Well, last week marked 2 years since that faithful plane ride home for the first time. Its also been over a year since we posted anything on this blog. So here we go this is going to be a super mega update to end all updates.
Year 2 was stable but still a rollercoaster at the same time. We had a lot of retests, so we knew how to handle it, but that didn't stop it from being crazy. Let me start with our business, not personal but our actual companies. Both of us chose to start our own companies that have shown significant growth since the last blog post.
10:30 Braiding and Natural Hair Design L.L.C. has a steady stream of clients that book a month out on average. The Naturally Beautiful Project now has a new logo designed by our oldest daughter (update on her later). We have also had two significant breakthroughs in the expansion of the Naturally Beautiful Project. Thanks to a very generous donation we now have a tee-shirt press to make N.B.P. shirts for fundraisers and for our clients to wear. Also, we are currently preparing a space for the Naturally Beautiful Project to expand into classroom space as well as a Portland location!
As for Seeing God's Beauty Media L.L.C., we are capturing the final footage of UnCaged a documentary chronicling my journey into black comic book characters. We are also proud to announce that we are finally in the preproduction stage of making a natural hair documentary. We have been delighted to do video work for an August Wilson Theater Project called Coped Out. It was a mix of the past work as a police Chaplin work and the newer media work. In the Podcast world Priced Out the Podcast finished up its second and maybe final season. We have recorded season three of Napkin Scribbles for Len Sweet and Portland Seminary. We also picked up a client at the top of 2019 called the SIT UP Podcast. Sit up is hosted by Leroy Barber, an influential man working in areas of social justice in the church. We have had fun flying throughout the country to do sitdown interviews with innovators and leaders of color. S.G.B. Media has also served as a consultant on several new podcasts. We are currently preparing to move into our new space in early October. Once set up in the new studio we launch a new podcast around LGBTQIA+ conversations related to religion as well as the relaunch 'This Life Matters' and 'We Gon' Figure It Out!?'.
Now a lot of this exciting news related to our business is connected to our roles as the co-pastors of Parkrose United Methodist Church. We set out to do work as church planters, and Leroy Barber and others with the United Methodist group ask us to take on the responsibility to Pastor Parkrose. After prayer, we knew God was opening the door, so we walked through it. A large part of our work is in the area of innovation and vitality. This means we get to use our hearts and minds to open up the doors to a church that was head to closing. This work has been challenging, and we promise to provide updates and maybe even a short documentary explaining the process we have been through.
So currently as it stands, we are working as Pastors of a church and operating our own business on a slightly reduced schedule. Our hustle may sound hard, but we still feel its more to come, and we plan to start a Tee-Shirt company in early 2020. We want to inspire our children to work for themselves and only take on partners and collaborators if they so chose. Speaking of our children here is a brief update on our family life.
Navon graduated Ft. Vancouver and gave a great speech at the graduation. After months of receiving around 14 acceptance letters, Navon landed on Reed College in Portland or The University of Washington in Seattle. After much prayer, he chose U.W. in Seattle. During graduation week Marshaun, Eric, little Eric, Edward, and the Girls all joined us.
We loved this because we four parents have done a lot to figure things out beyond our personal feelings and emotions, and that week was proof of it. Seeking all 5 of the kids together as a sibling group was heartwarming.
The big surprise was Edward asking Nylia (our oldest) to marry him. He pulled us aside and ask permission, and we gave a resounding yes. He is a delightful young man that we know genuinely loves our daughter, and that's all a parent can ask for.
As for Neairra, she had a brief scare with arthritis that hospitalized her, but she is recovering well and is headed into her senior year.
Braden is 12 and getting more into clothing design and even attended his first shoe forum an even a shoe design workshop class.
The adjustment to all of the recent change found us starting a new adventure as we marked out second-anniversary date. We started family therapy in hopes of dealing issues and staring healthy and connected.
I hope to return to this blog in the coming weeks to share some more great news. Thank you for your support and love as we figure it out.
Year 2 was stable but still a rollercoaster at the same time. We had a lot of retests, so we knew how to handle it, but that didn't stop it from being crazy. Let me start with our business, not personal but our actual companies. Both of us chose to start our own companies that have shown significant growth since the last blog post.
10:30 Braiding and Natural Hair Design L.L.C. has a steady stream of clients that book a month out on average. The Naturally Beautiful Project now has a new logo designed by our oldest daughter (update on her later). We have also had two significant breakthroughs in the expansion of the Naturally Beautiful Project. Thanks to a very generous donation we now have a tee-shirt press to make N.B.P. shirts for fundraisers and for our clients to wear. Also, we are currently preparing a space for the Naturally Beautiful Project to expand into classroom space as well as a Portland location!
As for Seeing God's Beauty Media L.L.C., we are capturing the final footage of UnCaged a documentary chronicling my journey into black comic book characters. We are also proud to announce that we are finally in the preproduction stage of making a natural hair documentary. We have been delighted to do video work for an August Wilson Theater Project called Coped Out. It was a mix of the past work as a police Chaplin work and the newer media work. In the Podcast world Priced Out the Podcast finished up its second and maybe final season. We have recorded season three of Napkin Scribbles for Len Sweet and Portland Seminary. We also picked up a client at the top of 2019 called the SIT UP Podcast. Sit up is hosted by Leroy Barber, an influential man working in areas of social justice in the church. We have had fun flying throughout the country to do sitdown interviews with innovators and leaders of color. S.G.B. Media has also served as a consultant on several new podcasts. We are currently preparing to move into our new space in early October. Once set up in the new studio we launch a new podcast around LGBTQIA+ conversations related to religion as well as the relaunch 'This Life Matters' and 'We Gon' Figure It Out!?'.
Now a lot of this exciting news related to our business is connected to our roles as the co-pastors of Parkrose United Methodist Church. We set out to do work as church planters, and Leroy Barber and others with the United Methodist group ask us to take on the responsibility to Pastor Parkrose. After prayer, we knew God was opening the door, so we walked through it. A large part of our work is in the area of innovation and vitality. This means we get to use our hearts and minds to open up the doors to a church that was head to closing. This work has been challenging, and we promise to provide updates and maybe even a short documentary explaining the process we have been through.
So currently as it stands, we are working as Pastors of a church and operating our own business on a slightly reduced schedule. Our hustle may sound hard, but we still feel its more to come, and we plan to start a Tee-Shirt company in early 2020. We want to inspire our children to work for themselves and only take on partners and collaborators if they so chose. Speaking of our children here is a brief update on our family life.
Navon graduated Ft. Vancouver and gave a great speech at the graduation. After months of receiving around 14 acceptance letters, Navon landed on Reed College in Portland or The University of Washington in Seattle. After much prayer, he chose U.W. in Seattle. During graduation week Marshaun, Eric, little Eric, Edward, and the Girls all joined us.
We loved this because we four parents have done a lot to figure things out beyond our personal feelings and emotions, and that week was proof of it. Seeking all 5 of the kids together as a sibling group was heartwarming.
The big surprise was Edward asking Nylia (our oldest) to marry him. He pulled us aside and ask permission, and we gave a resounding yes. He is a delightful young man that we know genuinely loves our daughter, and that's all a parent can ask for.
As for Neairra, she had a brief scare with arthritis that hospitalized her, but she is recovering well and is headed into her senior year.
Braden is 12 and getting more into clothing design and even attended his first shoe forum an even a shoe design workshop class.
The adjustment to all of the recent change found us starting a new adventure as we marked out second-anniversary date. We started family therapy in hopes of dealing issues and staring healthy and connected.
I hope to return to this blog in the coming weeks to share some more great news. Thank you for your support and love as we figure it out.
