This isn't my first blog. My wife and I share one that we started around the birth of our first child. We also created one to sell our last house. My wife has her own blog now, so I figured maybe it was time to start my own as well. I am so full of stuff to share, some actual experiences I have had over the last two years as a stay at home parent, and some is useless knowledge.
A little background on me/us. My wife and I met somewhere around 15 years ago. We dated for about 4 years and then were married. The time in my life that I met my wife was a crossroads. If I hadn't met my wife when I did, who knows where I would be. I've always considered myself "christian", but at the time we met, I certainly wasn't acting like one. My wife centered and grounded me. I was eager to follow her wherever she led me. She led me back to Jesus. I know it sounds cliche, but its absolutely true.
I could take this blog post a number of ways from here, but I will just keep it on background. After dating for about 2 weeks, my wife's parents sat me down and asked what my intentions were with their daughter. See, I was 21 and she was 17. My wife's father told me that he remembered what was going through his mind at 21, and wanted to make sure that he showed me the door if that was what I wanted from their daughter. At 21, I certainly hadn't "sewed my oats", but I had been in numerous dead end relationships, and I saw something different in this girl (Shawna by the way). I didn't really tell them at the time, that I knew after our second "date" that she was "the one". I did tell them that if our relationship was to go further than dating in the future, that I would be more than happy to wait until she finished college.
Fast forward a few years. I realized that even though we both knew we would be married one day, that I hadn't actually asked her to marry me. I went to the local jewelers with Shawna, and we discussed her likes in engagement rings (what can I say, she is practical and I knew she would be happier having some say in what she would wear forever). Just before our church Valentines day dinner, I popped the question. Well sort-of... I just kind of handed it to her. She then nervously asked me why I wasn't on my knee. Even though we had been nearly inseparable for 3+ years, I was so nervous I couldn't speak, so my answer to that was just handing her the ring! Obviously the rest is history.
Fast forward a few more years. We had been living in a house we bought, gutted, and fully renovated for a few years when we decided that maybe we should have children. This was a major decision for us. For the longest time we had decided that we wouldn't have children because the world is a scary place. The world didn't become less scary to us, but we just knew we would be missing out on something big if we didn't at least try to have our own children. After 2 years of trying, we thought we just weren't capable. We decided to get a dog, which turned into 2 dogs. No, the dog didn't magically split in two, when we got there we decided that we just had to have both.
And not 6 months later we became pregnant.... It was certainly a joyous occasion. The pregnancy went well, and 3 days after Christmas my wife delivered a healthy little girl.... And then a year later we became pregnant again (its amazing how "things" happen when you aren't trying). My wife's second pregnancy went wonderfully as well, and delivered another healthy little girl. At this point, we have a 2 year old (2 years and 3 months to be exact), and a 6 month old.
The point of this blog is to give people an inside view of what it is like to be a stay at home parent. (After being a part of facebook groups on both sides, stay at home mom groups because there aren't many dad groups, and stay at home dad groups, I find that they are kind of discriminatory. I don't feel its any less, or any more difficult to be a stay at home dad, than it would be a stay at home mom, so I choose to say "stay at home parent".) So, I became a stay at home parent when I left my last job, which probably would have been the place that I either retired from, or killed me. Parts of the job were great, parts were so stressful that I'm not sure how I lasted as long as I did. I couldn't see spending half of my salary (or my wife's salary, but she liked her job) on child care, never see my kids, have someone else raising them, and still be as stressed out as I was. I am not saying that being a stay at home parent is easy and stress free, its just different stress. I get to see my kids learn, cry, smile, instead of making someone else money while making very little.
So, now that you have been mostly filled in as to where life has taken my family and I, hopefully you will share in our journey and keep reading. I promise that there will be more humor and emotion in subsequent posts!
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