HAVING IT ALL... Now

Jenn Copp

Is it possible to look at a picture of yourself from a year ago and not really know yourself in the picture? That is what I thought last night. I have a picture that was on my computer, I've erased it a bunch of times and no matter what it still shows up. This time in my downloads folder. It was a picture of me out at a restaurant, What I see is only a girl who was going through a really tough time. I was closing down a business that I loved, dealing with thyroid cancer and a failing marriage, all at the same time.  I look back and still don't know how I made it out in one piece.
My store was a high end Baby Boutique. It was beautiful and I was the buyer so I had it all,  everything I loved. I loved going to work everyday because all of my customers were people I knew, and if not they knew someone I did, which always made it a fun day. I still did business as usual not seeing the signs of fewer sales coming in.

It was the August that everybody talks about... The August, about three years ago was the first month I could not pay off my credit card in full. I will never forget it. It was the turning point for me and when the next month came business was still down so I carried another balance and so on. I lasted another year after that refusing to believe that I was going to have to give up. I tried different sales and promotions but fact of the matter was people where not buying .

I did my best during that time. To this day the lose of that steady income and security is what was the hardest to overcome. How do you go from being your own boss to working for someone else? No more cash register to dig into when you need money to take the kids to McDonald's. When my store was emptying with the going out of business signs in the window I dug down deep and showed my kids to look on the bright side. I made it an adventure for them. My kids were in  boxes, on the dolly's and they were pushing each other around like they were in boats. We stacked up all the kids mattresses and they laid on them. We made pretend they were in the book "The Princess and the Pea". We laughed and we cried! We said Goodbye and we knew we were on to the next chapter in our lives.

During that the time I was posting pictures on facebook of all my experiences. To this day I could never post the pictures I have of my Bellini store emptied!!! Good Bye Bellini!! I have so many wonderful memories!!

I KNOW am lucky to have had it for as l long as I did!!!