Curious Places
The funny thing about life is that often times, you
curiously find yourself in circumstances you never would have previously
imagined for one reason or another. All
of a sudden, you look around and think to yourself, “How in the world did I get
here.” Perhaps you can relate.
For instance, finding oneself is in the embrace of the woman
who gave birth to you 30 years ago. A woman whom you’ve never met. Not initially knowing if your arms, or life
for that matter, would have enough room for this special person who brought you into the world. You may find yourself unsure of how to love such a
person who intensely loves you and has always wanted the best for you, so much so, that in the winter of 1979, she made the heart-wrenching decision to
give you a more abundant life than she was capable of giving you on her own. After all, she was only fourteen
years old. She did the most selfless thing a young mother can do. She released you into the arms of another
woman who was physically unable to bear children of her own. A woman who was married, so this child whom
she loved so much could not just have a mommy, but a daddy too…a family – the very family you were raised and thrived in your whole life up to this point. Now, you find yourself
in her arms, her tears soaking through your shirt, the 30 years of separation,
worry, longing, guilt, prayers and maternal love culminating in a long over-due
embrace. You find yourself reading birthday cards she wrote to you over the years, watching her tearfully look through picture albums of your childhood that she wished she could have experienced, hearing about how you were conceived and the story of your birth, how your mother kept you a secret until she was seven months pregnant with you to protect you from harm, how the last image she has of you is in an incubator being transferred to Texas Children's Hospital because you were so premature, and how she never really knew if you were released from the hospital or healthy for that matter. You find yourself hearing about all the details of her twelve-year search to find you, seeing pictures of your birth father, and meeting your half sister and her family. You never had a sibling growing up, and now you suddenly have one...a sister and a whole slew of wonderful, new relatives who are now our family in every sense of the word. Quite the curious place to find oneself, indeed.
My husband - Chad - and his birth mother -Terri- the very moment they met in 2009.
Chad with his parents and Terri - all super special people.
Perhaps another curious place to find oneself is celebrating the American holiday of gratitude, Thanksgiving, at an orphanage in Haiti of all places in the world. A place where most of us would look around and sincerely wonder what someone could possibly be thankful for in such a desolate and depraved place.
(Picture taken two years after the earthquake in November 2011 - people are living in these tents)
We went to Haiti to serve at an orphanage we learned about through a friend and most definitely looked around into the faces of the
children who came to the orphanage from some of the direst of circumstances and
thought to ourselves, how did we find ourselves here at this particular
time of the year? While many people in America were sitting down to their annual feast with family and friends, we were watching families and friends fight over the heads and tails of fish that we had taken to distribute along with 50 boxes of food to a remote village about an hour outside of Montrouis, Haiti. One part of the world experiencing a feast while we were in the land of famine.
This little girls face haunts me.
Chad and Jefnika...the Haitian honey badger.
Every time I would pick Nakisha up, she would lay down on my shoulder and just fall asleep.
This is Anson, the young man we sponsor to go to school. He is holding his little brother in this picture on the afternoon he invited us to come to his house and meet his family. He was electrocuted outside the orphanage a few weeks before we met him and almost died had he not been close to the orphanage that had the resources to get him to a hospital in Port-au-Prince. We formed a special bond with him over the course of that week. When we had to say good-bye, he said he wanted to come back to America with us. It broke our hearts to tell him that it wasn't possible.
Nakisha
I am not one who believes these curiosities happen
coincidentally. For us, these
experiences were very purposeful and instrumental. They directed our thoughts and softened our
hearts to the point we understand and have great resolve in the next steps we
are set to take...steps in adopting a child into our very own family.
That’s right, you read correctly, we are formally committing
to adopt an orphan. The details are
fuzzy. We don’t know exactly how, from
where, when or who for that matter, but we do know why…because these very
profound and purposeful experiences are not random occurrences. They have been intricately woven into our
lives for a reason.
This brings me to what we DO know thus far about how this is
hopefully going to go down.
This past April, I was picking my mother up from the airport
from a conference she had just attended in Las Vegas. Many of you know that my parents sold their
restaurant last year. After that, my mom
wasn’t quite ready to retire (the youthful-spirited, spring chick that she is), so
she got involved with Arbonne International.
