Debt Free!!!

We are now officially debt free!! $23,000 + 14 months later we are now celebrating a huge accomplishment. This is not the first time we attempted to live by FPU; we started that path in 2007/2008 and we were on track to be debt free within 12 months but then "life" happened. For us "life happening" was the beginning of our immigration problems. From then on everthing I made went towards that debt and we quickly fell off track and forgot about getting debt free.

December 2010 Brad brought up the idea about us looking at our finances again, creating a budget, making some sacrifices again and I was a little skeptical. I felt we were already living tight what more could we do? He was teaching FPU now and I just thought it was his emotional high from that and I wanted some proof that if I committed to this new way of life and gave up my cable it'd mean something. Even though we never argued much over money, the stress of debt touched our relationship in ways I never realized until now. I learned I struggled with my trust in Brad for starters; was it fair for me to doubt his committment to FPU at the time? Nope, but I did. I believe that mistrust was linked back to our immigration problems and the debt and stress that created. Over these 14 months I learned of my mistrust and finally let go and now I trust him 100%. I know he is leading our family down the correct path and I'm more then I'm happy to follow his lead.

So I agreed to do this again, not ready to make any major sacrifices that Brad was proposing at the time. He wanted to axe the cable. This was a tough one so I said yes but give me until early spring when all the bad TV starts :)

A situation occured during Christmas time and that motivated us that enough was enough and we were committing to getting rid of our debt. We were actually mad that we had this debt and wanted to do something about it. That was partly our motivation. The other side was we want to be free to give when we feel led to. Personally, I had my moment of realization when I was building our web site, I was entering in items that you can purchase and one was to feed a whole school in Rwanda for one week was $250.00. One week we could feed a school, which I visited and all it would cost us is one car payment! I felt almost sick to my stomach at our selfishness. We were surrounding ourselves with 'things' that we told our selves we needed or deserved while that same amount could feed a school of 450 children. I told Brad that I was ready to kick this debt and fast.

So we started with the budget, had a few disagreements over the amount I should/could spend on groceries but other then that we just put our heads down and stayed focused. We didn't go out much, did no repairs to our house, or even bought those little items you don't think much of that we kinda need but I knew could wait. We were determined to make this work. We had a garage sale, sold everything we could think of in that. We still weren't satisfied. So we talked about Brad getting another job but this is kinda complicated since we can't legally work anywhere but Brad at the church and me not at all. But Brad became a ref and started reffing at the church which he can do and an opportunity came along in the summer for me to give personal lessons in basketaball. This was an unexpected bonus and we socked that money away towards debt. The Lord also gave me an opportunity to watch my friends kid for 2 months. That was a huge blessing and ended up paying for Christmas this year so we wouldn't have to use any of our money that we were to put towards debt. After Christmas my other friend asked me to watch her child as well so God is continuing to use me to bless my friends and bless us in the process.

At the start of this Brad asked that I think about selling our car. I immediatlely said no and I'm sure rolled my eyes. I explained to himnd that car was a blessing...it's got an automatic starter...I've never driven a car that nice...we only have 2 years left to pay off the car....we need a reliable car. I kept feeding him all the lies that I was choosing to believe. We agreed that we would hold off on that. But what Brad didn't know was I was praying and chatting to God about it constantly and finally after a few months I told myself and God that I was ready to sell the car if Brad brought it up. Of course he did and 1 week later we kissed our Honda Accord goodbye and began that painful search for a new to us used car.

After 2 weeks the Lord blessed us again with a perfect car for our family, it was in our price range and it was a perfect fit for our family. I was once again thanking the good Lord for taking care of us and providing in His timing.

So we were getting closer and gaining momentum. We are extra motivated since I am due to give birth May 28th and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to work after the baby comes. I plan on working but I'm a stay at home mom who works from home so we'll see.

Today we offically made our last payment and are now debt free. I actually feel more humbled then excited. Reflecting upon this past year showed me God's goodness, his grace and sweet mercy.

Easy Dinner

I've been living on Pinterest lately and have actually made many of the recipes I've pinned. Surprisingly enough they weren't all in the sweets category. I'm always searching for quick, easy and healthy meals for our growing family. I came across this meal in my emealz weekly hand out. It's fast but I'm going to take a guess and say it's not that healthy BUT it's filling. It does the trick for a quick meal.

1 pkg refridgerated pizza dough (I used Walmart brand)

1 lb ground beef

1 taco seasoning

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook meat, stir in water and taco season. Roll out pizza dough, cut in half, place meat and cheese on dough, fold over trying to seal any holes. Cook at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until brown. I served with lettuce, tomatoes, salsa and sour cream.

