Fighting to Stay and Work At Home

The title of this blog actually means two things for us. First, we really just want for Gary D. to stay at home with us. We no longer want to be separated from each other. We have endured the two years that he was gone and now we just want to be together. When he came home, the children has flourished even more. Our Flash Boy, the baby, grew by leaps and bounds since Dad came home. Sunshine Girl has become more confident. Artsy Princess’ constant illness have gone away. Guitar Babe has relaxed and become more like a child again. As for me, I, too, have relaxed in every way possible. No longer do I have to constantly worry about being alone in our home. I’m able to rest more in him. Many of the responsibilities that I carried on my shoulders are now back on his shoulders. We just want him to stay in the Philippines with us. Really, the money earned working abroad is fine, but it doesn’t compensate for all the emotional losses we’ve experienced while being separated.

The other reason for the title of this blog is because I am also fighting to stay and do work from home. We are a family that homeschools and I love being a SAHM (Stay at home Mom). I can’t imagine our life being any other way. Of course, realities set in and the reality of earning more money for our living stares us in the face all the time.

We have considered putting the children to regular school so that I can work outside the home full-time. But we just can’t see that as the solution for us considering that we would have more expenses if I’ve had to work away from home. Expenses by way of purchasing office wear, transportation allowance, daily food allowance, hiring another live-in helper, paying for school bus service and the biggest of all, the kids’ tuition fee. Even if we had combined salaries, we feel that the expenses just does not justify my working full time. Apart from that, there would also be the stresses of not being available to the children when they needed me.

So we want Gary D. to stay in the Philippines with us and I want to continue to be with my children at home.

We are working on ways that we can do that and I’ll be sharing with you in future blogs what we have done and are doing to accomplish this.