Cartersville Family

Tomorrow night is my final focus group to discuss ideas for my new business. I would love to hear what you think. This new business will be a fun and exciting place for kids to play and a relaxing environment for adults to enjoy as well.

We are meeting at 7pm on Monday, March 24th in Cartersville at and office in the Fuddruckers shopping center. We have refreshments and coffee and will be done by 8:30. If you haven’t already completed the survey, please click here.

What an amazing day. I know that all over the world, there were wonderful Easter services held to praise our Lord. I am always overwhelmed by the number of people who come to church on Easter Sunday when they don’t usually attend. I hope that today that has changed for them. I hope they experienced a life change and will continue on the path that God has for them. I am blessed to be a part of an awesome church where God is working. Several people prayed and trusted Christ to save them. All I can say is that we have an incredible Savior and i am privileged to be called his child.

Last night, Kelly and I hosted the second of 3 focus groups to discuss ideas for our new business venture. I was pleasantly surprised when more ladies came than expected. They gave us some great ideas and insight that we hadn’t already thought of. I just love talking to other moms. We all work so hard to be the best for our children and this new business will celebrate that. Thanks again for those who participated in the focus group and for all those completing the survey. We love hearing from you.

A new place for children to play and parents to relax is coming to Cartersville! This new facility will combine supervised interactive kids play areas with a relaxing café-style environment for their parents and caregivers. If you are a parent, caregiver, educator or small business owner, we value your thoughts and ideas when is comes to forming this business.

In order to ensure that this facility meets the needs of our target market, we are hosting two Focus Group Meetings on the following dates: Thursday, March 20th, and Monday, March 24th. Each meeting will take place at 1010 N Tennessee Street, Cartersville, GA (Fuddruckers shopping center) from 7 to 8:30pm. Refreshments will be served.

The purpose of this meeting is discuss ideas and plans for a new business. Receiving input from people who will one day enjoy this facility is key in the formation of this exciting new business. Your attendance and participation at this meeting would be greatly appreciated.

If you haven’t already completed our brief new business survey, click here to do so.

Last night was my first Focus Group meeting about the new business I want to start. It went very well. Those in attendance were some of my closest friends and they provided excellent feedback and support. I am so blessed to have them all. They are moms like me and the business will benefit them so their input is vital. I am excited to re-read my notes and put some thoughts on paper. I am looking forward to the next 2 Focus Groups and all the ideas that I am sure will be a result.

If you haven’t already completed a New Business survey, please click here and give me your input.

A new place for children to play and parents to relax is coming to town. In order to ensure that this facility meets the needs of our target audience, we are doing some research. Please click on this link to complete the survey. Thank you for your participation.

I heard that Hannah Montana was making a guest appearance at Oak Leaf Church this Sunday. She came by my house for a quick photo shoot. Isn’t she a cutie?            

Michael did a whole lot of research on church planting. I think he read over 100 books on the subject along with books on marketing, business, strategy formation, staff development and leadership. He found Westridge Church in Hiram, GA and learned that they have a church planters school and internship. We knew this was a God-thing. They even told us about a few cities in the Atlanta area that needed a church plant. Cartersville was one of those cities. We had never heard of it.

We decided to stay in AR until Emma was born. We had a couple months to wait, but finally, in May 2006 we loaded up our 3 week old baby, our 3 year old daughter, Lauren and a moving van of belongings and moved into an apartment in Cartersville, GA.  We loved the small town feel and the local businesses.  We weren’t really happy about staying in Cartersville but a few months into it, we knew God had us here for a reason.

I was thinking today about all the things we as moms give up for our children. I know I get tired of listening to kiddie songs in the car, cartoons on the t.v., chicken fingers and french fries for dinner and having almost no time for myself. Putting our own desires and dreams on hold and having to die to self sometimes.  Sometimes i get caught up in being selfish.  I get stuck in rut of feeling like i deserve more time or that I deserve a break.  I was abruptly reminded that if God felt that way, we would never have a shot at heaven.  Jesus gave up EVERYTHING.  He above all deserves to have what He wants; instead He died to self to save us.

I tell you, i have learned more about God’s character since becoming a mom.  Loving my children and wanting the best for them has often reminded me about God’s love for me.  Even at the end of one of those long days when I had no time to think, I love my children more than anything.  Thank you God for loving me.

So there we were in Arkansas at a big traditional baptist church doing… youth ministry once again. I was pregnant with our 2nd child, we bought a house and I was working at the same church full-time. We had only been in AR for a couple months before we admitted that we had made a huge mistake. We hated it there. Not because the church or the job was awful, but because we were not where God wanted us to be. We began discussing the church planting thing again and we concluded that we just needed to wait and save money. We couldn’t really do this with little kids and no money and living so far from anyone we knew, could we? We just couldn’t put it to rest and Michael was still feeling God leading him to church planting.

I can still remember standing in our kitchen and finally agreeing to make the leap of faith and plant a church. We both had come to this decision on our own and we both had been feeling the pull to Atlanta, GA. Thus began the journey to Cartersville, a place we didn’t even know existed. What freedom we experienced once we decided to obey God. I can’t tell you how great it felt to make the leap. Immediately, God blessed us with a peace. We suddenly couldn’t wait to get on with whatever He wanted us to do.