7 More Weeks...

I cannot believe I only have 7 more weeks until I have to go back to work. Although I am absolutely dreading it, I am blessed to have been able to stay home with my little man this long. As much as I hate to leave him anywhere, with anyone, I am thankful that God has provided a caretaker for Luca that I feel comfortable with and that I know will take good care of him and give him lots of love and attention when I can't be there. Since he was born in the middle of summer vacation, I basically got an extra month of maternity leave for "free". He will be 4 months old when I go back to work, and he will only have to be in daycare for a total of 5 months this whole school year, so that's another thing I have to be thankful for, but it's still hard to think about leaving my precious child all day and being away from him. Being a working mom is something I have struggled with for a long time. When Santi and I were first married we agreed that children would wait until we had both finished our education, had established ourselves in our careers, and saved up some money so that I could stay at home. I never wanted to be in a position where my children would have to go to childcare. As much as I love my career, I wanted to spend every second possible with my children. We worked very hard, both of us going to school and working full time. It wasn't easy, but we did it and we sacrificed. We knew it was important for us to be able to support a family. Unfortunately by the time Santi finished his bachelor's and I finished my master's the economy was in shambles. Our mortgage was upside down on our first home (like so many others) and Santi was having a hard time finding a better position. By that time we had been married almost three years, and we were really longing to start our family. We took a leap of faith and hoped that God would provide a way for me to stay home, even though it wasn't possible at the time. After struggling over a year to start our family (also not what we had expected), we welcomed Luca, and I was still holding out hope that somehow I would be able to stay home. Since I found out I was pregnant, I have been crunching numbers and cutting back to try to make things work. Now, with my return date looming I know that it is not in God's plans for me to stay home with Luca at this time, and I have to trust His decision. Maybe He wants me back at work because He knows the work that I am doing and the lives I am impacting in my career as a teacher. Or maybe he just wants to test my faith yet again, and in His time the right opportunity will come along for me to stay home. I feel His whisper at times telling me that I will be able to stay home with Luca, and He will provide all we need, but I have to be patient. All I can do for now is trust Him with our finances, remain faithful with the tithe, and pray that he will bless us for our hard work. Sure it's frustrating to know how hard Santi and I both work, and yet we are still unable to afford for me to stay home. It's frustrating knowing that we aren't living lavish lifestyles, and yet the bills are still barely paid each month. It's frustrating knowing that we both went to school for a long time, and borrowed a lot of money, and we may never see a return on our investment. I have to believe that it's all a part of His plan, and honestly we are truly blessed. I know money doesn't buy happiness...but it's hard to say that when money is what would allow me to stay home with my child.

Sunday Blessings

Before Luca arrived, I set a goal to blog more regularly and to get more creative with my blogging. I also wanted to have some regular weekly posts. To be honest, I am not great at keeping up with regular posts like some of my blogging friends, but I really want to make an effort. I love blogging. It's my outlet. Since I began this blog four years ago I have had periods that were just uninspired and other times when I had so much going on all I wanted to do was blog. Now as a new mom I feel like I have recovered my passion for blogging. I have so much on my mind and so much to share. This new phase in life is so full of new experiences and inspirations.
One of the "regular" posts I tried to start before Luca arrived was Sunday blessings. I wanted to take a moment each Sunday to come up with at least one thing I am thankful for. One blessing among many in my life. One "shout out" to my awesome God, full of mercy and grace.
Now this particular Sunday I have finances on my mind. Not too different from any other day of the week honestly. When we found out we were expecting Luca, we began saving for my maternity leave because I knew I wanted to take the full 12 weeks, even if it was unpaid. We decided we would just put away enough money to live off for those weeks, plus cover the expenses of the hospital bill and any baby expenses we might encounter. We thought we had plenty saved up and I was feeling good about taking all this time off work. Well we all know things don't always go as planned...in fact, they rarely do. Since Luca's arrival, in addition to the couple thousand dollars we had already dropped on the hospital and doctor bills (the amount they had given us initially as an estimate), we have received additional doctor or hospital bills almost every other day in the mail it seems like. Partly because of the issues I had towards the end of my pregnancy that resulted in extra ultrasounds, and party because when it comes to doctors they are never up front about what you really are going to have to pay. What we had estimated for medical expenses has doubled easily. Additionally, we have had not one, but three incidents with our cars that required repair. Tack on another thousand. The money we had saved for my leave is quickly disappearing, and part of me wants to feel really anxious about how we are going to pay the bills for the next 10 or so weeks of my leave. But then I remember that I serve a generous God...and He provides. I have to remember that. So, my Sunday blessing for today: our fridge is full of food, we have clothes on our backs, and a roof over our head. I am not sure how we are going to stretch out our savings until I get paid again...but I do know that He knows. We have been faithfully tithing for over a year now, and I know He will take care of us. He can do more with 90% than we can with 100%. I am ready to watch Him work. We are blessed.

