How overjoyed we were to welcome a tiny bundle of pink! After a long, hard labor that ended in a C-section, (maybe someday, I'll write a blog post about my out-of-body experience during that!) I was relieved and overwhelmingly grateful to be handed a healthy, vigorously crying baby on April 26, 2007.
The Spring was late that year, and as we drove home from Chambersburg Hospital, the pink cherry blossoms hung thick on the trees lining the street. I was touched. "A Pink Bundle born into the Pink-Blossomed Spring!" I thought with teary eyes as I glanced back at the car seat that held my Baby Daughter.
We named her Letitia (lu-tee-sha) Anne. Letitia was just a name we both liked.
Anne was for my Grandma Strite. Grandma Strite's name was Ann, and she was my childhood heroine. She had been killed in a train accident in Greencastle, PA, when I was in second grade.
Anne was also chosen for Anne of Green Gables...we had so enjoyed a honeymoon in Prince Edward Island...we especially were taken with the Musical. (Letitia uses "Anne" today quite frequently especially at restaurants or places where you have to give your name for an order...it's so much easier!)
"Shall we name this baby Anne, or wait for another baby girl?" I had asked EJ as we discussed names.
He shook his head. "If you want an Anne, you'd better use it now. Who knows? She might be the only girl we ever have."
Letitia ended up back in the hospital for several days because of high jaundice numbers. Her numbers were a couple of points away from brain damage levels, to my acute anxiety!
When we finally got home from that, I didn't fare so well.
It took me a long time to recover from the birth...then the infections started. All kinds of infections. On and on. Infections in spots I'd rather not name on a blog. But it wasn't always the same infection...they seemed to communicate with each other: "I'm done, now it's your turn." "Do you think we could get her bladder to get infected next?" "How about her tonsils now?" And so back to the doctor I'd go, about every 3 weeks or so.
One day, as I sat feeding my month old baby in the living room, idly watching the cars go by through the Bay Window, a strange vehicle pulled into my lane, and a lady I didn't recognize at first hurried up the walk. She rang the doorbell. I frantically tried to think...I knew I had seen her before, but where? I opened the door.
"Glenda! So good to see you," the lady had me engulfed in a hug before I got my wits about me. It was Charity, the Princess House Consultant who had demonstrated my Princess House Party. "How are you doing?" she asked. And I knew she genuinely wanted to know.
She was in the neighborhood to do a party, she said, and she wanted to see my new baby...she was sure I would have had it by now. She held the baby and told me how beautiful she was.
We visited for awhile about life, and when she left, I felt blessed.
Letitia was a very good baby, and we adored her. She had bright little eyes, and didn't miss a thing!
Finally, at 11 months, I weaned Baby Letitia. The infections suddenly stopped, and I began feel a burst of energy I hadn't felt in months! It felt so good to be feeling better.
Miss Letitia turned 1, and we threw a birthday party.
When she was just starting to walk around a year old, one day, she fell out of her crib and broke her leg. She was in a cast for 3 weeks, and as a result, she didn't walk until she was 14 months old.
With all of my previous sickness, & Letitia's broken leg bill, our checkbook seemed to remain in a constant state of depletion. I began to explore possibilities...what could I do to make a little extra without compromising my first calling as a mom?
One September day, 2008, I suddenly remembered the papers in the back of the filing cabinet. Hmm! What about that? I had totally forgotten all about it! I dug them out and read, and then re-read the information. It looked promising.
However, I did a bit of comparing Princess House with other Direct Sales Businesses. One thing that many of the businesses I checked out had was a sales requirement....for example, you had to sell $500 in a month's time or something like that, in order to remain a consultant. That really scared me. I didn't know if I wanted that pressure. With Princess House, one party would keep me a consultant for two years even if I did nothing else. I could literally take off for months to have a baby, and then come back. That was the determining factor for me.
(Today, a good portion of the Direct Sales Businesses I'd checked out back then, are no longer in business today. My heart is grateful to a Father who was looking over me, even then.)
I dialed Charity's number and left a message. I was thinking of giving the Princess House Business a try, I said on the message.
