My Personal Journey
Finding a Job to Match my Core Values
I am on a personal journey to change my life and my career and I’d like to share with you how I came to this place and where I’m planning to go in the future. Both of my daughters were born in China and my husband and I adopted them in 2001 and 2003. Ever since bringing my girls home to our family, I spent more time reading about, writing about and thinking about adoption than anything else. My two passions in life are adoption and quilting. About three years ago, I left my unsatisfying academic career to work at a job that I felt passionately about. I began working for an international adoption agency. This was my first step in changing my life and career.
A Sad Turn of Events - I Was Laid Off
I loved my job as a case manager for Guatemalan adoptions, but unfortunately, the adoption laws in Guatemala changed in January 2008 and currently there is no system in place for Americans to adopt in Guatemala. So I was laid off from my adoption job in June 2008. I so loved working with families who were adopting and my job as a case manager also allowed me to work at home and have a bit of flexibility so that I could pick up kids up from school and take them to lessons, etc. There were not any other jobs in international adoption available in my town. I was sad and at a loss as to what I wanted to do next.
My family needed me to have an income, but I did not want to go back to a traditional, full-time office job. If I did that, I would not be able to be home with my kids after school or take them to their lessons. I’d have to spend money on gas for the commute and buy a professional wardrobe. And I didn’t want to work at something that I didn’t feel passionately about. I just could not get myself to go back to an unsatisfying job and there were not jobs in adoption available to me. I was really searching for what to do next.
A woman in my neighborhood had recently started her own life coaching business and I opted to work with her for 3 months in order to figure out what I wanted to do next. What a blessing Jenny (Crest of Your Life) was and is in my life. First, she helped me to identify my core values. You’d think that a woman my age would know what her values are, but I’d never sat down and clearly articulated them. Jenny promised to hold me accountable if she saw me doing things that were not in line with my core values. Some of my values include community, personal responsibility, nature and conservation, diversity, creativity, freedom, family, and balance. Then we began to explore what I could do for a career that would match all of these values.
Forever Green Quilts is Born
When we first began meeting, I shared with her that I love to quilt and that my husband had encouraged me to make my quilting hobby into a business. I didn’t think I wanted to make a business out of it because I was afraid that if it became my work, it would no longer be fun. Then one day, while working on some assignments Jenny had given to me, I came up with the idea of making “green” quilts, that is, quilts that are made in a way that helps to sustain and preserve the earth and the environment. That was the day that Forever Green Quilts was born. I was so excited about this idea. Jenny helped me to develop it into a viable business idea.
I knew that part of my business would be a website. In my academic jobs, I was an educational web developer and I had a decent knowledge of how to build educational web pages, but I had no idea how to market a business or design a website for a business.
Back in the spring when I was first starting to think about my next move after being laid off, I had done some searching on the internet looking for businesses for stay-at-home moms. I read a bit about SBI, a software package that lets you build an online business. I was intrigued enough by what I read that it stuck in my mind for several months. When I was ready to start Forever Green Quilts, I revisited some of the pages about SBI and decided to give it a go to build my Forever Green Quilts web pages.
I’m now about 3 months into owning my quilting business and my green quilting website and I’m so excited about how well everything is going. I’ve already completed 3 custom projects and have 3 more in the works. My website is up and running and is ranked in the top 10 on several search engines! It has been great fun to write the content for my website and share with the rest of the world my ideas for making your quilting hobby or business greener.
I look forward to sitting down to work after I walk my children to school. Some days I sew, some days I work on the computer, but each weekday at 2:45 pm, I step away from my work and walk to pick my girls up from school. Some days, I work while hanging out at the house with them after school. Other days I’m busy running “Mommy’s taxi service” taking them to lessons. While sitting at their lessons, I can do hand sewing work, or work on my website on my laptop and continue to be productive.
I have found a way to work that allows me to honor my core values. I get to spend my days doing what I love and I have the time I need and want to give to my children before and after school.
Learn more about my website, SBI and how it has helped me to live the life I want.
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