and followed up on painstakingly. The shock! It was sobering. My voice don’t mean jack in the US. Ouch.

I was unemployed for a good four months after landing in September 2007 (my two weeks as a housekeeper at the mall barely counts) and the one thing that I knew how to do from the time I was eighteen and starting off on a simultaneous career in radio, was being a voiceover. My first radio ad was a toothpaste commercial, which was followed by laundry soap, and ultimately led to a steady stream of products and formats: live announcing at fashion shows or corporate presentations, corporate videos, signature voice for network TV, for close to two decades while juggling full-time jobs in radio and the corporate ladder.

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Last weekend, last year. . .

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Kyera and I were flown to Nashville from our humble apartment in Orlando. It was the fruit of a back and forth correspondence with a potential new/old employer that started with a message on Multiply from one of my former bosses that greeted me in my Inbox on New Year’s Day 2009: “We might have an opening for you in Nashville. Hope it works out.”

I was so ecstatic at the possibility that I cried as I read the message on my phone. A flurry of emails, direct messaged tweets, and a few phone calls later, Kyera and I boarded a plane the third weekend of February last year and headed out on an adventure with the hope that life would change for us.

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The cold outside our door

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The bitter, beautiful cold outside our door

The cold outside our door

We made it through our first Winter Storm in Nashville! It’s been equal parts freezing, boring, and fun. I took this and some other pictures and was reminded of how easily cold can sit comfortably outside our hearts, waiting for a bitter thought to pry open a window or a door to our souls, and leave us as cold on the inside.

“I tithe! Why are you not blessing me financially?”

“I read my Bible everyday. Why are you not answering my prayers?”

“Um, God, I’m still sick. Haven’t you noticed?”

The list goes on and on.

No wonder why Paul reminds Timothy to “fan (his faith) into flame”.

May I fall in love with God more and more each day regardless of how He makes and allows each one to unfold.

Time Stand Still

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All 7 lbs, 19 inches of Kyera 2 days after she was born.

Just had to borrow the title of one my favorite Rush songs. Geddy Lee sings about the swift passage of time and how important it is to savor each moment in Time Stand Still.

(Time stand still)
I’m not looking back
But I want to look around me now
(Time stand still)
See more of the people and the places that surround me now
Time stand still
Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each sensation a little bit stronger

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