Fall

It's official, I've finally embraced fall and all the yummy treats and freezing cold weather that it brings. As usual in Indiana we went from 91 to the 50s over night and fall is here! I'm glad we can be outside with out slopping on the sunscreen and trying to find a pool to crash.

So I kicked off my acceptance and made these, pumpkin ginger mini muffins. I normally put a little bit of cream cheese icing on the top but this time around they don't even need it. Hailey was a great helper yesterday and "baked" with mommy and made these for daddy. She even goppled down a few, constantly saying "mmmm good muffins".

I'm a recent addict to Pinterest and it seems to be taking over my down time at night, especially if football is on :) I've discovered crafts for Hailey that I may even be able to do...time will tell though.

Our first craft that we'll do hopefully later today comes from this blog that I found on Pinterest. It looks easy enough right?

State Fair Fun

I hope she knows one day how beautiful she is! She loved spending time at the State Fair this year. That's why she's sportin' the apron and bucket :)

Dinosaur Train

Hailey discovered a new show...Dinosaur Train. So while daddy was away last week I busted out my inner artist. Can't you tell?

God's Will

When our immigration madness first started happening 4 years ago I was constantly stressed out. I kept praying and crying out to God to just please show me your will! I begged and pleaded with the Lord but still nothing. We went through crazy ups and downs and I constantly struggled with "where does God want us to be" and why the heck is He so silent on this...it's kind of a big deal. I can definetly say my communication with the Lord was great during that time!

The Lord spoke to us in a powerful way three years ago when we had to leave our home and live with my parents for 4 months and I felt confident (kinda) leaving knowing the big guy upstairs has this whole mess under control. When we got there I was tense and angry every day. Dreading opening up my email with a bad message from immigration. One morning I woke up and got on my knees and just wept before the Lord and asked Him to please end it, to tell us that day. I just begged and poured my heart out to Him. Then it happened. We got the visa we needed. I was shocked. I had prepared myself for a no. Brad and I struggled with what to do, where to go again. We had lost sight of God answering our first prayer for the visa that we felt He wasn't answering our new prayers of where He wanted us to be.

Once again the begging, crying, anger and confusion set in. Why isn't God answering my cries for help? Why is he so silent. All I want is His direction. I decided to start a study on the book of Isaiah; there God gave me a scripture "whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice saying 'this is the way, walk in it". I felt the Lord's peace with that verse rest on my soul and we returned to Brownsburg in October.

Now we find ourselves waiting again, me begging God again to just finish this mess and get it over with. I feel more prepared this time though. I recognize God is in control, I'm just eager to here what he's got planned for our future. But it just hit me the other day, finally, that I don't need to keep begging God to show me His will because we are living in it right now. Brad confirmed that lesson when he told me he learned the same thing when reading Francis Chan's book Forgotten God. I need to change my prayers from asking God for an answer to asking God for patience for me and peace while we wait.

Another lesson learned...courtesy of US Immigration :)

Patient Pants

It never crossed my mind that I wasn't patient, I just assumed that I was. I felt I had patience oozing out of me when she was first born. I could handle her crying for hours and not loose it. But now I find myself praying for an extra serving of it from the good Lord almost every morning.

Hailey has recently figured out how loud she can screech for no reason randomly throughout the day. I feel like my ears are beside a loud speaker at a concert when she's done. As annoying as it is, most of the time its hard not to laugh. She cracks me up every day. She makes hilarous faces while eating dinner and of course tests the limits to see how far she can push the food out of her mouth or how far she can jam her fingers down her throat since yours truly reacted to her liking the first time she did that. She now pretends to gag all the time. My heart about came out of my chest the first few times she did it.

When she gets really impatient and starts whining I tell her to put her patient pants on. When she was younger we used to dance around to our made up patient pants song, now she just shimmey's her shoulders. If only her mother could dance then she'd have some real good moves in her repertoire by now.

Once again the lessons I'm trying to teach my little girl are currently what I'm struggling to get. I'm feeling really anxious and impatient about our Greencard/Visa process. We are waiting to hear about our Visa extension and of course it's taking forever to find out, we have 15 business days to find out and its now the 14/15 day and still no word. I think among the MANY lessons this Greencard process has taught me it's to be patient, wait on the Lord and His timing. BUT I still find myself obsessing over it in my mind, going over potential scenerios and just feeling like I'm going to pop if I don't find out soon. You think I'd learn by now but nope, still learning and still trying to relax.

Perhaps I should put my patient pants on again today, keep my head down and keep praying.