When Life Karate Kicks You in the Face: Vol. 3

Photo by Flickr user ColKorn1982

Last week, I started a series of posts titled, "When Life Karate Kicks You in the Face." If you need to get caught up, you can check out the first two posts in the series HERE.

The short version is that I was laid off from my job recently. Additionally, I have a very pregnant wife and we just bought a house several months ago.

As if that wasn't enough, we had to make a very difficult and stressful decision last week. It's a decision that I believe will lead to ultimate happiness, but that road is probably going to bring us through a tumultuous valley.

It was a Friday.

I'd officially been done as a teacher for about a full week and was in the process of trying to put some things together in the way of freelance jobs.

I took a break, for a second, from what I was doing to check my email. I had a forwarded message from Kim.

It was from her boss.

Apparently, there were issues with her production and, accordingly, they were going to pull her from the "work from home" program, effective immediately.

There would be no lenience over the fact that she was pregnant. There would be no mercy due to the fact that she was adjusting to major change in her job responsibilities.

She missed her goal. She missed by a whole whopping 1.5 points.

This wasn't the first time they had basically crapped on her. She put up with it for over two years because we needed the money. I let her put up with it.

In retrospect, I wish I hadn't.

If we ever needed the money before, we surely needed it now. I just lost my job, and my paychecks will run out in August.

We've got a baby coming right about the same time.

No big deal.

So we had a decision to make. I could let her keep working there and be insanely unhappy. I could allow her to undergo the stress, and it could ultimately have a very negative impact on our unborn child and even his birth.

Jobs come and go. Money can be replaced. My first son can't.

I went through all kinds of emotions and options in my mind. I didn't sleep for several days. I thought about getting a lawyer and trying to sue her company. I thought about going in myself and threatening to put anyone who made Kim unhappy in an armbar and not let go, even when they "tapped out."

I didn't do any of those things, but I did pray, and I did talk to Kim to see where her mind was at.

After several days of anguish, sleep deprivation and deep introspection, we decided that Kim would quit.

Crazy, right?

But sometimes you have to do crazy things. Sometimes the situation calls for it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Here's the thing, though. We have a plan. It may not be the best plan ever, and it may not span as long as we'd like it to, but we do have a roadmap that we're working off of.

The short answer is that I've decided to make a go of it as a freelancer. In my next post, I'm going to be very vulnerable. I'm going to lay out where we are financially, how we plan to move forward and how we're feeling right now.

It's a scary place, but it's exciting too.


When was the last time you did something crazy because the situation called for it?