Philippians 4:19

It's not breaking news that the economy is rough and everyone is having to find ways to save money and make better financial choices. We just has to make a really tough choice ourselves. Phil decided we should sell his beloved Subaru WRX. He's downsizing to a less expensive car so we'll eliminate that car payment and even have a little extra money in the bank to help us out during the 3 months I plan on not working after Brooklyn is born.

If you know Phil, you know he loves cars. This WRX has been his passion for the past few years, using birthdays and Christmases as an opportunity to add various after-market parts to make it even higher performing and personalized: wheels, struts, iPod sound system, MOMO steering wheel and shift knob, etc. It sold in just a few days and he just put a deposit down on a 2003 Ford Focus SVT. It will be ours by the end of the week after the dealership replaces some worn tires and gives it a full auto detail.

Bye-Bye WRX:

Hello Ford Focus:

It couldn't be better timing. Work for me has been slower than normal. I had even hoped to work a little more over the next couple months to save up for maternity leave. Various clients and projects have been stalled in moving forward with some jobs, leaving me twiddling my thumbs and starting to get nervous about finding more work for the first time in my freelance career. Of course, I worry that as soon as I line up some new work, these other jobs that have been delayed will all come through and then I'll be overloaded, but I think that would be better than nothing at all.

We also refinanced our home mortgage and are taking a serious look at cutting all the non-essentials from our budget.

Just as we were feeling pretty depressed about our financial circumstances, God came through for us in a big way. Out of the generosity of one of Phil's coworkers, we were recently given a bunch of brand new baby gear: Schwinn double jogger stroller, crib mattress, extra car seat, video monitor, and some other baby health devices. It was an incredible blessing and we are just in shock at how amazing it is to receive all this stuff for free. Wow.

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" - Philippians 4:19