Perspective

This last weekend I had a very interesting experience. My daughter attends a private Christian school. My husband and I have decided that we will sacrfice elsewhere in order to be able to afford this for as long as we can. I won’t go into all the reasons right now, but my hubby is not a Believer, however he feels as strongly as I do about her attending this school.

So on Friday, they had a half day at school. I took a half-day at work to go pick her up and then a few of us moms took them to go see the Veggie Tales movie (mentioned in a previous post).

It was a bit weird for me to be sitting with all these other moms because they know each other pretty well. The school is actually associated with a large church in our area and these moms and their families attend this church. As I’ve mentioned before, I attend a house church. In addition, most of these moms are stay at home moms. I work full time (my hubby stays home with the boys and works from there).

As we were watching the movie, one of the moms mentioned that the water was so blue and she had not seen water like that for about a year. Then said she needed to go back soon. The other mom sitting next to me mentioned that Tahiti had water like that and they started discussing their vacation spots. I just sat there and realized we are the “poor” family in this school. My husband and I both work (he just works from home and keeps the kids with him because daycare is sooo expensive) and we don’t bring in half of what these single income families do. Our last vacation was when Shaun and I went to Vegas for our 10-year anniversary and came back with our third child on the way!

But, you know what? I really was not too upset about this as I realized it. I actually found it quite humorous. As they continued to talk I almost started giggling as I remember the scene less than an hour before as I was waiting to pick up my daughter at the school.

I drive a 2000 something (don’t remember the exact year) Honda Accord. Not a bad car by any means, and it is paid off! But it does have little things going wrong with it, such as the knob for my heater fan has broken off. So my hubby is getting me a new one on eBay (have I mentioned he is a wonderful bargain shopper!). In the meantime, I have a pair of pliers in the car that I use to turn the fan off and on. So there I sat in my cute, paid off car (with it’s share of dents & scratches) admist the other parents in their Cadillac Escalades, Lexus, BMWs & Mercedes – bopping out to Christian music quietly (my speakers crackle really bad if you turn it up higher than about 2!) – grabbing my pliers so I could turn up the heat.

I grew up having less money than others I went to school with, but I remember my parents always made sure we knew we were loved and spent time with us. Now my husband and I work hard and earn much more than my parents ever imagined when I was a kid. However, we are still in the same spot. And truthfully when I think about it – I don’t mind at all. Sure I would like to have some bills paid off, but I think we do just fine without all the extra stuff. As it is sometimes I think we still have too much stuff and our home is too cluttered. Funny how your perspective changes as you get older!