If someone were to ask me if I have accomplished everything I wanted to by this age, I would have to say no. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. I had a very different plan for my life when I was 20. I was married and wanted to finish my college degree and teach. My plans were to get established in my career and then start our family. But then after a year of trying to pay for college on our own, we just couldn't afford it anymore. So I applied to a Nanny agency and began to work for two families taking care of their children.
A while later I had a not so pleasant experience with one of those families and my Nanny career was abruptly ended. My husband was working at a church and we couldn't afford for me to be jobless so I took a chance and applied at a bank as a teller. I loved banking so much that once again my plans changed and I thought I could make a career in banking. I took classes and learned the ropes and began to climb the corporate ladder slowly making my way from teller to assistant manager. Life was good. I enjoyed my job and there were still plenty of opportunities to advance.
Then life threw us another unexpected loop.
The church that my husband was working for informed him that they never intended to hire him full time. Long story short, we packed our things and moved to Oregon, hoping for a better break. There I still worked as a banker but life was pretty miserable for my husband. After three months or so, the Pastor of our old church in Washington began to strike up a conversation with him, offering a job for not only him, but me also.
And so my career plans changed again.
We moved back to Washington where I worked as the graphic design artist/Pastor's assistant. The focus changed dramatically from my career to what God wanted to accomplish in my husband's life as a Worship Leader and eventually, Associate Pastor. By now we had been talking about starting a family. We didn't know it at the time, but we had a long journey ahead of us.
There were many doctor's visits, tests, prayers, and unanswered questions. My heart longed to be a mother, but as the months and then years passed, nothing. Finally, when we had almost given up hope, I received the good news from my doctor that I was pregnant. We didn't tell anyone for the first several weeks for fear that I would lose the baby. Once we did announce the news, it was a very joyful occasion.
Finally, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up...a stay at home mom.
I worked as the church accountant for the first year of my baby girl's life. A job to help pay the bills, part time, and we lived on church campus so I could bring her to work with me. During that time I got pregnant with our second child and we knew we did not want to raise our family in Seattle, so my husband started looking for a job in a smaller town with a church as the Worship Pastor.
Almost a year after moving, baby three arrived. 18 months later we had moved to Spokane and baby number four arrived. And two years later, we were blessed with baby number five. We finally had the big family that we had always wanted. And I was right where I wanted to be. An at home mom taking care of my little ones. Certainly not where I saw myself when we got married at 20, but exactly where my heart longed to be at age 33. In fact, CD was born the day after my birthday on Thanksgiving, 2006. It was a special Thanksgiving indeed.
So, have I accomplished all I set out to do by this point in my life? Definitely not. But I have no regrets. Since 2006 we have moved back to my husband's home town and are very happy to raise our five children in this small-town atmosphere. All of our children are in school now and I am working part time for my in-laws. Go figure...I do their banking!
I have plenty of years ahead of me, in fact, my grandmother just turned 100 and she is still lives on her own, and gets around fairly well for someone of her age. If I live that long, I hope I accomplish half as much as she. But for now, I am content right in this place. This season is treating me well and I intend to enjoy every moment of it.
Yes, 40 is looking very good to me right now. I have learned that my plans are not always the best plans because Someone else is looking out for me. He knows my heart even better that I do. For this, I am eternally grateful.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11
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