Under Attack

I’ve never been one to entertain thoughts and validate the existence of the supernatural. Novels and TV specials about ghosts and witches do not appeal (ok, repulse) me. I just do not get into Halloween (the ghouls and goblins part, free candy and cute kids in costumes I can totally handle!) I don’t understand the vampire movie craze. Period.

But I do acknowledge and fear the existence and power of Satan on this earth. The Bible makes it clear that he is living and active in the world. In the first chapter of Job, God asks Satan what he has been up to. His reply, “ ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ “ Oh wow. You get this picture of Satan lurking around,” looking for a soul to steal”, to quote Charlie Daniels. And then obviously he shows up in the New Testament as well, trying his best to temp Jesus himself in the wilderness, and in Luke 22:3, “Satan entered into Judas” – seriously? Can he do that?? The book The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis fictitiously portrays the demon ‘Screwtape’ writing letters of instruction to his nephew demon’ Wormwood’, telling him exactly how to control the thoughts and actions of his human ‘patient’ to keep him from becoming a strong supporter of the ‘Enemy’ (God). Although not scripture, it sure does make you think.

Recently, I have seen Satan at work in my family’s life. No, we haven’t experienced and catastrophic losses or turned our back on our faith, but let me show you how he has attacked us with a timeline of the past two months.

Early in September, Scott and I committed to start reading and studying a chapter of the New Testament together every night (excluding the gospels and revelation, we would have studied the entire NT by the end of the year). All is well and good for a few weeks, and then my work schedule got crazy. I was gone a lot, slammed every day at work, emotionally and physically spent, on call two weekends in a row and scheduled to go to a conference the next weekend. We kept reading, but our relationship felt cold and distant. My ‘love language’ (read The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman) has always been quality time, but we never could pinpoint Scott’s, he’s so laid back and even keel that nothing seems to phase him. Well, during that time, because I hadn’t been around or able to spend many quiet moments together, he figured out that his was quality time, too, and that he hadn’t felt at all loved in a long time. Epic. Wife. Fail. See what happened there? Scott and I attempted to grow together spiritually and Satan found a way to use my job to drive us apart.

So, the last weekend of September, he came to Fort Worth to go on a date with me while I was at my conference and we were able to reconnect. That night, we made some exciting plans for our future regarding decisions we’d been wrestling with for 6 months or more. This must have made the Devil really mad, because 2 days later he found a way to destroy our plans. Our last milk-hand at the dairy quit. If you aren’t in the dairy industry, you can’t fully grasp the impact this has, so I’ll run down the list of badness and uncertainty it has caused: 

1. Scott or Kenton would always have to milk either day or night (longer, harder hours to work).
2. A decision had to be made to keep milking cows, to milk less cows, or to sell the entire milk herd.
3. If they keep the cows, the guys work themselves to exhaustion and I never see my husband.
4. If they sell the cows, they no longer have jobs, and a proud 3 generations of dairy farming comes to a close.
5. All of the decisions and plans we’d made two nights earlier got put on hold, again.
6. Milk hands are hard to find, harder to train, and even harder to keep, so hiring another one was pretty much out of the question.

While my head was reeling with this news, I found comfort in two verses of scripture and posted them on Facebook, thinking maybe someone else might find encouragement as well. Apparently, the devil thinks scripture is a powerful thing, because the next day, a troublesome ex-church member passive-aggressively attacked me in the comments section under the scriptures (which opened a whole other can of worms, insert eye roll here). We somehow got through the rest of the week, and I had a few days off to spend together as a family before the hand was gone and life got harder.

That was Monday. Friday, I got to go to an amazing ladies retreat (see Turning Over a New Leaf) with my sister in law and found just what I needed to recharge my batteries, to recommit to studying and praying. Sunday, I had a major breakdown about putting Coleman back in daycare full time. He’s been spending Thursdays and Fridays with Scott, but would no longer be able to as Scott’s work schedule had changed. Scott and I read our Bible passage that night and God gave me some amazing scriptures to reaffirm the lessons from the retreat and encourage me that all was well.

I guess Satan decided to fight fire with fire, because the next afternoon, I was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy (all the gory details can be found here). You see, he had to resort to an attack on my physical health to distract me from attending to my spiritual health. And it worked. We quit reading. I was sick. Scott was gone to the dairy. Coleman could sense that we were upset about something. He used the emotional roller-coaster of female hormones to guide misgivings about God’s plan for our family. He used Scott’s absence to let insecurities and worry creep in. It took almost the entire month of October to recover.

Do you see his strategy? Do you see how subtle, yet infiltrative his methods are? It was well thought out, carefully planned on a timeline, an offense for every defense. Every time we tried to rally, he came back with something even harder, kicked us while we were down. No, we didn’t suffer a major loss, praise God, but now we’ve lost something even more precious: time spent with God. And you’d better believe that is a huge victory to Satan.

But let me share something else with you. During this whole battle over our spiritual walk, God fought back:

-The Holy Spirit gave me scripture memory to lift me up just when I needed it most.

-God guided my studying to gird me up before the assault even started.

-He gave me the desire to attend the ladies retreat (I had to rearrange my on call schedule) where I learned some invaluable resources to dive into God’s word and reap the benefits.

- He used family to minister to our needs while I was sick and unable to do so.

-He provided friends that were concerned for us and look out for me.

- He delivered a sermon through a great friend about finding my faith to snap me back to reality and realize what was going on.

- He gave my husband unbelievable strength and patience, he reassured me that I mean the world to him, he was scared with me, and he took great care of me.

