2007 Reflection

Today has been a rather slow day. There is not much going on in my world of technology, so I thought I would sit back and reflect on a few points of this year that have given my life some new outlooks (some good, some bad).

Around the beginning of this year the wife and I were at wits end the fighting in the house was at an all time high, usually revolved around money and the lack thereof. We fought day in and day out with no end in sight. To solve this I decided to hunker down and take reins of something that had been leading us around like sick puppies for the last 4 years of our marriage, our finances. I began writing things down (something new to us) and seeing what came in and what came out each and every month, budgets were established, and limitations were set. We were not happy about this new way of living, but hey it had to be better than where we were now.

Sometime around May to June time-frame we saw that my handling of debt was not working, the creditors kept calling, and the threatening letters kept coming, I was beginning to panic and my lovely wife while trying to stay at my side began shutting off herself to this money situation. We were scared and to make matters worse had no one to turn to. She mentioned her parents but I passed on that I didn’t want to be a burden to anyone, besides this was my cross to carry. I thought when in doubt turn to God for answers, I prayed about it and first thing that came to me was to contact this person. I know what you are thinking “why would u contact a priest you know nothing about with your problems.” I had been listening to his shows found here I felt him more as a far away friend then a stranger. I emailed him and he replied back, told me he would pray for me during these times, and suggested for me to go to this man for help. I went and our lives were turned around please read the end of this post for updates.

The second half of the year was better than again not. My wife and I found out we would soon become parents, something we had believed for since our second day of marriage. We were overjoyed, we did it all the books, the websites, the baby stores. You name it we did it and this was all before she was even 2 months pregnant. We went for the first sonogram to show our developing child, and news was unfortunately not good, there was nothing there. The doctor believed it to maybe to soon and asked us to come back in a few days and we did. But alas the news was no different. We were devasted, we looked to God for answers and found none, family members, friends, etc were all having kids but it just was not happening for us. We felt God had literally turned his back on us, but yet something weird was happening, the bond between my wife and myself was getting stronger than ever, we talked more, we laughed more, we planned things out, we took control of our marriage and our lives. One day it dawned on me that this is why the baby didn’t come, god had a plan my faith had been renewed and my spirits were back.

After that happened I turned back to our finances, since I knew a baby would soon come I wanted to make sure the house was ready. I started to make some calls and strike some deals and to this day we have paid back nearly 90% of our credit card debt and soon to be debt free. That baby will be born to happy parents and a house full of nothing but love and no worries ever again. We thank the lord for giving us a new beginning for letting us start again. 2008 is smelling like roses for us and we can’t wait to see what life has for us next.

–jay