About
No Where to Go but Up

No Where to Go but Up

2024 was going to a benchmark year. I quit my job in December and planned to start homeschooling our young children. I had a month “off” to prepare and rest before I took my youngest out of daycare. An old friend was visiting at the end of the month so we could do her 45th marathon and I could run a half marathon. I was so excited for freedom!

During the last week in January, Chad was laid off from his job. He called me into the his office after I had come in from outside. He started working at his former company a few months after we got married in 2015, after his first layoff. 

My heart sank, but I remember saying, “We’ll figure this out.”

Chad had some severance, but he was terminated that day. Worry brewed on the back burner of my mind despite all the work we had done to insulate ourselves from financial shocks. 

Then, in the beginning of March, I broke my thumb during a jujitsu seminar. It was the first month that we were on COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), which allowed us to keep coverage of the insurance provided by his company, but at our own cost. We were told it could take a week to “activate” the insurance so we didn’t know what would happen when we got to the emergency room.

While we waited for the shock of my injury to settle down so I could walk to the car, Chad breathed, “We don’t have health insurance right now.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I said, waiting for the blood to come back to my brain.

A week later, I took my daughter to a neighbor’s house. Within minutes of being in the home, the neighbor’s dog attacked my daughter by biting her leg. The bite made three huge lacerations in the shape of a dog mouth. We would take our second trip to the ER that month, but this time for 11 stitches and months and months of heartache.

A month after the incident, Chad’s grandfather had a series of falls and was admitted to the hospital. In too short a time, he was put into hospice after being diagnosed with advanced cancer. Chad’s sister flew in with her family and I watched the kids. For about two weeks, Chad went everyday to sit with his grandfather and family. Poppop passed away the morning of his 83rd birthday. It was devastating after losing another grandparent the previous December. 

This was probably of the few times I was grateful Chad was unemployed. He could spend the time he needed to be with family and say goodbye to his grandfather, to whom he was very close. 

As of August 2024, Chad is still looking for a job and our homeschool program is in progress. We continue to look at real estate opportunities and explore options for generating income through untraditional channels.  

Throughout all the these losses, the ground beneath our feet feels unsteady. Our hearts were filled with so much sorrow. In some ways, I think it may be a sign to finally do the things we were working toward – financial independence, freedom to choose how we spend our time each day. We don’t know yet what it will look like, but perhaps the best motivation to achieve your goals is when you have no other options.

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