happy new year! It's only been a month of operation and it's surreal to think that this all started from a simple conversation. I am grateful for how much God has refined me during this last month, and I look forward to what He has in store for the next months to come.

within the past thirty days, more than half was spent in the kitchen. some highlights:

  • coming back from Mexico at 12:30 am (due to border traffic) and having to fulfill an order for that morning. it was a family affair where my brother helped to grease pans and mother stayed up to wash dishes. ended up sleeping a couple hours later and waking up after four hours to finish them and deliver.
  • ending up receiving three orders for the same day within a span of a few hours; lots of baking and little sleep that night.
  • waking up at 4 am to a call that a friend was in labor. had to finish an order for that morning, so ended up finishing everything within the next 2 hours and rushing to the hospital to make it just in time for the birth - all before 7 am. talk about a busy morning.
  • when my oven abruptly turned off mid preheating, while I was filling up pans. instead of panicking, i found myself calmly thinking about whose house I can go to use their oven. minutes later, oven turned back on and resumed as if nothing happened. praised Jesus.
  • washing dishes so much that my hands started to scab, making my mom worry (more so that I won't get married because of ugly hands) and take on the dishes from that day forward. so grateful.
  • hearing how these little donuts are playing a part in creating relationships to ultimately share the Gospel and advance the fight for life. 

common threads:

lots of baking, little sleep;
truly a family affair;
Jesus is key to any sort of success. 

as I look back on each of these highlights and reflect on everything in between, i know that it was not me. people ask how I am able to balance a full-time job with all of this going on, and while I tell them that I just sacrifice some sleep (and my social life), i know it's more than that. looking back, i know that i was not alone in the kitchen while my family members were sleeping and the rest of the house was dark. every time my alarm went off before sunrise, i know that it wasn't my willpower or ambition to succeed that pushed me out of my warm bed. it was something Bigger and i know that without Him, i seriously wouldn't have been able to continue. 

i sometimes wonder why He cares and would lead me into this kind of business; i wonder where He will lead me in 2016 and how He will use this. but what i do know though is that Home is not about me, and that whatever comes next, it will continue to reveal His strength despite my weakness. 

thank you to everyone who has been there to support and encourage me from day 1. thank you for your prayers and your interest. 

2016, welcome.