On December 3rd, 2008, my husband calls home. "I was just fired" he said. I yelled at him for the lame joke he was playing, but the silence on the other side said a lot more. This was not a joke. 2 months ago, we had 2 incomes, then one and today we have none. Next to nothing in savings, 3 children, 2 of them in diapers, and we now have no money living in Michigan, who just happens to have a 10% unemployment rate, the highest in the nation.
I don't remember much for the next couple of weeks, I know I cried alot. Feeling sorry for ourselves, wondering what would be if I just held onto my job a little bit longer, and not resigned when I did. I could be going back to work and we would have some money. 3 weeks before Christmas. How were supposed to give our children the things they longed for, the things they searched for and circled in the toy books? So many thanks goes out to our friends and family, they all pulled together. We had a great Christmas. Probably one of the only Christmas' that I enjoyed getting toilet paper and laundry soap as presents. They kept our spirits high, and told us to hang on. Something will happen they would all say. They also told us to hang onto each other, because financial burden is the #1 divorce cause. We listened. We didn't play the blame game and held on. We stopped paying our bills. The bills we worked so hard at always paying on time and never missing a payment. They started to call, they started to demand. Still we hung on, hoping and praying a prayer that so many others were saying as well.
Then it happened. Just when we thought we weren't going to be able to hold on for one more month, he got the call. That call that said, "Can you start Monday?"
We got the 1st paycheck today. Boy oh boy, can I tell you how good it feels to be able to put some money in the bank. I never thought I would be able to say it felt good to pay those bills, but today, you will here me say it sure felt good.
Tasha
Newport, Michigan