After a couple of days, she called me back. She didn't want to sign up a half-hearted consultant, she said. "I want you to do the pillow test for at least a week," she told me, "and if you pass that, then I will sign you up."
I frowned into the phone. "A pillow test, Charity? What's that?"
"Well," she explained, "at night, you climb into you jammies, and lay your head down on your pillow and go to sleep. If you get up the next morning and never even think about Princess House, or have a bad feeling about it, than it's not for you. But! If you wake up the next morning, and you can't stop thinking about Princess House, and you just wonder how it would be if you gave the business a try, it might be a fit."
"Oh," I said. "You want me to do that for a week?"
"Yes," she said. "Call me back in a week."
That night, I looked curiously at the very same pillow I had laid my head on for years. What would the Pillow Test hold for me? I laid down, and soon fell into a blissful sleep.
Sometime near the middle of the night, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed that I was in the middle of a circle of women, and I was show-casing Princess House Product. The women were all leaning forward to hear what I was saying, and we were all laughing and having fun. They were pulling out their checkbooks and buying things. (I can still picture that dream in my head to this day.) I was so excited in the dream, that I woke myself up.
I sat straight up in bed. It was dark, and EJ was peacefully sleeping beside me. "EJ! EJ!" I shouted his name and shook him by the shoulder.
"Hmm," he grunted.
"EJ! I just dreamed the strangest dream. I was a Princess House Consultant...and, and, I was successful."
"Hmm. Um-hmmm," he murmured, and then turned over and went back to sleep.
I was wide awake. I stared at the ceiling. What in the world did that dream mean? It was so real. Could it mean that I was to do it?
What would my mom and sisters say? What would my church say? I had a sick feeling that they wouldn't approve. Was that reason to not pursue it? But that dream was so real, and so full of joy and peace. It was like I belonged in that dream...my heart yearned for it to be true. Finally, after a long time, I fell asleep.
The next morning EJ eyed me curiously in the bathroom mirror as he shaved his whiskers at one sink, and I combed my hair at the other. "What was all that commotion about last night?" he asked gruffly, as he ran his razor over his cheeks.
I blushed, embarrassed. "Well. I...I dreamed a strange dream about being a Princess House Consultant." And I told him the dream. "I'm sorry I woke you up."
A hint of a smile showed through his shaving creamed face, and his eyes twinkled. "If you think you can make a go of it, try it," he encouraged me.
"Really? Do you really mean that?" I asked.
"Yes."
"But what if...what will the church say? and my Mom?"
"It's not a sin, it's a business, Glenda. I personally don't think any of them have any business telling you if you should or shouldn't do it."
"But, what if it doesn't work?"
"You never know til you try."
He finished shaving and brushed his teeth. I knew he was not going to discuss it farther...he didn't like to hash and re-hash over stuff like this. But I was ecstatic!!!
I floated out to get breakfast on and to pack his lunch. There was no way I could endure a Pillow Test like that one...especially if it lasted a whole week long!
As soon as it was late enough into the day to not be a nuisance, I called Charity. Of course, I had to leave a message.
I think I left several messages til she called me back...I was so very excited!!!
-to be continued...
Did any of you ever do a Pillow Test? If so, how did it turn out?
Do you believe you should pursue something because of a dream?
Feel Free to comment. And don't forget to subscribe.
Love, Glenda
P.S. Have you ever thought of owning your own business? What if you could do it with $75 down instead of a bank loan? Make informed decisions...Click on the Click Me Button for more information. Or, message me.
Hey Glenda,
How much I am enjoying your blog! Thank you for all the time and effort you invest into it, and may this looking back and remembering bring deeper levels of healing in any places that are still hurting.
As for a Pillow Test, I haven't done one so clearly put like that, but I definitely have had clear direction come in the night and through dreams.
I am looking forward to reading the next installments of your Princess House story. Stories of how God has worked in lives, done miracles, and used people whose heart was willing, are my favoritest kind of stories.
May God be glorified above all and many hearts be encouraged, as they read your…