As the day of our second child’s arrival draws near, we have had many people ask what our plans are after we return home.

So, I thought I’d take a moment and briefly share our plan.

Over the past three years, we have been blessed by Center Chapel. They have allowed me to work from home. This has given me the opportunity to be with Sammie and “raise” her. It has been awesome and we have definitely seen the benefits of this situation.

With a second child on the way, we have realized that it is fairly unrealistic for me to “work” and watch both of the girls. We looked at our financial picture and determined that we could live off of my salary and Emily can stay home with the girls…which is something she desires to do.

So, officially Emily will be taking a leave of absence through the end of the school year. At that time, we will re-evaluate our situation to fully determine if we can make this a reality. We don’t foresee any problems, but we want to keep our options open. So, most likely Emily will officially resign in the summer of 2010.

If Emily were to return to work, half of her salary would be tied up in childcare costs. And, truth be told, we strongly desire to raise our own children. God has blessed us with the ability to do that. We have chosen a lifestyle that permits us to make these kinds of changes. Some choose to live in a way where both spouses have to work in order to pay the mortgage, make the car payments, and so on. I’m not downing that…after all, it is the American dream to have every thing we desire. However, we have chosen to live differently. We live in a nice house…but it’s not fancy. We live in a decent pocket of a below average neighborhood. We drive older cars that are completely paid for. And, we can live off of my modest salary (just to be honest…after 5 years in Muncie, I still make less than I did in Elkhart…obviously we’re not in this for the money…and I think God has blessed that).

Some think we’re crazy. We’ve heard the argument that, “in this economy, you just don’t know what can happen…so shouldn’t you both continue working?” We’ve heard the cautious, “Well, I hope it all works out and you can feed your children.” We have also heard some say, “Oh, we wish we could do that.” My response is that you can if you truly want to…if both have to work…you are probably living beyond your means. Emily’s cousin Bob once said to her that it’s always wise to live off of one salary…just in case something were to happen you wouldn’t be in over your head.

We aren’t entering into this on a whim. We have prayed about it. We have practiced living off of one salary. We have built up our savings to provide in the case of an emergency. We have seen God faithfully provide for us. We are stepping out in faith. We believe that God has called us to live differently. We believe that God has called us to demonstrate that there are different possibilities out there. We believe that God will sufficiently provide for our needs. We believe that this is what God desires for our family.

So, that’s our plan. You may think we’re crazy…and that’s okay…we probably think you are crazy! Just kidding…well, kind of!