Hey guys,
Welcome to our site! Our goal is to offer more than just something to buy. We want to leave you with a smile, a laugh, some encouragement.... Life is about more than just shiny things. We aim for quality in our products but also in our character. We don't want your business with us to just be another stop in your already long, drawn out day. We want to leave you with something extra. I've always been a sucker for a story. So hopefully today I'll give you that little something extra, making you smile, laugh, encourage you, by telling you a story. Here's who I am and the meaning behind the COLOR BLIND CUSTOMS name.
This business has grown and changed in many ways over the past several years. Recently I was challenged to think of a name for my business that reflects not just what I do but who I am. If this business was able to get on a stage, what would it say about itself? For the first time in my life I was stumped! I have always known exactly who/what I am and where I wanted to go and what I wanted to be. When I was asked to redefine this business based on who I am, I had no idea who that was. Like I said, a lot has changed. Let's start at the beginning.
When I was 2 1/2, I was diagnosed with something called RRP. The short story is it's polyps that grow on my vocal cords....they burn them out.....they grow back.... so on and so forth. I had surgery every 2 weeks at one point when I was very young. Most of my adolescent years it was roughly every 2 months.
There was Interferon which was fun. Shots in my legs every other night. I don't miss those. Then they told my parents there was something in cabbage that would help. So, they started juicing cabbage for me! Now that.......was just as bad as it sounds. Not being able to talk at times sucked. Being able to use it as an excuse to be able to do basically whatever I wanted in school was a perk. Nobody else got water from the water fountain every 5 minutes, just saying lol. I made it fun where I could. I hated it when they started giving me my IV before they put me to sleep. The first few times after they started doing that I would mess with the nurses. One time I wore muddy leather gloves and hid my hands under the nice crisp clean sheets. So even after she got the covers off me, I still had these muddy gloves on lol. Another time I had a Creepy Crawler machine. You could make little rubber-looking worms, spiders, etc. I put a bunch of spiders on my feet and covered up waiting for the nurse. Right before she stuck me with the IV, I jumped and said, "Owwww". She said, " boy I ain't even stuck you yet". I said, " no, my feet" lol lol. There were like 4 nurses, 3 Drs, and probably a few of the kitchen staff in that room by the time she got through screaming and hitting my feet trying to get those spiders off lol. Good times! Surgeries took me away from school a lot so making up things was a hassle. Also, people get accustomed to you having surgeries, you just never really get accustomed to having them. It got lonely at times.
In my early teens I was pretty much your standard (Extremely good-looking) guy lol I mean, of course lol!
I went to a small school. Graduating class of 60. A small country church, small town, small family. Sounds like a country song lol. Of course, I got hooked on the only girl in our little town that just wanted to be friends... From the time I was 13-14 until after I graduated. I honestly believe I could have worn down Miss USA in that time frame lol. I was a young man, with all that it entails, but eventually a Godly young man.
This was the time of my life when I struggled growing closer to God in the midst of trying to understand all the why's. This was the part of my life that bred the most painful situations I've ever delt with. I was too young to fall quite as hard as I did. It messed me up in some strange ways. I used to spend hours in the mirror every morning before school, church, trying to get every hair on my head just right, and not in the normal teenage boy sense either. It was extensive!!! I was like my wife is now on Sunday morning trying on clothes for church, but it was every morning lol. Tucking and untucking, tucking, and untucking, then changing. I was trying to be good enough. The only thing I could see is that I wasn't.