Can't Buy Me Love

The picture is our sweet puppy after surgery to remove a baseball hat from his stomach. The adorable black dog is his friend Nahla who was staying with us for the weekend.

Ever since we returned from our big trip to Ecuador, we have been working hard at being better stewards of the money and resources God has blessed us with. This began by stepping out in faith and starting to tithe...meaning giving 10% of our income to the church. It felt great to know that we were being obedient to Him, and it strengthened our faith as we counted on Him to provide for us each month.
I would like to admit that while we have seen God provide for us in many ways, it has not always been easy to trust that He has things all under control. Sometimes you have to really take a step back to see Him working. The month of August was especially difficult. Things seemed to be going quite well, although I will admit we were not doing the best job at budgeting our money and spending wisely. I had received a nice bonus for my teaching portfolio, and that was mainly used to pay off the credit card that we used while we were in Ecuador. Well, we went slightly over budget on our trip, but we still managed to get it paid off with my bonus. Around my birthday we decided that we could finally afford for me to replace the car I have been driving since I was 16. We found a great deal on a new Nissan Sentra, and the best part was that we qualified for an interest rate of 0.9%, which is next to nothing. It was a little more than we had planned on spending, but the thought of having a car that is under warranty for three years made it seem worth it. We knew that with two cars over 95,000 miles, we were going to start running into expensive problems sooner or later. The month of August was a little slow for Santi, and his commission check was not as high as normal...no big deal...we were still more than fine. We have emergency fund for these purposes if need be. Then...one day our lovely dog decided that a baseball hat seemed like a delicious lunch while we were at work. I came home to find no more than a couple of tiny pieces remaining. I thought surely he had destroyed it enough that it would just make its way out naturally. Well, that was not the case. $2,ooo later the hat was successfully removed via emergency surgery, oh, and there was also a toy in there. Following that hit to our budget, my mop also decided now would be a great time to break. This is not just any mop...it is a steam mop. When you have mostly tile floors in your home, it is not practical to just mop the old fashioned way. So...I had dirty floors and no mop. When it rains it pours. All of this was in light of our already planned trip to Indiana for my fall break in October...so tack on $500 in plane tickets and another $250 to board the dog. In the grand scheme of things, these minor setbacks may seem like nothing. We are very blessed, and we can work around them. They may be a pain, and they may mean we have to sacrifice here and there...but they are manageable.
After feeling a bit frustrated...I was able to see that this must be God's way of telling us it was time to get serious about budgeting our money and start being better stewards of what He has given us. “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” (Luke 12:48)
So...as of September 1st...we are back on track with our budget and so far doing better than we ever have. We have been out to eat once in over a week...and it was to Taco Bell! We have also been under budget on groceries...and my cooking skills are quickly improving:) I will keep you all posted on how this new budget works out.

The Truth About Life as Newlyweds

Everyone thinks that life as newlyweds is pure bliss 24/7. I must admit, when it comes to our relationship it can't get much better. However the reality is that being young and newly married also means being broke! Santiago and I have recently started to work on a budget that will hopefully allow us to quickly pay off debts, save money, and hopefully furnish our new home as well. That being said...we are going to have to suck it up and avoid all the fun stuff that we love to do. No more weekend getaways, no more concerts, no more shopping, no more pedicures, no more eating out. This is all very challenging for us due to the fact that we live in such a happening city with so many great getaways close by. If we were in boring old Indiana it wouldn't be so hard:) Boooooo. I guess that is just part of "growing up".