When the Five Year Plan Falls Apart

When the Five–Year Plan Falls Apart

When my husband and I got married, I worked full-time until he was done with school. After that we planned on working for a few years, and saving quite a bit of our salaries, so when we had kids, and I stayed home with them, we wouldn’t be used to living on two incomes. It was all set, our beautiful five-year plan.

But, surprise, surprise, that isn’t how it happened—quite the shocker to my plan-it-out-and-execute-it-effectively self.

I taught until our first child was born. Adam graduated and looked for a job in youth ministry. We never got used to two incomes after all.

Our five-year plan frayed at the edges.

We experienced ups and downs during this season, like the surging waves of my post-natal hormones. But, finally, it seemed like things were steadying out and calming down. It looked like Adam was a shoo-in for a youth leader job and we were waiting on the details of a financial package. Adam stopped applying for other jobs because we felt confident that God was leading us to this one. We anxiously anticipated the phone call that the church was indeed going to hire him.

Interrupted by the Unexpected

During the wait our family of three had our picture taken. Little did we know that our happy grins, forever captured, would serve as a bittersweet reminder of the hardest day in our marriage.

After the picture, Adam stayed home with our baby girl while I went to the store by myself. I came back home rejuvenated. As I walked up to our front door, Adam opened it. Tears were streaming down his face.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“The pastor called,” he struggled to get the words out.

“I didn’t get the job.”

I came through the doorway of our white Cape Cod and we hugged hard there in the entryway.

My husband was undone. No job. A wife and baby to care for. A mortgage.

We cried ourselves out. We were confused. We had stepped out in faith like never before. Had we heard incorrectly? Were we being punished?

Read the rest of this post over on Tricia Goyer’s blog as part of her #WalkItOut series….