When you make the decision to follow where God leads when it comes to having a full time stay at home parent, thus one income, and three small children the idea that there will be sacrifices is built right in. Knowing that at times money will be tight and there may not be exciting things like laptops and ipods is kind of a given...though when we chose to walk this path ipods and laptops didn't yet exist. The point is still the same.

What you don't really see is that there might not be enough extra for things like little league or ballet.

I'll be honest, this has been a real struggle for me in the last year or so. The ide that, somehow, I was doing a disservice to my kids by raising them in a one income home. I have learned to bake my own bread, clip coupons, and do with out but still find that life keeps moving forward and debts still loom, and that little bit never really materializes.

So my kids are fed, and warm...but still they don't have the classes that it seems "every" other kid has.

My amazing husband reminds me that we are giving them something different, that we are giving them a mom at home. We are giving them examples of a real relationship with God, we are giving them an apreciation of the little things.

Now, Christmas is near and the "I wants" have surfaced and my knoledge of the budget have krept in to make me just a little sad...until today...when I saw my kids, my family, and my life through the eyes of someone else. Through a friend who knows us all in a very special way...