Bonnie 2010Today’s guest post comes from Bonnie, a working mom of five kids who just celebrated her 15th anniversary with her soul mate.  You will always find a book nearby and at least two on her night stand.  She loves discussing all life has to offer with her book club friends, and staying up to all hours in the morning playing games with as many of her seven brothers as possible.  Her current goal is to achieve balance spiritually and temporally.

I love new beginnings.  To the point, that I create them even when not necessary.  It drives my husband mad!  But there is one new beginning that I share often because it was so powerful and so……defining.

The one that stands out to me is after the birth of our fifth child, a girl.  We had a hard time accepting that we were pregnant, yet again.  The timing was all wrong and we were just starting to get our feet under us.  Our job situation was bleak – working opposite shifts and four boys under age six to keep us busy.  We never saw each other.  Our marriage was on the rocks, our activity in the church was almost nil, and our home was ripped up because we thought we could remodel during this time.  Then to find out we were bringing another child into this chaotic life.

During this pregnancy, after several nights of crying, and lots of thoughts of “how in the world are we going to do this”, I had a quiet moment of peace.  And the Spirit whispered to me, “When this child comes, she will touch your lives and they will change for the better.”  Such a sweet peace came over me and allowed me to continue my pregnancy without fear and worry about the effect a fifth child will have on our lives. 

What this peace offered was the ability to listen to the Spirit, instead of chasing it away with my own fears.  It also allowed us to talk….really talk.  About how our lives were and what things needed to change.  Her birth was quick and perfect.  And our lives settled back into our routine – whatever ‘routine’ you can have with five young kids.

But our discussions continued until we prayed for something different.  For the previous seven years, we had been praying that my husband could support us on his income and I could stay at home.  Those prayers never materialized into anything.  And we had gotten stuck.  As we talked, we thought (which I’m sure was the Spirit whispering), “That desire isn’t happening, maybe, we should pray for something else.”  After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that our marriage needed to be put first.  We needed to see each other and our kids needed to see us together….happy, together.

So, we prayed.  We prayed that would be able to work the same shift, have enough money to hire a nanny to help with the kids, live closer to work, and have the evenings and weekends with the family.  And we asked that we could accomplish that in three years.  We felt so good about this and the Spirit washed over us as we closed our prayer.  We knew that we should have changed our prayers long ago, but we didn’t have the clarity or the desire to do so.

Then the stars started aligning……First, our kids were accepted into a charter school near where we worked.  Second, within a few weeks, my husband was laid off.  But it didn’t send us into a frenzy.  We just knew that this was the first step into our journey of changing our lives.  And we had turned our lives over to the Lord – He knew our hearts, our desires, and we had given him a plan.  Third, within a few weeks he was offered a job that was basically created for exactly what he had been doing.  Not only that, but he would start making significantly more money that he had been making.  The only downfall was that it was located two counties away from where we were living.

Fourth, I decided that working for this company might not be the best plan.  So, I started looking just to see what was out there.  I also found a job making significantly more but it was located even further than my husband’s job.

So, we jumped……we found a home to rent near the kids school, we interviewed nannies, and we accepted both jobs.  Within three Months, not years as we had planned, but months, we had everything that we had asked for.

I cannot put into words what that did for our family.  Our relationship grew stronger because we knew that we had come together as a husband and wife, knelt before God, gave him our burdens and a solution.  Then He blessed us faster than we could comprehend.  Our faith changed, we went back to church and have not lapsed since.  And our family has been blessed beyond measure.  To the point that we have recently jumped again …..but that’s a new beginning for a different time.


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