Thankful Thursday

I recently visited Notre Dame of Maryland University where, for some of you that don’t know, I graduated from. I had a lunch date with one of my professors who happened to be my mentor. We had a lot to catch up on and talked about potential future opportunities for me at the school which I’m very excited about. Larry was my Finance teacher and has now become not just my mentor but a family friend. He has attended important events that has happened in my life since after college including attending my wedding. Our families love each other and it’s a blessing to have Larry as a mentor. Below is a picture we  recently took during my visit.

I also caught up with Dr. Debbie Calhoun who was my Business Management professor in college. She was called “Professor Calhoun” then and now has not only gotten her doctorate degree but has been promoted to become the Chair and Professor of Business and Economics Department at Notre Dame of Maryland University.

I am extremely thankful for these two teachers in my life today. I wouldn’t have been saying this years ago when I was in their classes because they made you work hard to pass their tests. But it’s funny how your perspective changes as you get older and remember the lessons both in school as well as the character lessons your teachers teach that you later apply in life. I’m a Business Management graduate from this University and some of the decisions I’m taking at the moment to better my future are the ones they taught me and I’m forever grateful. It’s safe to say that all those years of hard work is paying off. There’s a lot of potential opportunities for me at the school and I am excited to be a part of it. Watch out for more updates in the near future (sorry I can’t give too much away).

Do you have one of these examples in your life today? If so, was it a high school or college professor? I would love to hear some thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks again for your support and I’ll catch you in my next one

xx Adaku

Thankful Thursday

Is it Baby or Birthing Season?

Today, I am so thankful to have close friends who are giving birth around the same time as me. My church is having an outpouring of babies and there couldn’t have been any better timing. The nursery is going to be flooded with babies close in age. One was born about two months ago,

(Aaron Joseph) and another was born yesterday (Isaac Charles).In about two more weeks, another one will be born, then it’s me : )

There are also others down the line towards the ending of Summer/Early Fall season but, for now, this is the rush hour we’re experiencing.

Why am I bringing this up? New generations are being born, meaning it’s a birthing season. In the physical, it’s exciting to see this bundle of joy that has been inside you for nine months and, for some people, those nine months could be very rough, especially the pushing process. In the spiritual, it’s an outpouring of blessings from above. God is allowing us to push out our own blessings because the time has come. Now is the time. Be thankful for this moment, this season of new birth. Spiritually speaking also, this birthing season could be a birth of financial growth for you. It can also be promotion, healing, you name it. Whatever it is, claim it and be thankful that this is the year your blessings will not pass you by.

I’m here to encourage you to continue to be in expectancy. God is not finished with you. He’s just getting started. I love the statement that “your latter will be greater than the former.” God’s plan is not to take you back but to propel you forward if you stay in His Will. Stay blessed and be inspired.

xx
#adakuinspires

Thankful Thursday

It’s another great day to read my Thankful Thursday blog aka Double T blog! Who’s excited with me? Well, if you’ve been following my Double T blogs, you will notice that, during the month of March, I have selected some ladies that have poured into my life in the form of motivation and inspiration. These ladies do so much and sometimes their hard work goes unnoticed. So, I decided to show them some love through my blog.

Today, we have come to the finale of my selections for this month. Last, but certainly not least, for the women’s history month to be recognized as a powerhouse is no other than Mrs. Dina Dixon. She is an amazing wife, mother of three handsome men, a daughter, an engineer by profession, and most of all a prayer warrior. Trust me when I say this: Mrs. Dixon is a trooper! She is very dedicated in the things of God and doesn’t have time to play around. She corrects you when you’re wrong and will always support you when in need. Her smile is contagious. She gives the most thoughtful advice when you don’t even expect it and it comes at the right time. I admire this woman because of her passion in worship. Mrs. Dixon has a special place in our hearts because we share a secret that no one knows between her, her last son, hubby, and I 🙂

She motivates me, encourages me, and pushes me to be better without even saying a word. Seeing how she does what she does speaks for itself and is a great motivation to those that carefully watch how she lives. She exudes character and great conduct. Thank you Mrs. Dixon for being you and for showing love and support to all the other women you have taken under your wings.
If you are a woman and you’re reading this, I want you to know and believe that you are powerful. Keep being the super trooper woman you already are and, if you don’t have anyone you’re motivating, find someone and share your story with them. Your story becomes a testimony and, before you know it, it goes a long way and changes lives.

Thanks to all of you for reading and supporting me. It means a lot and, until then, stay empowered! xx #adakuinspires

 

Thankful Thursday

DISCLAIMER: None of the women I write about know anything about what I say until it’s published to the public. I write as God leads me and gives me a name, so please bear that in mind.

Have you ever been excited to write about someone that you appreciate and care about? Anyway, this next woman that I want to put on blast is no other than Julie Traut. She wears so many hats that I can’t begin to tell you all of it. Julie is an amazing wife to Mr. Kris Traut, a mom of three and expecting one on the way who’s literally due any moment from now (in case you’re wondering why so many of my friends are pregnant at the same time, we honestly didn’t plan any of it…it just happened 😀), an awesome daughter to her mom, and has a loving relationship with her brother.