Arbonne produces premium, Swiss-made skin care and health/wellness
products. I actually introduced my
mother to Arbonne five years ago and have been using the skin care products
ever since. Upon meeting my mom at the arrival terminal to pick her up from her conference in Vegas, she began to tell me about a woman named Valerie Edwards who spoke at
the conference. Valerie had recently adopted her
son from Guatemala after a 3-year-long adoption process. Her involvement with selling Arbonne not only
provided for her son's adoption, it provided the flexibility and
provisions for all that time going back and forth to Guatemala for a three
year period until the adoption was finalized.
All of a sudden, it became apparent that I was being led
into realizing something that I had enjoyed using the past five years could also
become a resource to provide for our family's adoption.
I didn’t tell anyone and committed to praying about it for a month. Literally every time I opened my Bible for a
30 day period, there was something speaking directly to me about not having
enough faith in the things that God can do, addressing fear, or encouragement to
step out of my comfort zone. You know,
fun stuff like that. Sundays at church,
the sermons were messages centered around similar themes. It was coming at me from all sides. Chad even looked at me that morning I went to
pick up my mom from the airport and said out of no where (while making a
smoothie with Arbonne’s vegan, gluten-free protein powder), “I don’t know why
you don’t sell this stuff.”
Isn't he handsome? Love you babe!
On Mother’s Day, I felt I had enough confirmation that this wasn’t my bright idea, but a plan from a power greater than myself. I told my mom on that day that I will sell Arbonne, and 50% of the commission earnings from my sales would go towards adopting an orphan into our family. After years of working together in the restaurant business, we would work together once again in the health/wellness & skin care industry.
Me and my mom - Nancigail
And so, yet again, I find myself in another curious place in
life. The girl who goes to great lengths
to dodge sales people at all costs finds herself in the sales industry. My friends, there are stories floating around
about my aversion to salespeople. Funny
thing is, I’m excited. I have had a
great interest in health & wellness the last few years that coincides with
Arbonne’s mantra: pure, safe and beneficial.
I have the privilege of educating people about ingredients and helping
people feel healthier. People are
becoming increasingly more knowledgeable and caring about what they put in
their bodies and on their bodies. Terms
like “organic,” “glutens,” “non-GMO,” “clean eating,” are being tossed around like various sporting equipment at the 2012 Summer Olympic games - thank you very much Misty May Treanor, Karri Walsh Jennings, Serena Williams & the entire USA men's basketball team! Most everyone uses something for skin care (it
is the largest organ in our bodies for goodness sake) or supplements like
protein powder. Why not use something
that is really good for you that will be helping an orphan get a family?
My hearts - Luke and Elaina...wouldn't they be the best brother and sister ever?
What makes Arbonne stand out from many other kinds of skin
care companies? They have been caring
about the ingredients they place in their products for over 30 years. The highly regarded, premium brand with a
Swiss heritage is botanically-based (plants are the foundation of the product,
not added in at the end), healthy, and inspired by nature. Whatever you put on your skin is
scientifically proven to go into your blood stream – think of nicotine patch
and hormone creams. Since 1980, Arbonne
has been committed to the development of unparalleled products free of harmful
ingredients.
·
Arbonne skin care products are formulated without:
o Animal
products or animal by-products (just Google “animal rendering plants” and have
fun reading about the interesting stuff that goes into 97% of skin care, make-up &
toiletries on the market today)
o Parabens
– a hormone altering ingredient & toxic
o Formaldehyde-donating
preservatives
o Petroleum-based
ingredients – Refined crude oil and has the effect of putting saran wrap on
your skin. John Hopkins University named mineral oil in cosmetics and
moisturizers as the number two cause of aging – the first
being direct exposure to the sun. This ingredient is in almost all skin care products.
The RE9 line was voted #1 in an anti-aging results study through an independent laboratory surpassing the #1 department store brand and #1 direct sales brand!
·
Arbonne nutritional products are formulated without:
o Artificial
colors
o Artificial
flavors
o Artificial
sweeteners
o Animal
products
o Animal
by-products
o Cholesterol
o Saturated
fats
o Trans
fats
o Gluten
o GMO
· Arbonne is also committed to environmental
responsibility by routinely reviewing product ingredients, packaging materials
and business operations to optimize a positive contribution to defending and
protecting the earth’s resources.
