Please join me, every week in July, as I share this series on my journey of choosing home. I pray that you will be encouraged and strengthened as Godly women, as I share this path that our Heavenly Father has guided me through.
You can read Part One, here.
It had been a long weekend on my feet. I don’t recall that any patient in particular died. I vaguely remember working on the Alzheimer’s unit, then tending to some dressing changes on the skilled unit. I’d ingested loads of coffee and expressed volumes of milk via Medla breast pump. This was my third 14-hour nursing shift for the weekend. {I worked Fri., Sat, Sun 7pm-7am, which would *really* end around 9am}. For my next trick, I made my morning stop at McDonalds to order enough food to keep me awake for the ride home. I ate to stay awake.
I thought, I am so tired. I could fall asleep right now. Jesus, drive me home. Jesus, drive me home. And that’s when I woke up. In front of me I saw rows of metal mail boxes, a fence, a pond, some houses, all blurred. I screamed His name. I screamed “JESUS,” because that is all I could scream. Somehow time held still. By His holy hands, my sliver mini-van corrected to the right, gracefully missing oncoming traffic, and landed me safely in my lane.
He had my attention.
I almost died trying to get back home to my babies. Home in-which I knew the Lord had been ever so gently leading me back to full-time. The Holy Spirit was gently tugging on my heart, “What are you working for?” I cried the rest of the ride home over what could have been.
I kept reasoning in my natural mind that I needed to work. Here’s the thoughts I was warring against:
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My husband’s one income was not enough to live off.
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We had recently bought a fixer-upper farm house. How would we pay for that?
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My income nearly put us at six-figures. If I could earn a few more initials behind my name we’d *have it all.*
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We had plans, things we were doing, and places on our list we hadn’t been to yet.
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What if I stepped out in faith and God didn’t show up. <<<—- Yup, that’s where I was.
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What would people think about us if I didn’t work? {In other words, we wouldn’t drive the nice cars, get to remodel the house, and have the Nikes.}
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I didn’t want to be one of *those* homeschool moms who stayed home, had lots of babies and had to live “frugal.” {Insert a snicker & a snort…com’mon, it’s funny.}
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Even though I had a degree in I.T., I had gone back to school for two more years when our boys were newborn & 3, just so I could have this “glamorous” weekend position.
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What about all that time I’d spent going back to school?
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How would be pay for homeschooling?
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For that matter…how would we eat?
You can see I had a very nice list in place of all the reasons I had to stay working. Also, at that time, my husband wanted me to still work. I reminded God of that too. God was offering to make a way.
“A man’s mind plans his way,
but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.”
Proverbs 16:9 {Amplified}
Loving this series!! I love reading stories of moms coming home.
Thank you for reading Donetta!
Thankyou for sharing!!! I am a stay at home mom of three children, we are praying about wheather or not we should homeschool. Im praying my husband and I will be united on whatever decision is made, and ultimatly the decision needs to be made by God because I dont see how we'll ever see eye to eye! LOL
Thank-you so much for sharing! I love reading how God is working in the lives of other moms!
Jessica
Oh my goodness! That is much more dramatic than my story! I just read Part 1 & 2 and I practically blogged the same thing this week! I talk about those out of control grocery bills too and how I got out from under them.
Like you, I had never heard of "biblical womanhood" even though I was raised in a church. I had an awesome at-home mom – but like you & many others I was trained to "go" to work. What a dramatic awakening you had! I'm looking forward to the next installment on how you were able to swing it – which is what I'm writing about too! And I homeschool too! God bless you – love the blog!
Jeannine, you should link up your story above!
Thank you for all of your nice comments on this and my other post tonight. Thank you everyone else for reading and being supportive. I'll be sharing part three next Monday and have something special planned for next Tuesday. God is good!
Oh my gosh. It is like you are writing what is on my & my husband’s mind right now. We don’t have kids yet (talking about trying in the spring). I desperately want to stay at home with them & homeschool them. I am not naive & I know it will be VERY tough but I feel that it is right. My husband is quite apprehensive about it…mainly due to the financial reasons. I make quite a bit more than him & things would be very challenging with just his salary. We are ahead in many ways in that we have very little debt (basically just a mortgage & 1 car payment) & that we have been working hard to get our unnecessary spending under control (mainly by working on our grocery budget first). But we are techy people so not running out & getting the latest igadget will take some reorganizing of our priorities.
I may be getting another job soon that will pay even more so we are hoping to work it so that we are pretty much living on his salary & just saving mine. Also, I am looking at maybe starting a couple of home businesses to bring in more money.
Our parents may be another hurdle to cross. My mom has already said, “You make so much money, you may want to reconsider being a stay at home mom.” That really made me angry as if my children & I should be punished because I have been somewhat successful in my career. Sorry for the vent. Thanks for your blog. It encourages me greatly.
I just want to encourage you, Kristy. The Lord always provides. I now have a full-time home business with my other site Free Homeschool Deals. It’s just an example of how creative ideas and divine plans are from the Lord and He’ll bring them to pass at the right time. With all of your skills there is no reason why you couldn’t develop a home based business too. I would also encourage you that being home with your children is priceless. You will never regret the short years that you’re home with them. It really is just a minute.