Saturday morning, awoken this morning by a screech. I had intended to sleep in a bit since I had a long week, but this wasn’t my alarm going off and it wasn’t a car outside. No, this screech came from the master bathroom.
Waking up to that kind of noise is distressing, at the very least. I leapt out of bed to go discover the source and reason for the alarming sound. What I was soon to discover would change my world all over again. Sitting there on the bathroom counter, staring back at me, were two distinct parallel pink lines. And suddenly, all of our current plans flew right out the window since now we have more important matters to attend to:
We’re going to have another beautiful baby!
That’s great news, don’t get me wrong, but this does really throw a wrench in our debt elimination plan. Our vehicle situation was sufficient for one child, but will fall dramatically short with needing to carry two. We have a truck and a Pontiac Vibe. The Vibe is fine for our needs and can itself carry two kids, but my truck isn’t safe to carry a single one. Since it’s entirely likely that we’ll need to occasionally carry children separately, we need to start shopping for a child-friendly vehicle to replace my truck.
With the current gas situation, we really do not want to purchase a gas-guzzling SUV; but getting rid of the truck means we will no longer have a hauling vehicle, so we need a vehicle that can handle at least a moderate load. That will take some creative shopping and a little sacrifice on both ends to make this happen.
This will also cause us to have to update our snowball plan. Now, instead of using the $300/month that will become available once the Vibe is paid off to start paying on the home equity loan, we will have to divert that money to savings to build up a strong down payment for our next vehicle. Hopefully we can find a great deal when we finally do buy a new-to-us vehicle, because we need to be saving every penny we can right now with the big changes that will come with a 2nd child.
We didn’t exactly want another child right now and we were being careful, but I suppose we weren’t careful enough… This is a blessing, that’s for sure, but life suddenly got 10x more difficult than it was yesterday. Keep us and our new child in your prayers because we certainly need them!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations to you and Cavewoman on this great news.
My prayers will be with you for a healthy bouncing Cavebaby.
Best regards
Congratulations! How fun (even if you weren’t ready)!
As someone who is waiting another couple of years to start my family (because of upcoming surgery), I’m a little jealous :)
Congratulations! Now is the time to pick up a second job if you intend to earn extra cash. Our second daughter (3rd child) was born two months ago and I couldn’t imagine picking up extra work now!
Btw, SUVs don’t have to be gas guzzlers. My last vehicle was a ‘03 Civic. We all could have squeezed into the car, fortunately we don’t have to. A falling tree totaled the car last year, so we moved up to a Toyota 4Runner.
We got the third row seat option, so we can seat up to 7 people. We can tow 5,000 lbs, and we still get 20 miles to the gallon on the highway. I don’t think we got more than 32-36 mpg in the Civic, so the change isn’t that big. It also helps that we’re able to survive with one vehicle. Watching two vehicles depreciate is simply painful.
Congratulations! That’s great news! We have 6, and they are such a blessing in our lives.
Don’t fret over it too much. Of course be wise and plan a little, but you’ll adjust. We wondered whether we would be able to afford our first one, and now we somehow afford 6!
One of ours wasn’t planned, and we always made sure to call him “God’s surprise gift”.
Again congrats, and keep us posted on how’s she doing!