I Have Been Young...continued

I don't recall how we informed friends and family of our decision for me to just quit my job and stay home. I do remember that by the time I actually finished my last two weeks I had been asked to stay on in other jobs at higher salaries. The offers were only a little bit tempting. We were pretty stoked about our walk of faith. It had not really cost us much yet as I would still receive one more paycheck. Those last two weeks flew by and on the first day of staying home I took Bill to work so I could grocery shop and run some errands. One of those errands was to the doctor's office. We had been thinking about starting a family but not for a while. I had never had German Measles and needed an immunization for that. I guess we really should not have been surprised that on top of the adventure of living on a reduced salary, we would now be adding another member to our family! Yes, on the first day at home, I found out were were expecting. I picked up two candles at the grocery store along with the ingredients to make a special dinner. We were celebrating! Celebrating the first day of a new way of living and of a new life as well. We still find ways to celebrate lots of things, great and small. I put those tapers, one pink, one blue, on the table and didn't say anything until we were sitting down together. Then I broke the news to Bill. He was thrilled. We both were. We were, however, also just a little bit more nervous about what the future would hold. Our adventure just got a little more exciting. We had health insurance, to be sure, but it was the 80/20 kind so we would be adding a monthly payment to our already insolvent budget. We would also be adding the usual expenses associated with having a baby. We had no idea how we would buy maternity clothes, baby furniture, clothes, car seat, etc. but we knew God had not been taken by surprise by any of this. The ensuing months were filled with expressions of God's tender care.

As had been our practice throughout our nearly three year marriage, when the paycheck arrived we wrote out our tithe check. Then an offering to a young missionary couple. We had committed to this before hearing God call us to this faith walk. We had not heard Him tell us to stop making that monthly payment. We then paid all the non-negotiable bills like mortgage, car payment, utilities, etc. Whatever was left was for gas for the car and food...for the entire month ahead. Yes, we got paid once each month. The first month without my paycheck was quite a shock. Even after eliminating all unnecessary items, our budget still didn't work on paper. There was nearly no money left after paying the bills. Enough money for one tank of gas, no money for food. We just looked at each other and then prayed...hard. We didn't tell anyone the specifics of our situation. Our small group knew of our faith walk. Our mothers knew. Most importantly, God knew. We reminded ourselves that we were trusting God. "Sink or swim, we were going on with God." The next day was Sunday. After church, our friends all went out to lunch. We went to our car to head home and make do with whatever we could scrounge. In the front seat was an envelope. It contained $30, a veritable fortune at the time. We went to the grocery store and very carefully purchased as much as we could on that amount of money. We took our treasure home and enjoyed a modest lunch together. This was only the beginning. The coming months held numerous blessings such as this one. We never learned where that money came from. We would sometimes find envelopes in the mailbox. They would contain different denominations of currency. We began to make a game of it. Bill would call from work after he thought the mail had arrived and ask if any presidents had come to visit. If they had, then he would try to guess the dollar amount by the president that appeared on the bill. We enjoyed visits from Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and  Andrew Jackson. We didn't get money every week. Only when we really needed it. Sometimes it was food, bags of it. Sometimes it didn't come in the mail but showed up like the first gift, in our car. Sometimes it was neither but something else special like the dresser a sweet older couple from church purchased from a garage sale. They refinished it and delivered it to us for our baby's room. A grandmother sent money for a crib. An aunt sent a box containing all the baby things she had saved from her daughter, now grown. I remade the curtains into whatever I needed to outfit the new baby's room. We had wonderful, generous baby showers. Our baby lacked nothing. When we found ourselves up against a financial obstacle, which happened with some frequency, we prayed. Once, we needed money again and were reminded that we each possessed gold class rings. This was the beginning of the 80s and gold was, well, gold! These rings were worth considerably more than when they were originally purchased. We had not purchased them for ourselves, however, and felt that we should ask those who had purchased them  if we could sell them. My grandmother and Bill's mother were more than willing for us to turn them into the cash we needed to get through the next few steps of the journey. We were delighted to be able to use those funds to make the obstetrician payment, buy groceries and gas for an entire month. The next month brought new challenges and new expressions of God's faithfulness. We received duplicate insurance reimbursement checks. Checks the insurance company did not want to try to take back. Not at the time, anyway. We were instructed to keep them and if they wanted the money back, they would let us know later. Not once did a bill go unpaid. Not once did we go hungry or not have money for gas so Bill could get to work. We did not lose our home after all. The baby's room was ready. The doctor had been paid. When the balance of my teacher retirement account came after the six month waiting period had passed, we used it to pay off our car loan. Finally! A bit of breathing room in the budget. We still had no discretionary money. It was still going to be very hard to make it on the amount Bill brought home each month and he was faithfully looking for a better job. The baby's due date came and went. At last our precious boy arrived! While Bill was on leave caring for me he received a call to interview for a job he had been hoping would open up for some time. Less than a month after our son was born, he began that job and is still enjoying it today! Who does that!? Our God, that's who! We have had numerous difficult financial places through the years as we have remained committed to having me at home full time. The high tech industry, in which Mr. Brown works, has been  fraught with downturns, lay offs and pay cuts. We have learned to live frugally and take joy in small things. We have never stopped crying out to God when the money didn't stretch as far as the month. We have never stopped paying our tithe first, our bills next and letting God feed us. We have never been without. Of course salaries increased over time. So did the number of people in our family and the expenses required to care for them. I just might share more faith stories in future posts. This story was only the beginning, a taste of what was to come. We're still swimming, not sinking. We have been young, now we are old(er)...but never forsaken.