Friday, March 11, 2011

3...2...1...

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!

Today is the day! The last payment of Clint's student loan! Oh, what a feeling! You really do feel free. Yet, at the same time, it almost doesn't seem real. Can we really remove that line item from our budget?? We finally get to start looking forward rather than looking back. And I know for Clint, this day is extra special to him because he carried so much guilt knowing that he came to the marriage with probably 98% of the debt. But I married ALL of him and I'm thrilled that we tackled this goal together! I love the peace of mind that we have going in to start a family without that burden.

Speaking of family, we're still rolling along. We received our TB tests on Friday (ick, needle!) and I managed to sift through our black box and put together ALL of our documents. Even our residency list. Fortunately, Clint used to work for a company that required a security clearance and had to list all of his places of residency so we were all set. I had forgotten what all was in the black box...I had middle school report cards in there! I'm sure those are really important, ha ha. I also had tax returns from 1998 and 1999. Wow! McDonald's birthday party days. I'm certainly not missing those days and I think it's okay to get rid of returns from over 10 years ago!

We turned in all of our paperwork last night when we went to Buckner for the psychotropic medication training. I'll be honest, Clint and I don't feel like it was all that helpful. I mean, she rattled off a list of medications and their side effects and risks of overdose. That's great, but I am not going to remember which drug you aren't supposed to take with grapefruit juice, yada yada. And I would hope that all of this information would be covered thoroughly by a doctor when/if the time comes that one of our children needs these medications. I'm glad that she mentioned that these drugs are the backup option not THE option. I'm extremely hesitant to run to chemicals to 'correct' my child.

Tomorrow we take our restraint class...again, hope to never have to use the skills we learn in it. Then, just waiting for our home study process to begin. Well, not exactly sitting around. We've got a nursery to put together! We need to rearrange furniture in the house and I want to paint the room to a much more appropriate color. I have a vision of what I want the room to look like, now to bring it to life. It's so exciting. Even if we go through a long period of taking care of children that won't be ours forever, I want them treated as if they were and they deserve a pretty room! :) On a budget of course though, we haven't forgotten Dave Ramsey's principles yet!

2 comments:

Irene Odell said...

Congratulations on reaching your goal. So few americans are debt-free...esp in this economy, your accomplishment is something to be very, very, very proud of!

Foster Mamalion said...

So excited for you! We've been married for 20 years and we became debt free about 3 or 4 years ago. It is an amazing feeling (oops....we DO have a house payment and some people don't consider that debt free). I don't think the drug class is all that helpful either. I always dread it. You will hear those thing IF and WHEN you need the info both from your doctor and pharm. SAMA is fine, but boring to me. Helpful if I would ever remember it. We haven't had children old enough to ever use it, but alas we must be educated!! It was good to get to more officially meet you! I am so excited for you both. I would really like to talk to you sometime about the home study if you would like to talk. Most people are really nervous and I like to help. There are several oth