The Unexpected Working Mother

I've always wanted to participate in a Wordful Wednesday post hosted by Chocolate on my Cranium but I always forget, run out of time, or just don't do it. I am finally going to do it today.

My husband and I had our first child in May of 2010. We were so excited to finally have a baby after being married for almost 5 years. We knew that we did not want to have our child in day care so we made some cut backs on our expenditures so I could quit my job and stay home with our son. I was home for 3 months when work called asking if I would be willing to help with a project part time from home. Jared and I felt it was a huge blessing to have the extra income and since I was still at home we said yes. That lasted for almost 5 months and ended in December of 2010. We knew money would be tight again but we knew we were doing the right thing by having me be home. The mother's role is a nurturer and should be with her children.

Well mid January came and our world went upside down. My husband lost his job and we were both on unemployment. Once we got past the shock of the situation we realized we were being blessed unexpectedly. Jared got the opportunity to go to school in the spring. I found a job coaching track and field. Money was extremely tight but with the help of different programs, our savings, and our food storage we were making it through. I never thought I would be using my food storage for a non-natural disaster situation like this.

In April I got a phone call for my old job asking me if I wanted my job back. I couldn't believe it. I had been looking for a full time job as now we knew that I needed to work and support my husband to go to school so he could in time support our family so I could be home with our children.

It has not been the ideal situation that I would have picked out with me working full time and being the provider but what a huge blessing it is that I have the skills and a team who believes in me that I can provide for my family. My husband and I have tried counting our blessings through this trial over and over again. They are numerous. We've been blessed to always have food, to be able to pay our bills and still have our son home with us. We've had to use some other resources to care for our son but it's always been in a trade situation (you watch my kid, I'll watch yours). I feel so blessed as we've gone through this trial and changing our circumstances from what we expected to do and how we were living.