Life after Debt

For Spring Break, we made it all the way down to Waco, TX and back again.  Let's just say, as lovely as Chip and Joanna Gaines may be, I do not have a desire to go back to their home town. 

With 9 kids in our family, things are crazy around here.  I feel like the more kids I have and the longer that I'm a mother, the less I know about being a parent. 

The last two years have been a crazy ride.  We paid off our mortgage in the fall of 2016.  Woot, woot!  We even went to Nashville to do our debt free scream on the Dave Ramsey show.  It was a wonderful experience.  My sister, Ruth, and her family even met us there to cheer us on.  We treated them to lunch at Blaze Pizza, and let everyone pick what they wanted from the menu.  It was fun to treat them. 

Before our house was paid off, I thought we would be able to do so many things with our money.  As it turned out, we didn't have as much money as we thought.  Part of our extra money we had to put into retirement savings, and then we had lots and lots of medical bills.  Having a child deal with depression, anxiety and identity issues is very scary, heart wrenching and just plain tough.  If it's not one thing, it's another, right?!  We were so thankful to be able to take care of things as they came along and pay those bills and not have to worry about any kind of debt.  We saved up and paid cash for a trip to Disney World at Christmas time.  It took a lot longer to save up for this trip, but it was worth it.  We promised the kids that after our house was paid off, we would go to Disney World.  It just took over a year to save up for it.

Can you imagine making 11 pajama pants, and customizing 33 t-shirts (cutting vinyl/tie dying??  I surely can now.  Two of my sisters and my parents, and all of Mike's siblings and parents came with us on this trip.

Take care, and have a great day!  If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. 

~Lena