posted 05-17-2006 08:45 AM            

Well, most of you know, I am a 21 year old single mother of a beautiful 2 year old daughter. My strength in Christ has never really been a strength in my life at all. It still isn't the strongest, but I am working on it.
Almost 2 months ago, my step mother became a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant and asked me to attend a meeting with her one night. (Please don't run - I am not here to beg you to join or buy anything!) I went with her just as a friend trying to help her meet a goal of bringing 3 guests in the month of April. I knew that first night that Mary Kay was for me. I have never had much positive female guidence in my life. My mother left when I was in the 5th grade, leaving me with my dad and brother. I work in an all male office and live at home with my boyfriend (and daughter of course). I don't get much girl time and until Mary Kay, didn't really think twice about it. The only girlfriends I knew where the highschool friends that could turn on you in an instant. Mary Kay has been such a blessing in my life. This company allows me to have girlfriend time with WONDERFUL women, work a from home business around my ever busy life, and endless opportunities to grow - business wise and personally. This company says "God first, family second, work third." I have never been one to put God first in my life, but this company is really helping me with that.
Okay, so now that I have given you a little bit of backround, I want to share with you what happened to me this past weekend. Friday night was my first ever Mary Kay party -called a debut. I was so excited! Right before my party started, as my guests were arriving, my boyfriend called. He had taken his 11 year old sister out on his 4-wheeler. She wrecked the 4-wheeler and broke her arm. Dillon was in such a panic that when he pulled his 4-wheeler into the bed of his truck, he went to fast, crashing into his cab (dented the truck and broke the window). Throughout my whole party I was stressed, worrying about Sara. After all my guests left, I headed for the hospital. On my way there, someone crashed into my car - they just kept driving, never even touched the brakes. I was devasted. I have never really been in a major wreck before. I spent hours upon hours in the ER with a VERY swore neck and back. Then, spent all day Sunday-MOTHER'S DAY SUNDAY-laying on my back on the couch, not even able to pick up my daughter or go visit the wonderful women in my life. I couldn't help but think all sorts of bad things - If I would have just said NO to Mary Kay I wouldn't have been driving that way. If I would have never co-signed for Dillon to buy that stupid toy I would have never been on my way to the hospital. Over and over these absolutely crazy things just kept filling my mind. Even though my back was killing me yesterday I decided that I needed to go to the weekly meeting. I was amazed when my director told us that she was going to be speaking about confidence. I felt, of course, like she was speaking directly at me. I shared my story with the women, telling them that I one point I thought "Why did I do this? Look at this horrible thing that happened on MY Mary Kay night. That is it - I QUIT!!" Of course, I didn't quit, I went to the meeting instead. Ladies, I want to tell you how much it meant to me to have 25+ women in one room at one time listening to my story and truly caring for my mental well being. I had several women at the meeting offer me their phone numbers saying if I ever needed a boost to call them. Talk about support!
If you all don't mind, I would like to share some of the things that I am learning from time to time. And if any of you are at all interested in Mary Kay, you just let me know and please feel free to visit my website www.marykay.com/reasmom.