Babies and Business
Our breakthrough finally came (see The in-between time). We found someone who could fabricate the broken part of our roaster! Our delay was also over with our family. Two months after losing a baby at 19 weeks we were pregnant again and this time we successfully gave birth to our precious son Brayden.
We had another boost a few months later when Lance received an inheritance from his grandparents that gave us the finances to take things to the next level. The amazing thing about this inheritance is that his grandparents, Norman and Grace Odvody, were humble Nebraska farmers. They lived their whole life in the same, simple house that they built for their young family. They didn’t buy fancy things, or go on big trips, but they worked hard and saved. Now we were reaping the benefit from their years of faithfulness. And it gave us what we needed to quite literally “birth” our business.
We had the money we needed to build a small building for the roaster, got power and propane hooked up, paid the person to make the repair, and our machine was operational! We ordered our first shipment of beans, Lance learned to roast, we developed a website and promotional materials. Hot dog, we were in business! Well almost…
When Brayden was six months old we got a little surprise…after years of trying and a traumatic miscarriage…we were pregnant AGAIN! What? This is crazy! We finally have what we need to start our business, have a new baby, and are pregnant again? This was no easy pregnancy either. I got gestational diabetes, Brayden had a terrible time sleeping at night, and we had one sort of illness or another from Thanksgiving through the end of May. It was the hardest season of my life.
I have to tell you that I was frustrated with my Maker. Why the years of delay to now having two babies (3 pregnancies) and birthing a business in 2 years. Have you ever felt frustrated with God’s timing? I was!
I was reminded of the Biblical story of Gideon and how God sent him to battle against a formidable foe where they were horribly outnumbered, then told Gideon to shrink his army again. It was so that people would know that the victory came not from their own strength but from God. That is our hope in this business. That people would know that God is real and would see Him at work in our company. That it would be clear that our success is not from our own strength and hard work, but from the living God at work with us still today.
So, the weekend we officially launched our business at the Cary Farmer’s market I was in the hospital with contractions with our third son and a 15 month old baby at home. We gave birth to our business the same time as our babies!! After years of waiting, we had “triplets.”
