Gratitude

2013 was not our year for financial success, in fact it was doozy, but man Im thankful for that struggle. Im not a believer in everything happens for a reason in fact I find it so fu fu and gag worthy and quite frankly demeaning of any great struggle in anyones life. I came to this realization when I was in Africa 6 years ago. I to was like so many spoiled Canadians who grew up with a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, loving parents, and a full tummy day after day. So of course when I didn't get that job, or so and so dumped me I would insert the line " Well I guess everything happens for a reason so that just wasn't meant to be".  Sitting in a huge open room with rows of cribs with no sheets, I sat holding this sweet baby Awa who I so desperately wanted to take home and make her mine. I was angry I was heart broken, a part of me hated this world, it was unfair, it was cruel. This sweet baby girl and so many other babies and children were dropped off at these doors either because there was no one to take care of them or no one could afford to take care them. It was in that room that I realized that no things don't happen for a reason, but we as resilient human beings can most certainly make a positive or negative lesson out of it.  This year threw struggle Ive been pulled and stretched and given a choice and opportunity to learn for the better, to make a crappy situation a positive one.
Months ago Brett received a phone call that our biggest client who we depended on for 80% of our income was moving on to find cheaper labor, no warning, no apology nothing.  The saying "Life can change in an instant", never felt more real when my husband called me to tell me the news. We had to let our employee go, he had 2 kids and a wife and just like that in one day we had to tell him he had no job. Ive never seen my husband suffer so much over the next 5 days the feeling of failing his family of total guilt for not "digging our well before we were thirsty". The feeling of "what the hell are we going to do". After 5 days we got another phone call that My husband can go back working on the airplanes there but instead of 40 - 50 hours a week it went down to 5- 10.  Over the next couple of months we lost 2 other contracts, I have to say Im so unbelievably thankful that married someone who is persistent, and who is not afraid of hard work. My husband made phone call after phone call he talked to everyone he could to try and get more clients, he hustled his butt and took care of us.  We have learned some major lessons this year that will change the way we live our lives and quite frankly the loss of money was worth it.
1.We learnt for one don't put all your eggs in one basket, nothing in life is guaranteed plan for that.
2. Manage your money or it will manage you (budget, stick to your budget and respect your budget)
3. Plan, Plan, plan and invest for the future it is coming faster than you think it is
4. Be content I used to think that being content meant being complacent and not wanting more out of life but in actuality it means having a peace, it means not caring what the world thinks of you or your situation.
5. The "stuff" doesn't matter we are scaling back our life clearing out the garbage of useless meaningless "things" and simplifying it. We are so over marketed in this country that we place worth in a pair of earrings, or a new cell phone its really bogus.
6. See the positive find the lesson and apply it. Otherwise you might just have to learn it again
7. Team work makes the dream work and husband and wives work so much better as a team
8. Work like it depends on you, and pray like it depends on God. Hard work is not over rated neither is prayer.
9. This too shall pass, not much in life is permanent, so work threw it.
I have a giant chalk board on our living room wall it says : "Gratitude turns what we have into enough" That is my motto these days

Nite nite friends