Today 1/11 is a magical day for many reasons! When repeated 1’s show up, this is a signal for new beginnings! Whenever I see a sequence of 1’s, I always make a wish, say a prayer, or speak an affirmation. Today my baby girl, Freedom Elizabeth, is also 18 months! At times I still can’t believe that I have a daughter. Not just a daughter, but the daughter that I was promised back in 2012 before I even knew my husband. On one particular night, I was waiting tables at my first serving job, Cheddar’s in Waco where I went to college. I had just recently started losing faith in a Higher Power. I was growing frustrated with struggling and working all the time trying to balance college. I just couldn’t believe that this “God” that I had learned so much about as a kid would bring me all the way to Baylor to struggle. Something shifted in me earlier that day. I made a decision and I basically asked God to show me that He was real before my faith would be no more. I went to work that morning anticipating getting off around 3:00 pm or 4:00 pm at the latest. When my shift ended around 3:00 I was preparing to go home. My friends and I were planning to go by this party later that night. I had just worked a double shift the day before. I had plans of getting some sleep before we would step out, until I learned that I was now scheduled to work a double. I was pissed! I went to the bathroom to cry. I debated storming out and quitting, but I needed my job. I was over it all.
Later that evening, I noticed this beautiful woman sitting at a table in another server’s section. She stared at me all evening to the point that I was ready to ask if she needed something like a glass of water or my number because of how hard she was staring. A little later as the night winded down I got cut early to go home. Finally! I went to clean my section and count my tips. The lady that was staring at me asked me for ketchup. My thoughts at this point were “Look lady. I am tired. My feet are hurting and I may just have time to make it to liquor store and catch this party after all. Ask your own server for ketchup!” Instead I just gave her the ketchup and tried to walk off. She called me by by name. This whole day was getting weirder by the minute. I stopped in my tracks and asked how did she know my name. She said that she was sent there to relay some messages to me. “Sent by who?” I asked. She told me that she knew that I would be working and that I had been thinking about giving up. She said that she had been waiting to meet me for quite some time. She read me like a book that was in her top three on Kindle telling me details about my life that no one locally knew. I was floored but at the same time intrigued because this was the sign that I had asked God for earlier that morning. The most profound part of this conversation was when she told me that one day I would have a daughter one day. When I would give birth to this daughter I would see myself in a completely new light and walk fully in my purpose and power. By this time I was in tears. I had read about prophets before in the Bible but never had I ever had an encounter with one. She told me more great things that would happen after giving birth to this daughter. When our conversation was over, I went to finish counting my tips. I had made just enough to pay the bill that I was short on. Had I not been assigned the extra shift, I would not have made the money. I probably would have not met that prophet either. My faith was restored. I was hopeful about my future. I wanted to live again after silently battling with suicidal thoughts heavily over the past few weeks.
I learned that I was pregnant with Freedom on 11/1 of 2018 and then I gave birth to her on 7/11 at 5:55. Both those dates and her birth time were magical indeed! Today 1/11 also marks 6 months since I published my first book. When I started corinthianelizabeth.com I was in search of freedom. I was vulnerable in sharing my healing journey along with my trials and triumphs. I found freedom in publishing my first book. I found that freedom that I had been writing and painting about here on the blog. That is why I released Beauty in the Bayou on Freedom’s first birthday 7/11. In giving birth to freedom, I gave birth to the me that I was always destined to be. Every time I look at my daughter, I am reminded of the promise that God has for my life. For that I am thankful.
To read more about my journey to freedom, order your signed copy of Beauty in the Bayou and pre-order your copy of the Beauty in the Bayou workbook.