See that! GOD. FOUGHT. BACK. For me, for little ol’ me! Even when I didn’t know what was going on! And he does every single day for all of us-isn’t that just amazing?!? So the next time you think you’re being kicked while you are down, “count it all joy” just as Paul did. Take it as a compliment: you wouldn’t be a target if you weren’t doing something that made Satan mad and threatened his mission. But at the same time, be aware, be on guard, and allow God to fight back!

Got the "All Clear"

I just got the call from my doctor's office, and I am officially not pregnant.


WHAT?!?


Sounds weird, but on October 6th, I was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy, meaning the embryo implanted in my fallopian tube instead of my uterus like it was supposed to. This condition can be life  threatening; if the tube ruptures, it can cause severe bleeding and requires emergency surgery. I was never in that type of critical condition, I was stable and never in any severe pain. So rather than surgery to remove the embryo, I was given an injection of methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug that destroys rapidly dividing cells. The injection made me very sick to my stomach, weak, and caused some pretty awful cramping, but this was the least invasive method and gives the greatest chance for preserving future fertility. We've been monitoring my pregnancy hormone (hcg) levels weekly since then, and they are finally below 5 (2,600 the first day).


To answer all your questions:

• No, we were not trying to conceive.
• I had been spotting for a few days and then developed some pain in my pelvis (like an ovarian cyst) and took a home pregnancy test and it was positive. The diagnosis was confirmed with an ultrasound and a quantitative HGC (measures the amount of hormone in my bloodstream, rather than just a positive or negative).
• I have no risk factors for this condition, it was just a random thing (actually, it occurs in 1 in 50 pregnancies)
• There is a 10% chance it could happen again, but my OB assured me that I shouldn't be worried at all about trying to have another baby at this point, and we only have to wait 1-2 months if we wanted to try.
• I would have been 6 weeks along.

And the million dollar question: How are you doing emotionally? Well, although it feels a little callous, we're fine. If I had found out I was pregnant a few weeks before, then found out it was ectopic, I can see where I would feel some degree of  loss. But the fact is, I suspected the ectopic and then took a pregnancy test, so the entire time, it was more like I was making a medical diagnosis of something that could require emergency surgery and a blood transfusion. Then on the other hand, it's a little sad in that Scott and I (and God) conceived a child and it couldn't survive- it would have been so much better to be 10 weeks along and getting ready to announce our excitement to the world. And I'm pretty sure that next time we are pregnant, we'll value a healthy pregnancy just a little more.


So, while it sounds so strange to be excited about not being pregnant, it means that this is finally resolved, that I am healed, and that I don't have to undergo more injections or surgery- all good things. Praise be to God for healing and prompt proper medical care, and props to my handsome hubby for a month of support and taking care of me. And blessings on our little baby - even though you were only a part of our lives for less than 24 hours, we are honored that God chose us to be your parents.

Mary Kay

I wear many, many hats. Wife, mother, veterinarian, friend, daughter, ____ in-law, sister, and ...
Mary Kay lady??


If you know me, that would be the absolute last thing you would think I would do in my infinite spare time. Yes, I am a Mary Kay Independent Sales Consultant (and an Advanced Color Consultant, at that!).


What? How? Well, my lovely cousin, Vanessa Parkey, got me hooked on the products while I was at Tech. And she sold them to me at cost. Like a drug dealer getting a kid addicted to crack. And then she pulled the old, "I need a new consultant, either sign up or start paying full price" routine. That was in 2004, and I've sold enough to get my 50% discount ever since (read: I ordered once or twice a year and kept my friend, mom, and sister-in-law with their supply).


Then in June, she told me it had been a year since I ordered and I was going to become inactive if I didn't order. That got me thinking.....

• Maybe I should see if a few more of my friends would like to order something?
• What if I actually start selling and make a little extra cash?
• What if I sell enough to make a big order every month (instead of every 3 months)?
• What would it take to replace part of my salary so I could go part time?
• I wonder if I could get to that point in a years time?

And I talked to Vanessa about it. Her answer to all the questions: absolutely!! And she offered to help get me back on my feet with training and selling tips and even coached me what to say (of course, the better I do, the better she does as my director). So slowly but surely, I've been building up my customer base, my inventory, and my sales knowledge. I have a website, business cards, and a pro-pay account.


Two things drew me to explore Mary Kay as a business opportunity. First, the slogan

"God first. Family second. Career third."

a mantra established by Mary Kay Ash. Isn't that how it should be? Isn't that the opposite of my current life, and why my time feels so unevenly distributed? Another tag line:

"Discover what you love."

is written on all the propaganda, from the boxes, to the catalogues, all over the website. It was like a dare to re-prioritize me life, to find a means towards and end. I talked it over with Scott, and we decided I would go for it, knowing my life would be a little busier until I reached my earning goals, and then we would use my MK income to replace what I would loose if I went part time.


So while life has prevented me from expanding as rapidly as I wanted to, I have made some progress, held several successful parties, and increased my income. A few things have surprised me though about starting this business. 1. This is fun! It's awesome to see someone try a product they love or get excited about how beautiful they look after a facial. 2. I have yet to make anyone cry- like I do almost daily at my other job (not because I'm mean, I'm just the bearer of bad news and the grim reaper). Ladies are usually laughing and cutting up and enjoying themselves. 3. I get to have girl time and meet new people- something you just don't get the luxury of doing as a working mom.


And now, the sales pitch (you knew it was coming!) If you are interested in hosting a party (can be as few as 2-3 of your friends), having a one-on-one facial, or want more information about the Mary Kay opportunity, please visit my website and contact me via message. Hope to meet you soon!

www.marykay.com/sholloway