After years and years of rejection, it can really start to affect how you see yourself. I put all of my worth in the opinion of someone that couldn't see it. There's nothing quite like doubt. It can creep into places that other things can't. Genesis 18:1-15, Where Sarah laughed within herself after the Lord told Abraham she would have a son. Luke 1:11-20, When Zechariah was told he had to be mute until his son was born because he doubted. Even the disciples after they had walked with Jesus his entire ministry, watched Him die, and now are sitting a few feet away from Him talking to Him. John 20:27-29, Even they needed to see the scars..... Hearing from God, seeing angels, and talking to Jesus,.....but doubt still snuck in! I was always a very analytical type person. I had to understand everything. Sitting in a place in life where you can't see anything but pain, but you know that God can "Do all things", that can be a dangerous place to sit if you don't understand the big picture. I spent a few years trying to prove that God was a "Bad" God. Trying to prove that this was just some game and that our suffering didn't amount to anything. Trying to prove that life sucks and there's nothing we can do to change it. I was lashing out with pain. I didn't know what else to do. I had prayed, begged, bargained...etc. I was way past having done everything I knew to do. Throughout those years though every now and then I'd need God in certain moments. In those moments I'd close my eyes and say, "Jesus". He was always right there. It didn't matter how hard I pushed away, or how small of a moment it might be, "Jesus", and with no hesitation, His presence would sweep all over me. After years of in-depth over analyzing and over thinking one day I sat on my floor, opened my bible, and did something different. Instead of trying to find the who/what/why or trying to prove something, I just asked God to show me the truth. With no effort at all I felt the question come to me, could a bad God love you? All those times in the past years that I had needed God and I quietly said, "Jesus" and He had instantly been there came flooding back. I knew what God's love felt like!... I knew I had loved and what that meant to me. Now could a MEAN, SELFISH, HATEFUL God, that's just playing around with us,... LOVE US? If you've ever felt Gods love and if you've ever loved someone, you know the answer. That was the beginning of the simplest and greatest thing God has ever taught me. He's a Good God, He Loves me, and He'll never leave me.
Getting older my relationship with God grew. I continued to have a ton of questions that were never answered. I remember I used to break into church at 12am after work some nights. There was this window on the side of the church in one of the kids’ classrooms that the window lock was broken. I would wiggle in and pray for an hour or so. I would turn off all the lights and force myself to walk around that empty church in the pitch-black dark praying, terrifying as it was at times lol. It always amazed me how the atmosphere, even in a dark room, can change when you start praying in it. You can feel the peace in a place where God has been. I remember having these dreams almost every night for weeks where demons would be chasing me through my house. I would get up out of my bed, stand in the middle of my room, and pray/praise God. Then I'd go back to bed. Slowly but surely over those weeks those dreams changed from those demons chasing me through the house, to me chasing them!
Life went on. I graduated high school.
I took a year off and then started college. I decided to go for my Nurse Anesthetist license. Considering how much of an impact the nurses, Dr, and one Nurse Anesthetist had made on me growing up. I went to a Jr college for 3 years and was almost done with my 1st semester at a 4-year university at this point. I had to get all the prerequisites for the bachelor’s in nursing program. I took 5 classes at the university, all of them classes the Jr college didn't offer. So... somewhere between Philosophy and Behavioral Statistics, near the end of the semester I called the Jr college to get my ACT scores. You had to have a 21 ACT to be accepted into the bachelor program and I had it.... I thought. You could not have convinced me otherwise. I was calling to get them to send it to the college. I remember talking to the girl because she was a girl I went to high school with. She found the one I took where I made a 20, but not 21...In retrospect at that point in my life, retaking the ACT would have been the obvious next step. Trying not to go into too many details that was NOT the next step I took! Long story short, I hit a really low spot. I came very close to ending the story right here.
After that I spent about 3 months on my brother's couch before coming home and applying for the RN program at the same Jr college I did all those prerequisites at earlier. I dressed up and went for the interview. I unfortunately was not able to get in. I probably shouldn't have mentioned having to have surgery every 2-3 months. They both kind of looked up at the same time on that one. So anyway, I applied for the LPN program. I would like to mention that I spoke with the guy counselor person 3 times, and he never once said anything about a test. I dressed up! I thought I was going for another interview. I was so depressed I didn't get but about 30 minutes of sleep the night before. I even brought my sister with me because I didn't think it would take but a few minutes and I wanted her to keep me awake. We parked and I started watching as people started lining up outside the door. I was like, "huh" maybe they're doing a lot of interviews today. I went in where there were a lot of tables, sat down with everyone, and a lady said, "ok, everyone take out your #2 pencils." I had to borrow one from the girl sitting beside me........ I made a perfect score?!?! Out of well over a hundred that applied I was 1 of 17 that made it in.
Funny thing, you know I met my wife that year while I was in LPN school!
