God.
Seriously. Like I stated in my previous post, even though my husband and I knew we wanted to homeschool our children, we didn't see how that would be possible.
We lived in an apartment in town, paying about $475 rent, plus utilities and such. No cable, satellite, Netflix.... We were making ends meet when my first child was born.
Daycare..? Are you kidding me? Ok, not all daycares are bad, but the ones we would have been able to afford on our budget just weren't an option.
God provides.
There's a lady about my moms age who stayed home. She wasn't looking for extra income, but it would be useful with the Med bills and extra stuff she was doing to help her aging mother.
She agreed to take in our daughter at a really cheap price for us but reasonable enough to make it worth it for her.
I give birth in October and return to work in January, dropping off my daughter with a woman I could trust.
- Did I mention I worked 35 minutes away from where I lived and she lives 15 minutes from where I worked, almost on the way? How well did that work out!?
Summer comes and we are soooo strapped for cash. We ended up having to dig into saving for the daily necessities (diapers, food, etc)
We start wondering - what's next? How will we do this?
Enter God.
Warning: this may be a bit hard to follow, but it is every bit true.
A deacon at our church had a brother who has to move into a nursing home due to his health. A widow, no children. No one else in the family needed the house, but they couldn't sell or rent the house without messing up his Medicare and other financial stuff in regards to paying the nursing home.
They also didn't want the house to fall into disrepair.
In short, a caretaker for the house was wanted. Rent free, the expectations were to pay taxes and keep up the house and yard repairs as needed.
This house was also a LOT closer to our babysitter and my job.
Naturally, they wanted a dependable family to do this so the house wouldn't be used for any illegal or otherwise undesirable activities.
Our deacon suggested us, knowing we were strapped for cash and starting a family.
After meeting with the lady over the estate, we moved in the week after July 4th (nearly 4 years ago).
Talk about a blessing! We were actually able to begin to save money again for a few months.
I found out I was pregnant again in November after moving in. We were thrilled, hubby and I want a big family.
Unfortunately, I found out right before Christmas that I miscarried. Twins. This resulted in needing a D&C. However, because we weren't paying rent, we had the money for the bills.
The next school year nears the end and my babysitter, as wonderful as she is, would no longer be able to care for my daughter the next year because her mothers needs were growing and she couldn't handle both. Hubby and got to praying - what do we do? We didn't (and still don't) blame her, you have to care for your family first.
Turns out, it was part of Gods plan. It was clear.
I said goodbye to the people I worked with and began my journey as a housewife / stay at home mom. We could now afford it because...
1) no monthly rent
2) no "extras" like Internet, cable, etc
3) line drying clothes in the nice days
4) wood heat in the winter
God sent me home when my oldest was 19 months old.
It's not been an easy journey, but I don't regret it.
God always provides, in ways we couldn't imagine or even ask for.
