It was always worth the sacrifice

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This morning I had an early doctor's appointment, and when I was finished with the doctor, the nurse came in to draw blood. She asked, "Are you headed to work?" "No," I said, "I stay home." "Are you retired?" she asked (the silver hair!). "No," I said, "I stay at home with my children." "How many do you have?" she asked. "How old are they?" She was very curious. And then she said, "You are very fortunate," and I knew just what she meant. "Yes," I said, "I am."

"How long have you been at home?" she asked. I explained that when my first child was a baby I went back to work and my mom cared for him. And then after ten months I realized I could neither put him in a day care nor ask my mother to continue to care for him (and his siblings when they came along) and so I quit my job, my career.

We halved our income. Half. We had a new home, two cars, a toddler, and we cut our income in half. That first Christmas I found myself cutting Scotch tape into tiny little pieces so I could wrap the meager gifts we had. We could not afford more Scotch tape until payday.

It was hard. I will never forget how hard. But, it was always worth the sacrifice.

And that is what I said to the nurse. Three times to be sure she understood that I really meant it. "It was hard, but it was always worth the sacrifice."

She said, "I tell my husband that I want to be a stay at home mom, but..."

"It was hard, but it was always worth the sacrifice," I said.

"Yeah, it's what I really want," she said.

"It was hard, but it was always worth the sacrifice," I said.

And then I came home, poured a cup of coffee, listened to my daughter tell me all the things that happened while I was gone, patted the dog, and sat down and read this blog post.

Read it. And if you have the privilege of staying home with your children, thank God for that privilege today. And hug your husband extra hard.

And if you don't have that privilege, make the sacrifice. It will always be worth it.


h/t: Starry Sky Ranch

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