Now that you’ve got to know a little bit of who I’m writing about, let’s get deeper. Julie, from my perspective and also knowing her personally, loves to work hard. She is what I call super mom and she never wants any credit for it. Here’s a woman who would work until she’s having contractions. She is a giver of her time no matter how busy her life is. I have been blessed to get a taste of how loving and caring Julie is to me and I know so many people can attest to this as well. Yes, she’s not perfect, and none of us are, but she works hard each day to become a better person. Not only does she have those attributes but she is a prayer warrior.

I am very thankful for this woman of God in my life. I’m blessed to say that she confides in me and we have built a trusting relationship that I know was God orchestrated. Thank you Julie for all you do and for your friendship. I can’t wait to meet Baby Traut very soon.

Happy Thursday lovelies and I’ll catch you in my next one. Cheers xx
#Adakuinspires

Thankful Thursday

I want to declare a Happy Thursday to you and thank you so much for your continual support of Adaku Inspires.

Today, I will be acknowledging a dear friend of mine, Kristin Burnworth. I seriously have no idea where to begin with this powerhouse but I’ll get it together. First and foremost, she’s a lawyer by profession, happily married to an amazing man and they both have two beautiful kids that I adore so much.

This woman just amazes me because she gave birth just last month and she’s up and running. She facilitates the drama ministry at our church and she does an awesome job writing the script with her team. If you are in the DMV area, come check out our Resurrection Production at Rock City Church on April 1st and you will be blown away. She already has the actors auditioned and ready for practice. Scripts are done and practices are underway. This coming week she’s teaching the Bible school class of 2018 and I know how hard she prepped for this moment. Did I mention earlier that her son is ONLY a month old? WOW!!!

I am so proud to call this woman my friend and she’s one of the few friends I have that would sacrifice her time for me when needed. She doesn’t get recognized enough for all she does but, knowing her, she doesn’t want to be put in the spotlight hence why I’m recognizing her hard work today. Kristin if I haven’t said this to you lately, here it goes: “Thank you for all you do and for inspiring women like me to keep going strong. You are a true gem.”

Please help me in making Kristin feel loved today. Until then, I’ll catch you in my next one. Think about someone you’re thankful for today and take some time either to call, text, email, FaceTime, What’s App, or Google Chat (you know what I mean) and let them know you appreciate them. It can really be something they needed to hear to encourage them. Be blessed and kind to one another and have a GREAT day!

Xx
Adaku Inspires

Thankful Thursday

 

In honor of women’s history month, I would like to recognize Mrs. Funlayo Alabi who is the CEO of Shea Radiance. I happen to know this lady personally and I’m blessed to say that she inspires me in so many ways. She’s an amazing wife, and a mother of two handsome boys. Her goal is to change the world through Shea Radiance by wanting to influence the way you care for yourself and others. She’s also created natural products that make you feel beautiful, nurtured and powerful.

Her products speaks for themselves and I have tried a lot of them on my body and hair.

Whipped Shea Butter Luxe Tub with Apricot Oil is one of my favorite, especially during this winter season. It makes my hair so soft and moisturized. I also like the fact that a lot of these products are natural and unrefined with all the bioactives. No chemicals or physical refining process. It’s just that good for people with all hair types including those who may have coarse hair like me :).

I had an opportunity to interview her and I’ll leave the link below. Please make sure you check it out and find out more about Mrs. Alabi. She works really hard and stays humble at the same time. She’s very passionate about what she does and I couldn’t be more proud to say “thank you” for all you do. Thank you for making us women feel beautiful and radiant with your products. Like she said, “When you empower a woman, you strengthen a family and transform a community, and that is how a really great jar of cream can change the world.”

Well, I believe that says it all. Everyone please help me by thanking her and for supporting her business. We’re all in this together. Until then, I’ll catch you in my next one.

Cheers
#adakuinspires

Thankful Thursday

This month is a powerful month because it’s women’s history month. Some women in the past have worked really hard and, sometimes, their work and contributions went unnoticed. During this month, I will be highlighting some of the women that I personally know who work very hard yet they don’t get enough credit as they deserve.

I will be starting it off by presenting Mrs. Victoria. This woman is a wife, mother, daughter, teacher, mentor, and a powerful prayer warrior. She is such a hard worker in whatever she is doing, whether at home, school, or church. She’s one of my closest friends that I call for anything and she will drop whatever she’s doing to come and help me. We cry, laugh, share personal stories of what we’re going through, correct one another with love, serve each other with respect, and most of all we pray together once a week in the prayer room. This woman is a disciplinarian to not just her own kids but to other kids in her profession because she is training a generation who will one day rule this country.

