The Bookshelf

I have said there was a major financial benefit to changing the way we live, but more importantly has been the intangible benefit of our lifestyle.  The way we would like to approach parenting and our role as parents fundamentally changed during this time.  My wife recounts one moment which lead to this transformation:

After small group, we were cleaning up all the toys in the basement. I sat down by the bookshelf and thought, “If we could only take 10 books with us, which ones would we take?” I actually became very saddened going through the books. I had only read a handful of these books to you, especially Liam and Rowen. Most of them I had only read to Shelton, when life was simple. I realized that the time I spend with you in true quality moments is scarce.

We both came to this realization looking at those books and began tearfully discussing the parents we wanted to be.  Additionally, we began to consider the type of spouse, friend and Christian we wanted to be.  It was here, at this moment, when our transformation departed from the financial to the intangible and the greatest rewards of our potential lifestyle began to unfold.