We started out our 2011 with a huge trip to Pasadena, California for the Tournament of Roses Parade with the Albertville High School Aggie Band on January 1st and had no idea what the days ahead had in store for us.
In the days leading up to our shop opening, Joe had his 15 seconds of fame from the front page of the Advertiser Gleam story about the shop to a one minute and ten seconds on a local news channel about our shop as a "Bright Spot in our Economy". Even since that day, we have grown and changed as a family and Joe as a person.
Joe received a unexpected text message from someone who saw him on the news, congratulated him for opening the shop and knew that it would be successful. He assumed it was someone from his previous employer but since he deleted all his contacts from there in his phone, he wasn't sure who it was. I, on the other hand, knew that I could scroll back and decipher who the message came from. Once I realized that the message came from his former boss, I approached Joe with proud compassion. "Joe, that text that you got...it was from Shean."
Joe looked almost shocked and some disbelief. Since that day in May on the walking trail that he told me that he no longer worked for the giant retail monster, Wal-Mart, Joe had feelings of failure and resentment...I could sense it in our marriage and our everyday lives. He focused on the things he had control over like the kids over the summer, our trip to Massachusetts, the groceries and laundry. He was such an amazing Mr. Mom over the summer that I hated to lose that! This new business adventure gave him something that he had never had before and something that we could do together!
On opening day, we all were up early and were excited and nervous. We needed some balloons filled to go on our guest tables outside and I told Joe that I would run up to Wal-Mart and get them filled. He declined and said, "No, it's time for me to go up there and do this."
He left with 2 bags of blue and green balloons. He came back with his pride.
He felt like he could walk into that store and feel proud of who he was and what journey we were about to embark on and came back to his business a changed person. We have worked hard to get where we are and we will never take advantage that he or I had jobs that you could lose in a day. We are not guaranteed anything in life; our jobs, our homes, our friends, our lives....there are people in our lives that affect us every day and challenge us to remember why it is we do what we do. Don't forget to be thankful for your job and the material things but, until you are faced with what you don't have often enough, you forget what it's like to be desperate and a failure and it forces you to remember to be thankful for the people around you and the love you have for your spouse, your parents, your children, your family.
Happy Holidays and we hope for you to see that being grateful for each day is a blessing.
