Making Daily Deposits

As a young woman, I was convinced that I should not have children - as I would NOT make a good mother. I was insecure, not that smart (merely an overachiever), and ill-equipped to shepherd a young life through this crazy world. I was convinced that the world was getting worse & worse as the years went by. "Who would want to bring a child into this world?" was what I thought. And then I fell in love with a man who had different ideas about being a parent...

Am I being prejudiced by saying that men seem to be a little more confident about their endeavors & their capabilities? Well, my man was confident that we would make great parents. So, with his loving encouragement & support... we headed down the road of becoming "Mommy" and "Daddy".

We didn't have a lot of money. We didn't have a big house. We started out by living in an apartment owned by an aunt & uncle that was available for several months. Then we rented a small 2-bedroom apartment. With the help of the LOML's parents, we were able to buy a small house with 2-bedrooms after the birth of our first child. The house also had a fully furnished 3-bedroom basement apartment ready to rent out to local college students. Even with that extra rental income, we barely brought in enough to make ends meet. But, we were rich in "LOVE"... for each other & for our children.

I was determined to create memories with our two children regardless of the amount of available financial resources. We started with the simple things... 

• vacations & holidays staying with family members in their homes
• homemade costumes for Halloween
• birthday celebrations at home with family & friends 
• picnics on a blanket on the floor in front of a kids movie
• hand-me-down clothes or clothes from a local GoodWill Store
• rides in the car to check out the farmers harvesting in the fields surrounding our town or to see holiday lights
• walks in the neighborhood or through the local state park year-round
• wrapping up items we needed for our gifts at Christmas & birthdays

We didn't have money to do things as I'd once hoped I would as a parent. We gave what we had... our time & our love. We did the best we could to give our children some fun, loving memories to remember as they grew up. Most of the time, our gifts to them were the simplest of things. We pray that our deposits into the lives of our children will help them as they walk forward into their adult lives.

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." ~ Charles R. Swindoll

Linked with the Nesting Place community through the write31days challenge, October 2014 - post No 14.