About Me
T21 MUM, TEA LOVER, ENTREPRENEUR.
Co-founder of Tielka and creator of BrollyBlue, Rebecca Domorev
I am totally convinced that whatever life throws my way, whatever curve-balls I meet, it's still possible to find pockets of joy and rest in an underlying peace. It's a God-given gift.
Too often, we believe we can only enjoy ourselves when life is going well. We believe that if circumstances meet our expectations, then we can say this life is blessed. Then we can be happy.
It's not how life goes. Life is messy. Life is imperfect. Life rarely goes according to plan. And I know this all too well.
At the beginning of 2018, my husband Alexei and I were thrown a curve-ball we never expected. On February 14th at 9:06am at rural Bundaberg Base Hospital, we welcomed into the world a new baby boy. We were excited about taking him home to be part of our family. We had been anticipating his arrival for so long! Almost immediately, it was evident not everything was ok. He was having trouble breathing, he was weak. On his second day of life, he was packed away on the Royal Flying Doctor Service and flown to Brisbane for life-saving surgery. Our whole family relocated almost 500 km from tiny Agnes Water to busy Brisbane to be with him. For the next four weeks we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House while he was taken care of at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We received the news that our perfect little boy who we loved deeply also had Down syndrome.
Our whole world was turned upside-down. We were completely blindsided. We were exhausted. Strangely, under all this mess and confusion, we both felt a God-given peace. I remember one evening, as we were walking through the parklands of South Bank with our two older boys, my gaze lifted towards an overhanging sculptured metallic archway, covered in lush green vines and flickering fairy lights. In that moment, something unexpectedly allowed my heart to open up and I gasped with wonderment. It was magical. In what was probably the most challenging season of our life, there was still joy to be found.
For me, the power behind this joy is tied up in my morning ritual. In the morning, I make myself a cup of tea and sit down on our back deck under a very large umbrella. I listen to music, I drink my tea, I think, I read my verse of the day, I talk with God - I talk with Him a lot. These mornings set the tone and have a beautiful flow-on effect for the rest of the day. I have strength to be who is truly me, I have strength to love generously, I have strength to find joy even in the most difficult times.
My years of drinking endless cups of my tea under the umbrella have taught my heart to know joy and set me up to experience a crazy peace through life's curve-balls and detours.
Now I want to share this with others, and I hope that the message of BrollyBlue, coupled with beautiful tea, will create a space for others to experience this too.