Yes, You CAN Be a Stay-at-Home Mom

When I got pregnant, I knew I would stop teaching and stay home with my kids. This decision had been made a long time ago, and I knew it was what I wanted to do.

But I had two niggling concerns: 1) How would we survive financially? and 2) How would I cope with no longer teaching?

But now, almost two years later, I am amazed at how good God has been – how He has led and how He has provided.

Today I want to share some of my story. I’m not trying to argue here that everyone needs to stay at home with their kids. I’m simply talking to those of you whose heart’s desire is to be home with your little ones but who don’t think you can do it.

Maybe your husband says that you need two incomes. Maybe you’ve crunched the numbers and realized that they just don’t work without your salary. Or maybe you feel stuck – thinking that you’d better keep working since you spent so much time and money on your college degree.

But the truth is – God can and will provide.

God Provides – Incredibly

When we started considering what our budget would look like on just my husband’s income, the numbers were pretty sobering. There just wasn’t enough there – not unless we wanted to live on PB&J and never buy anything extra again in our lives. And it would’ve still been pretty close.

We were unswayed from our decision that I would stay home, but we knew we would have to do something. Correction – we knew God would have to do something.

I figured I could find something to do at home. Maybe I could tutor a little or something like that. I was thinking I could pull in a couple hundred bucks a month. But my husband said we needed a lot more than that.

So we started praying – and I can’t believe what God has done!

God Provides – One Step at a Time

God has provided incredibly, but it’s been one step at a time. Enough for what we need now – and enough to build my faith that I can trust Him with what I’m going to need tomorrow.

The first thing He did was to open a position for me to stay on at my school. I was able to work part-time from home helping out with work in the office. When they offered me the one-year contract, I was incredulous. It was just too good to be true.

I worked for my school throughout the summer up until my son’s birth in September. Then things got interesting. When I returned from maternity leave I worked mainly from home and went into the office once a week  – with my baby in tow. This worked great while he was young, but as you can imagine, things got more challenging as he grew. I knew I didn’t want to pawn him off on a sitter on any type of consistent basis, so this meant that this situation was only going to work for so long. I would finish out my contract, but after that I would need to do something else.

God had provided before, but what was He going to do now?

God Provides – When We Don’t Know How He Will

That spring I started to frantically search for work-from-home positions. I’ll be honest – I was getting pretty obsessive. I had so many ideas buzzing around in my head, but I just didn’t know what direction to take or what to pursue.

One day I felt God telling me to just take a break from looking and start praying for His plan. So I did. I prayed for Him to lead and guide. And for Him to provide.

And then it came to me. And I know it wasn’t my idea – it was His. I suddenly knew that I should write a book. At this point I figured it would just be an eBook, but I knew that God wanted me to write down the lessons I had learned as a teacher. So I started writing Create Your Dream Classroom.

I cranked out the first edition of the book in just a couple months, right in time for the summer. Now I had to figure out how to get out the word – which led me to start Teach 4 the Heart.

Neither of these were going to bring in significant amounts of money right away, so I knew I needed do something else when my contract ended. Once again, God provided. I found Elance, a digital marketplace for freelance projects. Who knew that I could find work writing copy for math websites, practice problems for math apps, or lessons for math textbooks?

God knew.

And He showed me right when I needed to know – and not any earlier.

Since then I have worked on various freelance projects, first on Elance and then through other opportunities that God has sent my way. My husband got a significant raise. I’ve been able to release a paperback version of Create Your Dream Classroom, and this blog is starting to really grow.

There have been a few months where I haven’t made as much as I would’ve liked, but there has always been more than enough for us to meet our budget. And there have even been months where I’ve made more working part-time from home than I did as a teacher!

God’s also provided for me emotionally. While I do miss teaching and I really miss seeing my colleagues every day, He’s allowed me to stay in touch with my passion for education through Teach 4 the Heart. And I just love being with my munchkin every day.

God has been so good.

God Will Provide – For You.

I don’t know how God is going to provide next month when my current projects end. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I have my second child this summer and have much less time. But I know He’ll take care of us.

My point is that we don’t always see the end from the beginning. But God does.

We don’t always know how He will provide, but He does.

Sometimes He wants us to step out in faith. To just trust Him, even when we don’t see the whole picture.

My story may be unique to me, but it is certainly not unusual. Many other moms will tell you the same thing – that they didn’t know how it was going to work but that God provided when they stepped out by faith.

So if your heart’s desire is to stay at home and/or you feel God leading you in that direction, then I challenge you to trust Him. He is worthy of your trust, and He is not going to let you down.

And just in case your faith needs a little bit of sight, check out this article from the Cornerstone for Teachers about 15 rewarding jobs in the education field – many of which can be done at home. Angela also has an awesome Educational Consulting School that will help you get started.

Update: The website Jobs for Teachers gives more detailed ideas for those who are transitioning out of teaching & looking for other jobs. Check it out here.

If all this talk of trusting God sounds a bit crazy to you, you need to find out more about what it means to have a personal relationship with Him. Click here to check out a post I wrote about what it means to have a relationship with God.

How has God provided for your family? Encourage others by sharing your testimony with a comment below.

 Photo by bubbo.etsy.com