Her name is Ashley. For years when I was younger I carried a piece of paper in my wallet. It was a list of things I wanted. Prayerful things, from God and for God. One of them was I wanted Him to be proud of me, I wanted to be healed. One of them was I wanted Ashley to love me just as much or more than I did her..... Funny how God answers prayers sometimes isn't it? He answered my prayer the exact way I asked it but in a completely different way than I expected! Now I wake up every morning with cow licks, scraggly beard, "still extremely good looking lol", with a wife that sees and knows my worth. It takes me about 5 minutes to get ready for church. Most mornings I don’t even look in the mirror. You see He's a Good God that loves me, and He'll never leave me.
We're almost there, I promise.
We have had an eventful life. My brother and my Papaw passed.
They're 2 of the best men I've ever known. It always seems like God takes the good ones first. We had another big life event. We went for a little ride lol. You see I've always struggled with discerning Gods voice. I've never been certain on what He wanted me to do with my life. I told God that if He wants me to move, I trust Him, and I want Him to move me lol. Well several years ago He did just that, literally. We were in a single wide trailer when it did 3 flips.
My wife had ran for the kids on one side of the house and I had gotten our son Tyler on the other side. The house was warping and cracking apart. It just so happens that because of where my wife stopped in the hallway, when the trailer rolled and the roof disconnected, we just happened to be lying in a pile of insulation right between our 2 vehicles. You see a few seconds earlier I had grabbed my son and ran across the house as it was being torn apart.... (da da da daaaa).... oh come on that needed like Indiana Jones music or something lol. I was about to push them into the bathroom further down the hall because that's what I had always heard you were supposed to do. Well, what they don't tell you is what to do when your feet come off the floor. I just held on to them as tight as I could. I remember lying on my right side and sliding a little way. I remember something hitting me in the back of the head as if someone hit you with a baseball bat. It was such a shock it almost didn’t hurt even though I knew it should have. I leaned my head into my wife's back and just told God, "I love you". I just waited for us to die. We eventually wound up between our vehicles inside the roof of our trailer. There's a lot to the story but I broke my back on a 2x4, X3 compression fractures to 3 vertebrae. I can't remember which ones. Minimal bumps and bruises for everyone else. One little boy my wife was babysitting was in the last room we couldn't get to in time. He was just standing in the middle of a field with nothing more than a little bitty scratch over his eye. He did a lot better than his crib that was completely smashed. Our 2 vehicles had huge V shaped dents in the engines where the frame of the trailer rolled over the vehicles.......and us! Funny how my wife just happened to stop inside the house in the one spot that would land us in the only spot outside the house, where we'd all be safe! I'm sure that was just a coincidence lol. I was able to get off work for about 6 months because of my back and because of the insurance we were able to get into a house. Which we upgraded with a storm shelter lol.
Still a Good God, still loves me, still hasn't left.
Ok I promise this time it really is almost over with. We're only a few years out now. I've been a nurse for 13 years at this point in our timeline. My wife and I have 3 kids, 2 boys and a little girl that we adopted.
It's about halfway into the pandemic. I had worked at nursing homes and was currently working at an assisted living facility. Life had started to weigh on me a little heavily again. I let myself get back to that point where I was when I was in college. I don't know if God was trying to move me again or if I just didn't have my eyes focused hard enough on Him. I had just seen too much death in the little over a decade I had been a nurse. People wasting away in their rooms. Walking from one room where a patients dying, and then having to tend to your other 29 patients pretending like everything's ok. Talking to a new patient showing them their new room while remembering the last person that died in that room. I had gotten myself back to a point where death was too much a part of my life. I decided to walk away from nursing and start something different.
I also started another step I had always run from. I started going to a psychologist. I got on some meds and things started to look up. At first my business was mostly woodworking. I got on YouTube and started learning as much as I could. We invested in a CNC machine, and I taught myself how to work with CAD. In the middle of the pandemic, I was able to build up a business. Wooden decor, signs, dog kennels, furniture, etc. I got busy.
Then one day my wife told me she needed a sign for her business. (She has her own business too) I've always been the guy that would tear things apart and salvage all the little things inside. Over the years I had acquired the basic skill sets needed to create a......Neon Sign! So, I was like hummm, hold my diet coke!
