Part 2-

Ask yourself these questions...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not

lean on your own understanding. In all your ways

acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

Do you find it heart wrenching every time you have to leave your precious children in the care of someone else (sometimes a stranger) everyday as you leave for work? Do your children beg you to stay home and not leave? Do you cry all the way to work? Do you simply want to follow the teachings of the Lord and become a keeper of the home?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then you need to read this series. I decided before I had children that I wanted to be a SAHM. When career day would come around in high school people would ask me what I wanted to do for a living. The only thing that I could ever imagine was a mother. Oh, I had dreams and interests in other fields, such as medicine, but nothing ever felt as right as being a wife and mother.

After I got married I knew that I would have to plan in advance if I wanted to make my dream come true. Unfortunately the man I married did not understand my desire and expected that I would always work. I had to do a lot of praying for the Lord to change his heart. After the birth of our first child my husband had come around and I am now doing what I had always said I would do as a child.

So how did I get to where I am today? Planning and Prayer. I can not emphasize enough that you must plan ahead or you will most likely fail. The first thing you need to learn how to do is adjust to living on one income before you quit your job. Sit down with your spouse and plan out a budget using his income alone. For great information on budgeting visit Dave Ramsey's site on money management.

The second thing you need to do is set a realistic date to quit work. If you have a goal in mind you are more likely to reach it.

Next you need to build an emergency fund to cover anything that may happen that you will need to pay for once you actually quit work. I would also recommend using your current income to pay off debt. You are learning to live on just your husband's income alone so you should be able to put anything extra toward paying of debt. You want to make sure that you can have the least amount of bills possible for you husband's income to pay.

The last thing you need to do once you have come home is try to get into a routine. It is really easy to just let yourself become lazy and get nothing done. You will find yourself at lunch time still in your PJ's and the house a mess and your husband may stop in for lunch. He will wonder what you have been doing all day and if having you home is really going to work. You managed to keep up the house when you were working. You need to be able to do the same thing once you are at home. Your new "job" is to make sure that you spend time with God daily, then your husband, then children, and then the house. Find someone who has been a SAHM for awhile and get her advice.

Next time I will begin to go into each of these steps a little more in depth. Keep praying about your decision. God will provide a way if this is truly the desire of your heart.

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Part - 1
Is staying at home for everyone and why do you want to do it?

"I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord,' plans for your

welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11

I thought that since I had taken some time off I would start the transition from work to home series over again. I am sorry if any of you have already read it, but I did not want to leave anyone out. If you are looking for some inspiration about transitioning from work to home you need to read Larry Burcket's book Woman Leaving the Workplace. This book is where I have found a lot of my info for this series.

I have always loved this verse. It has helped me through many difficult times. When there are days that I do not know how my husband and I will be able to afford for me to stay home I think on this verse and remember God's promise to take care of his children. If you are struggling with the decision to come home, you are not alone. God can and will take care of those who put their trust in him.

I hear of more and more women lately that are wanting to leave work and become a SAHM. Unfortunatly many of them do not see how this can ever be possible. As a nation we have come to believe that to make it in life we need to be a dual income family. Some women have supportive husbands and others do not. It is possible financially to live on one income. I am not going to tell you that this will come easily. As with anything worth having you have to work at it.

Statistics show that the number of women quitting their jobs is on the rise. Mothers are looking at what has happened to our nation's children when their mother's are taken out of the picture and not raising them at home under their loving care.

There are many mothers today, especially in the Christian community, who feel that they are supposed to stay home, yet they feel like they are letting their families down because they work out of the home full time. There are many mothers who have tried to quit, yet have had to return to work because they did things out of order and did not completely prepare themselves and their families for the transition.

I can only give suggestions to help you with your transition in this series. There is no guarantee that this will work just like there are not gurantees that staying at home with your kids will ensure that they grow up to be model citizens. Please do not take your decision lightly. Make sure that you pray with your husband before any final decisions are made. Only God knows the plans that he has for us.

Through out this series I would like to touch on the topics of having a supportive spouse, fears, budgeting, homeschooling, income earning ideas, and when to return to work. Stay tuned until next time for the actual planning process and what steps to take first.

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