There are not many skin care/ health & wellness products
out there that are so crazy good for you and really work PLUS will go straight
to giving an orphan a better life. Let me share with you a few ways you can partner with me in making this happen:
1. Be open to giving Arbonne a try by going to Arbonne's website: www.arbonne.com,
and checking out all the products we have to offer. Feel free to ask me for a sample of something you might
like. If you've tried Arbonne in the past, you might try it again. Arbonne is always making enhancements right along with enhancements in cutting-edge research and science. Also, there are many ways to get
a significant discount for items you are interested in…no need to pay full
retail value.
2. You can become a client and enjoy the
benefits of pure, safe and beneficial products. Arbonne has a 45 day money back
guarantee. You have 6 whole weeks to see what
you think about your purchase.
3. You can share this blog on your
Facebook page or email link to friends who you think might be interested in
premium products that benefit a great cause.
4. The holiday catalog is coming out
September 1st. You can keep
me in mind once you start your holiday shopping. Arbonne has a wonderful selection of
specialty holiday products you can choose from to give lovely gifts to your
family members & friends who like receiving yummy smelling bath & body
products that are only available this time of year. You could also host an open house to have friends and family stop by and check out some of the holiday products and catalog for their Christmas shopping.
5. You can host a get-together with a few
close friends so I can get the word out to extend my client base. This ends up being a huge blessing and
benefit for you. I can treat you and
your friends to a free facial. This is a
relaxing, low-key time to enjoy friends and rejuvenate…No muss and no fuss. Also, you can acquire products you like at a
significant discount - $125 of product for $25 PLUS a free product. If sales from the get-together are really
good, the rewards go up - $250 for $50, and so on. There will be no pressure from me to buy
either. You can entrust your friends and family to
me…remember my earlier confession to you about my aversion to sales people (that hasn’t
totally gone away).
6. Arbonne is a direct sales company, so you
can actually work with me. You can be on
my team! Maybe you are an
entrepreneurial spirit, or you work long hours and want more time at home with
your family. Perhaps you want to be your own boss and make your own hours, or you are a stay-at-home mom and want to contribute financially without
sacrificing your time with your kids. Maybe you want to adopt too and just
can’t seem to see how financially, or maybe {fill in the blank}. The more I am learning about Arbonne, the
more I am finding it to be a huge opportunity with lots of growth and tons of
training. The direct sales industry has changed a lot over the last twenty or
so years. Lots of legitimate businesses
out there are going this direction because it cuts out advertisers and the middle-man. Products go directly from the company to the customer. The
other bonus with Arbonne is that the products are consumable. This is significant because you will continue
to receive a percentage of every sale after the initial purchase in the form of
reorders! Very smart business to get
into. People will always be using
something for skin care…in fact, skin care/ cosmetics are one of the most
recession proof industries out there. If
you would like to read more about the direct sales industry, Dare to Dream
& Work to Win by Tom Barrett is an excellent introduction in to the
industry. Tom Barrett hold’s two master’s
degrees and a Ph.D. in psychology and has specialized in working on Capitol
Hill with members of Congress and with corporate leaders for the last 20 plus years - Basically, he is legit!
7. I am super open to any ideas you may have. Send them my way, please.
7. I am super open to any ideas you may have. Send them my way, please.
Please consider partnering with me in whatever way you would like. Something you use everyday can actually make
a significant difference in your life and the life of a child. Feel free to message, call, or email (whatever
mode of communication you prefer). Whatever
you purchase from me will not only be an investment in your own health, but an
investment in the life of an orphan. I
will appreciate any support and encouragement as I find myself in yet another
curious place in life. I have a feeling
there will be more to come, and I can’t wait to share with you how our journey
towards adoption unravels. I have no doubt that we will have some very special pictures to share that are similar in nature to the very first picture at the top of this blog when Chad met Terri for the first time. Another treasured image depicting the embrace of our newest family member for the very first time....tears of joy streaming down our faces and thankfulness in our hearts.
All my best,
Darsey Bartling
Arbonne International
Independent Consultant
817-676-8896
http://www.arbonne.com
#19295119
"Arbonne for Adoption"
