When my friend sent me a message saying: “did you know JOMAR means GOD WILL MULTIPLY”, I knew it was it. Another promise from God. It gave me even more peace and confidence that I had His blessings.
After 5 years of marriage I found myself permanently stressed and depressed. These 5 short years were packed with challenges; I had two babies (how blessed can one be) of which one had reflux for 14 months so I did not sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time. We moved to a new home, which involved renovations in the middle of winter, I gained 10kg, we were under tremendous financial challenges and eventually my husband and I felt like strangers under one roof!
But, it was my career that consumed me the most. Corporate comes with its challenges, you end up being at work even when your body is at home. There was a season in my life where this was my food, my inspiration, and my reason for getting up in the morning, but it became my biggest destructor.
Training has always been my therapy but became a commodity. I mean, the only option was a 4:30 start to be at the office on time but with interrupted sleep, it was just not sustainable.
If my week’s groceries were not planned and purchased on weekends, a stop for bread and milk after work chewed into my 60-minutes Maria-time. That was my allocated time with my baby everyday which was shared with her brother, off course. This is also one reason why I turned the sleepless nights into something special, I had more time with my baby.
Tranquilisers became essential and I had to pop sleeping pills more often since the knot in my stomach just got tighter.
I never had time to cook any more. I never had time to play with my kids. I never had time to listen to my husband’s heart. I stopped laughing. I stopped living life.
I realised that there was nothing left of me anymore. I became empty. I had nothing to offer anymore; to my husband, my kids, my family or my neighbour.
My prayer for 2019 was HOPE.
My prayer for 2020 was to claim back my HAPPINESS, which is after all the meaning of my name.
...and so, my prayers were heard. God had perfect timing and He decided that COVID time will be my time.
After 7 years of prayer, begging, searching, crying, my dream came true.
March 2019 when sleeping with Maria who was ill at the time, God spoke to me in a dream, to start my own natural baby skincare range. It felt right. Babies I can do (sort of 😊), skincare I can do, nature I love, and I had God on my side😊!
The very next morning I started my research and started to craft my formulations. From there everything just fell into place but with hard work, commitment, dedication, LONNNNNG hours, no TV for 14 months, no holidays, no long-weekends (without my laptop). Jomar became my before and after real-work hobby. Nothing comes easy! I had days where I thought of giving up but God sent angels on my path to keep me motivated and who believed in me.
Then COVID struck. My dream came to a halt. I postponed the launch to August’20, then September and eventually I thought it would be a 2021 project. I was really disappointed! I was so ready to change my life, my focus, my priorities, my lifeline and so excited to share my “new baby” with other mothers.
I always asked God that when I resigned, my husband’s business needed to be stable and secure. During COVID my husband’s construction business obviously came to a standstill, but God provided an alternative solution to generate an income during this period. On my side I struggled to juggle corporate expectations working from home and 2 needy toddlers. I reached breakpoint. Resignation has always given me the chills, the idea to give up a stable job, income, company benefits, let alone during COVID time, was bizarre! Maybe even reckless or ungrateful as so many people lost their jobs during this dark season?! But God was faithful and spoilt me beyond comprehension. Everything just fell into place and now JOMAR will launch 1 August 2020!
I became so sick and tired of the negativity, the hopelessness, the fear that consumed us during COVID and I decided to stop reading, looking at social media or even talking about COVID any longer.
JOMAR is beautiful, it's perfect, it gives me hope and I want to bless mommies with this range because there is nothing more special than to have time to actually CARE for your kids.
God gifted me back motherhood.
Love, Felicia