“I’m think I’m in labor,” I announced as my husband walked through the door from working the night shift.
“What?! Now? Have you called the doctor? Why are you just sitting there?” He said in a panic.
“I’m timing contractions,” I answered tapping my notebook with a pencil, “I called, but I’m waiting on someone to call me back from the office, besides, it doesn’t hurt bad yet.”
“Did you tell them you were in labor?”
“No, I said I might be in labor, but now I’m pretty sure I am.”
“Call them back! We’ve got to get to the hospital,” he shouted as he began to shed work clothes and fidget.
At this time we had credit card bills, doctor bills, two vehicle payments and now we were going to be adding hospital bills to the pile of never ending payments. All of this and I had spent the last thee months reclining on the love seat as if I didn’t have a care in the world eating Reece Cups and growing larger every day.
I had a lot on my mind during this time, growing a baby and becoming a mother for the first time. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wouldn’t earn enough income to make working worthwhile. Besides, there was part of me that already knew I wouldn’t be able to leave my baby with someone else for eight hours a day. We would just have to manage on my husband’s income.
The first step was to cash in stock we had and pay off my SUV. We did that just before our first daughter was born.
After that we pretty much lived month to month paying my husband’s truck payment, rent, groceries, diapers and all those cute little clothes I couldn’t live without.
When my daughter was just a few months old, I started cleaning houses for a little extra money. My mom or grandmother was happy to watch her for me while I cleaned their houses and my aunt’s.
I clipped coupons and tried to save money. I made that my job since I wasn’t earning much of an income.
Two and half years later our second daughter arrived at the same time as one of the biggest snowfalls I had ever seen in south Arkansas. I was grateful for another girl, the pink stuff and dresses would be handed down.
We lived out those days in our three bedroom rent house contentedly for a while. Then one day I started thinking about a house. We began to talk, plan and dream about how we could make it happen.
We were thirty years old with two children. We had no home of our own and no savings. Would there be a house in our future?
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