Having started with the woodworking and buying the CNC gave me the tools I needed to progress in the right direction. The past few years I have been able to perfect our technique and figure out how to get it right. During that time we sold our house. We were going to start building a house, but we were thrown for a loop with that one. The information we were given before we sold was extremely wrong. Another long story. In the process of finding an apartment we went to some apartments we really liked. We were told that they were a few hundred dollars more a month than what we were going to pay. So even though we liked them we had to walk away. Before we did I signed up for an email list they had on the table. Several weeks later we received a quote for one of their apartments that was a few hundred dollars less than they had quoted us. It was a mistake. Their management had sent it out by accident. Since we received it and asked about it though, they had to honor it. Still God, Still there, Still loves me.
AAAAAAAAD Finally, to the Present.
God has recently taken that pain I delt with when I was younger away from me, Completely! I went from being so insanely depressed to the depression meds I was taking having to be cut in half because they started making me sick. God wrapped up some old things in life and decided they were done. Now when Ash comes to me freaking out about bills, kids, problems, my first instinct is that it’s ok! I tell her to remember. Remember the storm, remember when I quit nursing, remember the apartments.... Remember! We talk all the time about things in the bible we don't understand. I've got more questions now than I could have dreamed of having when I was that little kid asking God why. I am somewhere between 200 and 250 surgeries now, we lost count.
I have absolutely no clue where God is going to take me next. I'm perfectly happy with that. I'm able to trust Him without being able to see or hear Him because, He's been there. I can trust that He has the answers to the questions that I don't and be at peace with that because, He's loved me. I can deal with surgeries, problems, and life without worry because, He's been a Good Good God!
John 9 starts the story of the blind man where Jesus spit in the dirt and rubbed mud in his eyes.
This is where the name COLOR BLIND CUSTOMS comes from. When asked that day to come up with a name that reflected who I was. It made me start looking at who I was as a person absent of the titles I had for most of my life. That’s when I came across John 9.
9 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
......and it continues with the man being healed. Please go read the entire passage.
(I bet that mud stunk. I bet the mud got in his eyes. It probably burnt, hurt, and stung as the man sat there not understanding why Jesus was doing this to him. I wonder if he jerked his head back a little as Jesus was rubbing the grainy mud into his eyes. I’ve suffered my entire life not being able to see. I’m standing here before Jesus and He is supposed to love me but, He’s hurting me instead. Why? The hands of God are on me, but I’m in more pain now than I’ve ever been before! Why?)
He was obedient, he continued to trust his savior, he washed the mud away, and he could see for the first time in his life! He ran back and praised Jesus. He stood in front of the Pharisees and proclaimed the name of Jesus. He came through his pain and struggles with the praise of Jesus on his lips. His life now tells a beautiful story of the goodness of God.
Through pain and sickness and half a lifetime of not understanding or knowing why, I know who I am! I am a child of an everlasting, ever loving, Good God, that will Never Leave Me. He always has and always will Love Me. I was put here so that, just like with the blind man, His love and works can be made manifest in me. His light can shine through me, as witnessed by my testimony. I love you guys!
Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I hope it made you smile, laugh. I hope it encourages you and you are able to take a little something extra away from it. God bless you guys, take care.
COLOR BLIND CUSTOMS
Ryan Terry
Update- 4/22/2024
Lol Well that’ll wake you up in the morning! I’m heading to the cancer center here in Hattiesburg for the first time to start a new kind of treatment. I knew it was given in adjunction with chemo meds. I just didn’t think about it being one. Just a moment that made me tense up for a second when I saw it lol. Anyway it’s actually all good things. If this works this will take the place of surgeries!!!!!! It’s not a cure but it’s a lot better than having a blender stuck down your throat. It’s just an infusion. 30min after the 3rd time. It’ll be every 3 weeks for the first little while then they will titrate it depending on how the papilloma react. I’ve heard some people say they get it every 6 months! So…….. 300 plus surgeries since I was 2 1/2 and just like that, it could be over! I’m going to add this to my testimony. You guys say a prayer that this works. I told you….. He’s still with me, He still loves me, and He’s still a good good God!
