Once I was Lucky

At one time in my life I thought I was lucky.  I was lucky I had a great husband, who provided so well for us.  I was lucky I easily had 3 kids, 2 planned and the 3rd a happy surprise.  I was lucky I had a great house and new, top of the line cars to drive.  I was lucky I was able to pay the bills & buy, pretty much whatever I wanted, when I wanted it.  I was lucky I had friends & could help them out (sometimes finacially) when needed.  I was lucky I was a stay at home mom with no need to work.

Am I still lucky?  My husband has no job, no money coming in right now.  My great house was sold & now I live in a much smaller one.  We have 1 car now.  I can no longer pay bills, never mind buy anything extra at all.  The friends I thought I had, well, some of them don't keep in touch any more.  

I think I am still lucky. My husband & I love each other.  My kids are healthy & very happy.  I have a roof over my head ( I may not love this house, but I'm very grateful to have it) we have a car, it's a bit small for a family of 5, but it gets us around.  My real friends are still around.  I may not talk to them every day, but I know I can call anytime & they will be there for me as I am for them.  That's more than a lot of people have>

I have faith things will turn around for us.  I have faith that things will not be this awful forever.  I have faith that our lives will be back to my normal this year.  Well, my normal with some changes.  Applying the lessons I've learned through these past 9 months so we don't find ourselves back here.

I remember reading a book; I think it was called Swapping Lives by Jane Green.  In it one of the characters husbands loses his job & they end up having to sell everything & move in with her parents.  I remember thinking to myself, how awful that could totally happen to us.  But I didn't do a single thing to insure that it didn't happen.   Big. Mistake.  A mistake I won't repeat.  Lesson learned.