my day job

I had some pretty sweet plans for this post. It was going to include all sorts of Halloween festivities complete with pictures. It turns out, though, that my computer is being a buttface and needed a trip to the computer doctor. Guess you'll have to wait a couple of days for holiday pictures, but trust me - they're worth waiting for.

Speaking of worth and wait...I realized that I rarely ever discuss my day job here. Besides being Shawn's Wife, Jude's Mom, and Small Business Owner, I do have another full time job. I've probably withheld discussing it here because I know that what I do can be divisive, and the middle child in me hates conflict. But the time has come, my friends. The time has come.

Are you ready for it?!

In a nutshell, I talk to students about sex. That's right. My job. Is to. Talk. About. Sex. I'm an abstinence educator and Director of a program called Worth the Wait. I work with medical personnel who present to 8th grade students the prevalence and reality of STDs. I also work with high school students and we present a program (with skits) to those 8th grade students about some of the emotional junk that comes with having sex outside of marriage.

I actually work at a crisis pregnancy center, and feel like I have the most amazing job in the world. The bulk of my time is spent shaping the Worth the Wait drama presentation - which means working with the high school students. I love doing the presentations themselves, and I love the ministry we have at the crisis pregnancy center, but working with those high school students is my absolute favorite part of this ministry (to see a quick clip of one of our skits, click here) If you think about it, it takes a special kind of kid to stand up and say, "hey. i'm saving sex for marriage. AND i want to be in front of 300 8th graders at a time and tell them to do the same."

It's those kinds of kids with whom I get to hang out. Yeah, my job's pretty sweet.

Beyond being able to spend time with and mentor high school students and being very comfortable talking about sex (sometimes too much so - i drop words like "herpes" in casual conversation if i'm not careful), I also work with an amazing group of women and have an incredible work environment. Even though it means absolute chaos sometimes, we're so blessed to not have to put Jude in daycare. Shawn takes Mondays as his Sabbath, so he stays home with Jude on Mondays. I work from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays and keep Jude then. I bring the kiddo into work with me on Wednesdays, and Shawn takes Jude into work with him on Fridays (which is actually getting kind of difficult for the both of us).

It means careful planning on our parts and often having to stay up late to get work done once Jude's down for the night. However, it also means that either Shawn or I have been able to see each and every one of Jude's "firsts." It means both of us working through the weekends, but it also means one of us is spending the entire day with him seven days a week. It means Shawn and I see less of each other and get less quality time because we're so often playing our game of "Pass the Jude," so the other can get work done, but it also means Jude's never directed a "Mama," at another caretaker (except Shawn....but I'll let that one slide). It means sacrificing a lot ourselves...a LOT of time...a lot of energy...and some days a lot of sanity...but I so cherish the time I have with that kiddo. I cherish knowing what milestones he's reached, I cherish holding him while he's napping, I cherish taking a break from work to play peek-a-boo, I cherish knowing when something is wrong, and I even cherish (most of the time) being the one who accidentally knocks his arm on a door frame and being the one who holds him when he's screaming because he's overtired.

Our jobs are both ministries that require of us much more than the typical 40 hour work weeks, but we've determined that our first ministry is to our family. We're beyond blessed to work in environments that allow us the flexibility to care for Jude ourselves. It's insane, and to be perfectly candid - I'm not sure how much longer we can clip along at this pace - but we can't help but be overwhelmed with gratitude when we look at how much influence we have in Jude's life and know that we haven't missed a second of it.