Our Story

I am so grateful that the Lord has given me the opportunity to share about my transformation story into the person he created me to be!! He receives all the glory and honor, this isn't a story about "me" it's a beautiful story about God's love, grace, and mercy!!!

 

I struggled with drug use and addiction throughout my teens and twenties. My first encounter with drugs was when I was 13. I dabbled and partied my entire high-school career. Starting with smoking pot, doing coke, smoking crack, doing meth and then escalated to opiates. 

 

I got pregnant with my first child at 18. I stopped using and had a wonderful healthy pregnancy. Soon after giving birth to my son I began attending the Greenbrier School of Practical Nursing. I graduated 3rd in my class as an LPN in 2008. I worked as a nurse for 10 years.  In that span I had 2 more children with my (now) husband. I would dabble and take a pill Here and there to relax and have fun but was able to function and hold down a house, job, and raise 2 kids.

 

When I was 24 I decided I wanted to further my education so I began taking courses at NRCTC. This became an extremely stressful time and I began using pills to help me with energy and motivation, lo and behold I messed around and got addicted. I got pregnant with my last baby during my active use- I sought treatment at Seneca mental health and began a medication assisted treatment program. My pregnancy was healthy and the baby was perfect, I did very well with the program and was able to be completely off of the medicine before my baby was born. He had no complications or drug withdrawal. Like any mother raising 3 small children, working full time, going to college full time, and just trying to survive I was completely stressed out. I turned back to using pills as a coping mechanism and was thrust back into the tail spin of addiction. 

 

I sought treatment at the beckley methadone clinic, became stable with methadone and was able to come down from 80mg, to 50mg, to 35mg, to 25mg, to 15mg, to 10mg, then 5mg, and my final step was 2mg. And again I wasn't able to stay clean. It was a repetitive and viscous cycle that nearly cost me my marriage and family.  I left my nursing career and was waiting tables to make ends meet.

 

My husband had began taking classes and doing tests to become a licensed minister in 2017. Upon him finishing these courses he was set to be licensed at our conference in June 2018.  We had planned to go to church camp that week and stay on the grounds to enjoy fellowship with our church friends and family. (I "played" church during my addiction- never fully committing to Jesus and just going through the motions.)

 

Long story short my husband discovered my pills, he was furious because he thought I had been clean. He was ready to divorce me and take my children. Our pastor came to our house and told us to just go with them to church camp that Brandon had worked to hard for his licensure and to not let the enemy derail the Lord's plans for our lives. So we went. We stayed in a dorm with our pastor and his wife. We went through the motions of typical camp meeting. The church services were great. You could feel the Lord working but I was not free and was angry, angry that the God took my husband's alcoholism away in an instant but he wouldn't take my addiction from me. Brandon was loosing faith and was on the verge of walking away from God. It was almost the last night of camp meeting, again the service was great and powerful, the evangelist gave the alter call for this and that and folks went up for prayer. Then he stopped and said the Lord spoke to him and told him that there was a person in the building dealing with addiction to pills. It was in that instant that I knew God loved me, I ran to the alter crying and as they laid hands on me I will never forget the power of God rushing through my body. He met me that night and I gave my life to him. He saved me from my prison and completely turned my life around. That was June 8th, 2018. I left that church service a changed person. He met me in my mess and called me his own.

 

So my sober date and born again date is June 8,2018. I've been clean almost 6 years! My first year of clean time was spent as a stay at home mom and homemaker. I was able to finally bond with my youngest son and be present for my family. I became very active in church and even taught youth group. I even grew a garden and canned that summer.

 

One night we were laying in bed talking (money was tight with only one income) and out of the blue I told my husband I was going to start a catering company. I always enjoyed my time working in restaurants and waiting tables. We both said ok and he said what will we call the business and it was instant, A Taste of Eggcellence Catering Company. The next day he filed our paperwork and submitted payment to become a business. The Date of my business establishment is actually June 8th- bc isn't that just like God to do things like that. The exact date!!! With only $300.00 to our name we took a leap of faith and bought what we needed to do our first event.

 

Fast forward we had no clue how fast we would begin growing. What started as cupcakes, cakes, and cookies turned into becoming the vendor at Byrnside branch pumpkin farm. We worked out of an 8x10 canopy and we were able to make enough money to purchase what is now my shop. We were with Byrnside Branch their last 2 years in operation.

 

We were the original garden shed business. We met with the health inspectors and they walked us through the process. We had them tell us everything we had to do to the building in order to become a commercial kitchen. My husband was able to do almost all of the work to it himself.  We only paid an outside source to do the electrical work. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into that shop. We bought all of my equipment second hand and only paid 350.00 for a stove top and double oven off of market place. We scrimped and saved and would buy something new with each event to slowly add to our equipment. Covid actually helped my business grow (another Wow God moment!) We exploded with business! Because of our growth we began looking for a bigger space, the bakery in Gap Mills became available and we moved operations there. My lease was for a year, and that was the hardest year of my business. Bigger isn't always better and it was an old building that needed lots of expensive repairs. I tried 2 different times to make running the store front a reality, each time we couldn't maintain keeping the shelves stocked and keeping up with our catering events. I did make an offer on the building but they didn't accept it (thank you God) so we bought a food trailer. 

 

We moved our operations back to our original shop. I didn't think we would ever live down the failure at the bakery. I didn't fail once I failed twice... but God!!!! We took our mobile unit around to different places and began growing a following.

 

He picked me up and gave me strength and determination to propel my business forward. He gave me the ability and talents to do this!! He has given me wholesale locations that sell out of our products every week. I have 6 wholesale businesses that carry my homemade baked goods!! Each year our event calendar fills up quicker and quicker!!! We have surpassed each year's #s and I stand in awe and I am amazed!!

 

The Lord uses me to help different people through fund raising events and I am able to give back to the community!

 

If you would have asked me 7 years ago if I would have ever seen myself owning a catering company and food trailer l would have laughed and been like yea right...But God!!!

 

It's with him that I am able and blessed to live out my dream job! To do something I absolutely love!

 

Our business statement is 1 Corinthians 10:31, "wether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

 

Our Christian values set us apart! We hold fast to our beliefs and know in whom we serve! We will not be conformed to this world and will remain a peculiar people. The Lord has been too good to us and has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams and I never want to be in a position that his grace and mercy no longer follow us.  We are able to be out in our community and witness to people all the time about our testimonies! We are able to give back and also able to provide employment to people. 

 

My brand, ATE, isn't going anywhere any time soon!!! The Lord has good things in store for our future and has brought us this far!!! We were able to have our shop updated and remodeled this year and also re-do our food trailer and put better equipment in it! We have multiple events booked already in 2024 and we are contacted daily for our services.

 

I hope to give folks a face to put with the name ATE. The face of a woman that was saved and given a second chance at life and a career. A woman that stood on faith and chased after her dreams. A wife and mother that believed she could so she did. I want to give other addicts hope. I want to be the face of a woman that other girls and women can look up to but that they can also relate to.

 

The future of ATE is in the Lord's hands and I am excited to see what he does next!!! Where he will take us, who we will meet, and who we will impact!!! I am beyond grateful for my life now!!! 

 

P.S. my husband's testimony is just as powerful as mine!! He was also saved from his addiction to alcohol and the Lord turned his life around!! He is the first person in his family to graduate college! He has been my biggest supporter and has stood by me and helped me!