Getting the Business Going

All the necessary papers have been submitted for our business to be valid in the state of Missouri, so we are simply waiting for the numbers to arrive.  Armed with the complete tax numbers we will be able to wholesale purchase the materials for the robes.  Well, that is if we can find the materials.

On May 10 we made an exploration trip to St. Louis to try to connect with a couple sources we had identified on the internet.  When we arrived at the first one I think we were mutually shocked. We walked through the door that we thought led to a showroom only to find some stacks of papers and a couple women with desktop computers.

The lady nearest the door politely informed us, "I'm sorry, but we only do internet orders.  If you have the item number we can order it for you."

"Could we see some samples? Renee asked.

"No, we don't have any samples here; our goods are drop-shipped from several different warehouses."

We kept on moving.  A retail store nearby was more promising.  We found a couple bolts of fabric that would work well.  After buying samples, we went home and started some more research.  We came upon their source of one fabric, but when Renee telephoned about ordering it they were surprised we had found that one on a store shelf.  "We quite carrying that one about ten years ago," the representative said.

The other fabrics were unfamiliar to the company rep. Now back to the drawing board to search for a source for quantity and quality fabric.

Meanwhile, Richard is sewing up the samples for the materials we were able to get.  This week it looks like the rain may be letting up so he is pursuing his seasonal passion - gardening...

... and Renee's seasonless dream.

Richard has taken on keeping the laundry done and Renee is euphoric.  The Lord has mysterious ways of providing even in earlier assumed adversity. {wink}

Ten Easy Steps

I can do it in 10 easy steps. I have learned to go from being a homeschooling mom to being a rehab nurse in 10 easy steps.  How do I do it?  Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, etc. It takes ten steps to go between our kitchen table, the base of our homeschool work, to our living room couch, the seat of our rehab efforts. 

All jesting aside, Richard’s time with the speech therapist yesterday was fruitful.  She was impressed with his improvement since she had last seen him on the Tuesday before.  She asked if we had photo albums from our past.  She wanted to give Richard an opportunity to tell the tales behind the pictures.  In a flash we had the photo album chronicling the restoration of the old Missouri farm house we moved into in 1993.  Richard enjoyed telling the tale.  Tomorrow she will be back, and he is armed with the photo collection of the construction of our office-guest house in Thamaga, Botswana.  African construction techniques will fuel lots of talk time since the African way was different from the American way of construction.

The other event on Monday that seemed to have an impact on Richard’s rehab was a visit to the Missouri Veterans Home (MVH) in St. James, his place of employment.  He called it bitter-sweet.  The sweet was in the warm greetings and encouraging words of the staff, his co-workers.  The bitter was in the stark reality of the time pressure of leave-time, the economic risk of disability, and the brain demand of the environment.  “It reminded me of how far I had to go,” he said, “and of how far I’ve come.”  The cherry on the top of that visit arrived today in the mail – greeting cards signed by what looked like every employee at the St. James MVH.  I tell you he is pumped to keep working.