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Stay-at-home mom forges path to supporting family, sharing the love
Adelicate silver heart pendant hangs around Kayla Harris’ neck. The heart’s bottom half is angled away from its top half, creating an open shape. This symbol represents a philosophy that guides Harris’ unique path to supporting her family, developing her career and extending a welcome to those in need.
“Keep an open heart,” she said, “so that love can always find its way in.”
The oldest of five children, Kayla learned the importance of caring for others while growing up on her parents’ cattle farm, Cannon F Ranch in Searcy. At a young age, Kayla learned to bale hay, build fences and tend to the herd. Although her father has another job off the ranch, her mother stayed home with the children.
“That was a special thing that has played a big role in the mom I am today, what I want to do and how I want to be a stay-athome mom,” she said. “The heart I have for kids came from that.”
After college, Kayla worked at a law office in Searcy and became active in CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of White County. While serving as a voice for children in court, she said, she realized the need to help kids in her community.
“It just goes back to that saying, ‘If you’ve been blessed, be a blessing,’” she added. “The children are our future. They are what we need to pour into for the next generation, but I’d say the biggest thing that’s given me the heart for [helping children] is coming from a large family.”
While she was working at the law office, she and her husband, Ben, found out that she was pregnant with their daughter, AJ. That’s when Kayla said she realized she wanted a career that would allow her to be present for her children.
She began looking for ways to work from home. After trying several options, she landed on a network marketing company that sells products geared toward health and wellness. Within one year of joining the company, she said, she was able to quit her day job and stay home with AJ, now 6, and Kayla’s 4-year-old son, Wesson.
In 2015, the family moved from a small house in town to a larger home near her parents’ farm. Kayla discovered that the home was big enough to accommodate more than her four family members, so she and Ben began looking for ways to use the extra space to help children who needed a place to live.
The couple considered ventures such as adoption or fostering, but then a friend contacted Kayla about a foreignexchange program for high school students organized by a company called CCI Greenheart.
Although she and Ben were in their 20s and had two small children, they decided to try out the program. After looking through hundreds of applications, one teen stuck out to them — Noor Leenders, a 16-year-old from the Netherlands.
“There was really no second thinking. We were just like, ‘This is our girl. We need to do this,’” Kayla said. “When we went to pick her up from the airport, there were a lot of emotions. It was a really special time for our family.”
Although Noor had only expected to attend school and see some local landmarks, there were bigger adventures in store. Kayla learned that her company’s annual leadership retreat for that year would take place in Washington, D.C.
She had only been with the company for a year, but she worked hard to earn the trip so that Noor could visit the nation’s capital. While Kayla was in meetings at the retreat, her family took Noor to see the capital city’s most renowned landmarks.
HOME ON THE RANGE
In addition to hands-on parenting, working from home has allowed Kayla to continue helping her parents on the farm. Kayla has been a customer at the Searcy Certified Farmers’ Market for years, and two years ago, she helped her parents join the market. While other young folks might dream of life away from the farm, Kayla stayed invested in the family venture.
“Probably my brother and I have the most interest in keeping [the farm] going and trying to help Dad with it,” she said. “We’re the two you can find at the farmers market.”
Although Kayla has no formal training in marketing, she has developed the marketing skills to both promote the Cannon F Ranch booth at the market and advance her career.
“I’ve grown my full-time income business through social media — Facebook and Instagram — and that’s the same way I market the beef,” she said. “You learn as you go along, I feel like. You learn what works; you learn what doesn’t work.”
The beef itself is a product that is hard to find in Arkansas. About five years ago, Kayla’s father, Shaun Formel, added a few Piedmontese cows to his herd, which then contained mostly Angus and Beefmaster breeds.
Piedmontese beef contains less fat than other forms of beef and can be a healthier option for people with high cholesterol, he said, adding that Kayla was invaluable in helping the family get started at the market.
“She knew a lot of people, and she knew how easy it is to get involved in the market,” he said. “We’re really trying to support the market. We want more people to get involved and to bring product up there.”
Although Kayla has grown into a marketing role, she can still be found around the barn.
“I find it peaceful and relaxing,” she said. “With farming, to do it and be a part of it, you have to love it. You have to love what you do because it is so much work.”
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
Kayla’s decision to work at home proved to be even more of a boon about a month ago, when Wesson was diagnosed with severe anxiety and sensory processing disorder. She teared up when she remembered how, at one appointment, she was asked if she worked at home because caring for Wesson could take a lot of time.
“I think right then was when it really sunk in for me that, ‘Wow, this is a huge blessing in my life to be able to be so present,’” she said. “I haven’t had to ask off work or be worried that my boss wasn’t going to let me go or anything like that.”
Having long believed in the benefits of maintaining a positive outlook, she said, she now hopes to pass a philosophy of positivity on to Wesson to help him embrace the differences that accompany his diagnosis.
“That passion for being positive, being who we are and not caring what others say or might think has only gone to a higher level now that I’ve seen what he’s going through,” she said. “Not only am I trying to live that way myself, but now I’m teaching him that.”
In the future, she added, she and Ben hope to open their hearts and home to more children in need, whether through the foreign-exchange program, adoption or fostering. She said she also hopes to climb higher in her company and teach her children the value of entrepreneurship. Nurturing her passions would be impossible without her decision to work from home, she added.
“That’s given me the freedom and the avenue to be able to do that farmers market, tend to my special-needs son and do the foreign-exchangestudent journey,” she said. “Every single thing I’m able to do now … is a freedom that was given to me by definitely choosing the road less traveled.”
Where does Kayla find the motivation to forge her own path? The answer lies beneath that silver pendant, where her favorite T-shirt is emblazoned with the word “fearless.”
“Nothing good happens in our comfort zone,” she said. “Every single thing that I’m a part of right now — that I’m so passionate about and involved with — came from pushing past fear and came from praying bold prayers to get past that comfort zone.”