The Easiest Goodbye We’ve Ever Said

“How hard can it be?”

That’s all I ever thought when it came to our plans of me being a stay at home mom once we started our family. But the night when we sat down together as husband and wife in our in our little starter home on Heron Lane, our stomachs dropped. We saw the numbers written out on paper and realized exactly how hard it really could be. 

I can’t hide it or try to deny it – I am a shopper. There’s just something about a good sale – spending money to save money –  that just makes me feel good and drives Jon nuts! And you all know how it is when you walk into Target needing three things, but leave the store with a shopping cart full of things you “needed” the second you saw them. Despite me getting weak in the knees whenever I see a sale, we always felt pretty responsible and on top of our finances. The only debt we had when we got married was some student loans, but that grew as we moved into our house and financed a new couch, dining room furniture, and tv (whoops!). Then a car we purchased instead of keeping my cute little red Ford Focus that was bought and paid for (bigger whoops!). This all started to build up and left us feeling boxed in as if it were a trap. Like it was an anchor that would eventually hold us back from something we wanted to accomplish.

Six days after our second anniversary was when we felt trapped by it the most. We had just welcomed our sweet baby boy into the world and simultaneously added another debt from the hospital bills. But the second I saw Brody’s little face I knew there was no way in the world I going to leave him to go back to work. Growing up, my mom was a stay at home mom and I remember feeling like the richest kid in the world having her there, so naturally I wanted that for our kids too.

During this time, Jon worked a job that added up to a 100 mile round trip commute. Every day. 5 days a week. When he wasn’t singing dashboard karaoke, he started listening to Dave Ramsey and began to have a desire to be like the people he heard calling into the show.

Every day, Dave would have a segment where people who had followed his plan for paying off debt would call in and share their story. Jon totally related when they talked about how much debt they had and how trapped they felt. They would recall how difficult but powerful the process of paying it off was. But the most moving part of each story was when they would give their ‘Debt Free Scream!’ The freedom Jon heard in their voices literally made him tear up because he knew that we needed that same freedom for ourselves.

It was scary and seemed daunting and too big to overcome.

We knew that it would take time and commitment to see it through.

But good things never come easy, right?

We had small victories. First the TV. Then the couch. We literally had envelopes with the cash for each bucket we budgeted for and worked out of that system religiously. Just when we would start to feel discouraged, God would always give us the boost we needed to stay focused and keep pushing forward. We will never forget the day we went to the mailbox and found a completely unexpected check from our mortgage company. Guys – we couldn’t make this up, but the check total was almost exactly the amount we had remaining on our second largest debt!!

If we hadn’t been so focused and determined, there would have been no way we could have followed the Lord’s leading and moved to Washington State two years later. Our debt would have anchored us where we were – unable to be free to move when we felt God say “go”. The most unfortunate part about that would have been that it wasn’t until we moved that Jon joined me in photography and we started pursuing our dreams together. We were just looking back at that and were amazed at how God works in our lives and gives us passions for things, even things that sound as mundane as paying off debt, for a real purpose. He knew what He had for us even when we couldn’t see it. 

March 16, 2017 is a day we will never forget. Never Ever EVER! (I better stop here before I get all Taylor Swift on you guys!). It is the day we used our tax return to pay off the very last debt we owed. The day we finally got to do our own ‘debt free scream’ after four years of staying committed to our financial freedom. It was the largest debt of them all, and just like God does every time, He provided us with the FULL amount of the payoff and then some! We weren’t quite cool enough to go onto the Dave Ramsey show but we did celebrate with our own screams together. And let me tell you … it felt so good!

We are so thankful that before we knew what today would hold, the Lord prompted us to become debt free, and gave us the determination to accomplish it. If you are in the same place that we were, we want you to feel ENCOURAGED. We understand exactly what you are feeling. We can empathize with the pressure. The nagging knowledge of all the bills that are stacked up and that there seems to be no end in sight. But having been there, we can also tell you that the reward is well worth the sacrifice. It comes with a lot of sacrifice, at least it did for us. We want to cheer you on in your journey to financial freedom. Sit down. Write it out. Come up with your plan. Stick to it. See it through to the end. And then – SCREAM about it!!