Going From Two Incomes to One (An Update)

I cannot believe it has been over three years, since we made the plunge to go from two incomes to one.  You can read my complete series I wrote in 2010 here!  Since the change things have changed a lot in our household and I thought I would provide an update.

We now have 3 beautiful children.  Our daughter was born last July.  She has been a complete blessing to our family.  She has provided some personal healing for myself and my Mom as well as made our family complete!  Plus she is hilarious and I cannot get enough of her.  When I had her I was able to take off 4 months of maternity leave which was amazing for me. 

A lot has changed with my husband also.  He was able to finish his MBA while he was staying home with our kids in January of 2012.  He was also enjoying volunteering at my son's school as a playground guard.  The kids actually got a kick out of it to see a Dad there because usually it is all Moms.

With his advanced degree in place, his dream job was to teach college level business courses.  After months of pursuing his dream, he landed his first college teaching job in June of 2012.  Since then it has completely "snowballed" (to his surprise) where he actually had to turn down teaching 2 classes this semester because it was getting to be too much.  He is right now teaching 4 classes.  He is teaching 2 evenings a week and 2 mornings a week.

Our parents are graciously helping with the morning childcare for us and I am able to be with the kids in the evenings.  My husband and I are both able to put our son on the bus in the morning and my husband is home in the afternoon to get him off the bus.  This is our new normal and it is working out great for us.  This is the first time in our marriage that I have seen my husband happy and fulfilled in his job.  Maybe someday he can turn this into a full-time career for him.

So technically we are not a "One Income" family anymore.  However, we do solely still live off of my income.  His income goes directly to paying off his student loans.  So for right now, he is working to pay off his loans, but it will be so nice when we are free of these student loans.

I truly believe each stage of life will need to force a change in how we currently care for our children.  It is nice to know the decisions we have made always seem to "work-out" for us and we are proud of them!