I understand women’s history month is about the women who have made an impact or contributed to events in history. However, there are also women who are currently making an impact, whether big or small, in today’s society which is why I’m highlighting Mrs. Victoria as one of those women I personally know. She Inspires me in so many levels and I thank God for allowing us to cross paths. I might not say this a lot to her but, if she was right here in front of me, I would say, “Victoria, I’m grateful and thankful for who you are what you do as a whole. Keep going and keep inspiring the world.”

I hope you have enjoyed reading today’s blog and, if you did, leave a comment below and share some of the women that have played, or currently play a major role in your life.

Stay Inspired
#adakuinspires

Thankful Thursday

Let’s start this blog today by saying thank you to all those who have supported me through this journey of being a blogger. As you know, I get excited when ideas come to me and I share it with you.

Recently I shared on my YouTube channel a couple of pregnancy outfits that would look good on a pregnant lady. These are outfits that I wear myself. I’m very thankful that, during this trimester, I can still wear comfortable yet fashionable attire that work well during pregnancy. We all know how hard it can get to find something to wear at this stage and yet feel beautiful. Anyway, enjoy some of these looks and below you will find the whole clip to the video.

Don’t forget to share this with someone you know who’s expecting and I’m sure they will thank you later for it. Stay blessed and beautiful xx Adaku Inspires

Thankful Thursday

Be thankful for what you have. We as a family are currently in Philadelphia for a week due to my husband’s work. We took a minute the other night to explore the city and we have found a lot of interesting things about Philly. We had an opportunity to visit the Liberty Bell which is an iconic symbol of American independence.

Next door to it is the tower of Independence Hall.

Now, here’s the irony of all these. A couple of blocks down you begin to notice a lot of homeless people sitting around helpless and have nowhere to go in this cold. It really did something to my heart when I saw them and it’s not just one or two people that you see. There were a large number of homeless people almost in each block. One would think that, in a city this iconic that has so much historical value to it, people would think those things are not as common here. Loews Philadelphia Hotel is a very nice hotel where we stayed and great hospitality is located in the heart of the city, yet you still see some people just lying on the street.

I am thankful to have the opportunity to visit and stay at a nice hotel with a great view, but it’s also important to stay humble. If you have an opportunity to lend a hand to someone who needs help, whether financially, accommodation, shelter, a word of advice or whatever the case may be, please follow your heart and do it. You will never know until you step out of your comfort zone. I’m challenging each one of you to not only be thankful for what you have but find someone who you can help. This doesn’t have to be a stranger but it might be someone close to you.

Continue to be thankful and willing to help others, God will pour out more blessings on you. Hope you enjoy reading and I’ll catch you in my next one.

Xx
Adaku Inspires

Thankful Thursday

Growing Up Too Fast

“The Consolidation Period” is what I call this stage. Some statistics say that 90 percent of 17 month old babies are walking well enough that they’re able to walk, squat down to pick an object up off of the floor – or stoop to play with it for a minute or so – and then pop right up again and keep on going. Yeah! That’s definitely my toddle, and then some. It’s surreal that she’s able to do all that plus more because I feel like it was just yesterday that she couldn’t walk without holding onto something.

Singing her ABCs and 123s in addition to other songs is one way she learns really quickly. Music is something she loves as well. A song can be playing and her face will lighten up and then she goes into a dancing mood.

Climbing up the stairs seems to be a fun game to her but coming down is a little challenging unless she holds my hands. She also climbs the couch and turns herself around with a big smile like someone who just won a lottery while daddy and mummy’s heart beats heavily. She really is testing her physical abilities but we got her covered. So far she hasn’t tried climbing out of her crib (fingers crossed) even though we’ve adjusted the crib to the lowest level.

The fun part about this stage is that she is learning very fast. Her vocabularies are pretty amazing for her age. For example, she says words like “apple” “water” “book” “ nap nap” “ nite nite,” etc. One thing that hubby taught her and it gives me joy to hear her say that is “In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.” She mumbles the first few sentences and shouts the “Amen” part so loud that you must hear it! LOL! She is also my little helper in the kitchen especially when I’m cooking. She watches my move and, while I’m putting each seasoning in the food, I tell her the name of it. It’s fun and exciting for the both of us. I can go on and on telling you an update of our toddler Kizzy but I’ll stop here. Oh by the way, she is super excited about the baby on the way. She wakes up kissing my belly and saying “baby, baby.” She gives baby a hug and a kiss, which melts my heart.

I am so thankful for her development at this stage. I’m grateful to have her as my God given little helper especially when baby girl arrives. Obviously she’s not perfect but she understands when I tell her to put things in the trash or clean up (which she sings the “clean up, clean up everybody, everywhere” clean up song). We love our Kizzy so much and are forever grateful to God for giving us such our precious little girl.

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog and, if you have a toddler or even a niece or nephew and you remember your experiences dealing with your toddler, please share them below because I would love to hear them. I have so many that I can’t even put down on paper. Ok, I’m done! Have a lovely day and I’ll catch you in my next blog!

Stay blessed and forever thankful
#adakuinspires