I know that I don’t share a ton of personal things on this page, but I wanted to share a little bit of my story and offer anyone reading a little bit of encouragement.
7 years ago, we just moved into a brand new home (at the top of our budget 😬). My husband was the breadwinner as a broker of a property management company and I was a nanny and a part time photographer. He was 27 and I was 21. Have I mentioned that I got married at 19? 😂
He came home one day and he told me something that completely changed the course of our lives. He said, “I’m going to quite my job and go back to school full time to become an aircraft mechanic. By the way, classes start next month.”
Do you want to know my reaction? I’m sure you thought my reaction was, “Oh that’s great! I’m so excited!!! Let’s do it!”
*crickets*
Nope. My type A, let’s plan everything personality stared blankly at my completely ridiculous dreamer of a husband. He wanted to QUIT his job?!? How in the world would we pay the mortgage of the dream house we just bought? How would he work if he was in school full time? Why would he want to leave something stable to pursue this outlandish dream of his?!
You see, I like security. Ok… I don’t like it. I CRAVE IT. I hold onto security like a blanket and I’m a 4 year old in the middle of the night, afraid of the monsters under my bed. I will FIGHT you, if you try to take away my feeling of security. So I did. I listed out the reasons of why Patricks dreams weren’t attainable. I told him there was no way it would work. I dug my feet in. I said no. I told him he was crazy for considering it.
Then… after my initial reaction… I prayed and God put it on my heart to TRUST my husband and TRUST that God had his hand allllllll over this journey.
So I went back to my ever so patient husband and told him that I supported him. I didn’t care if we were destined to eat Ramen for the next 10 years, I would hold his hand and walk by his side through this adventure.
Yall. My husband gave his 2 week notice a week after our initial conversation. He then started his own company which brought in what we were suppose to make for the entire rest of the year from his old job, within the first MONTH. God showed up and continued to show up in unbelievable ways. Not only were we surviving, we were comfortable and dare I say, thriving. I guess we were comfortable enough to get pregnant with our son 4 months later. HA!
So there we were. 2.5 years of my husband in school full time, refusing to turn 30 and hate his job and the path of his life. Did I mention he also was working on his pilots license? Talk about a radical career change.
2.5 years of us both being self employed, raising an infant and seeing God show up over and over and over. There were so many times during that time period where God reminded us that YES, this is exactly where we were supposed to be.
Then my dreaming husband tells me, ” I want to buy a plane”.
Remember my reaction of, “Hey I want to quit my job”. Yep. It was an identical process. Me telling him no and all the reasons why this wasn’t a good idea. Then realizing my husband was right all along.
So we bought a plane and we named it Blue Bird.
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I’m going to give you a quick rundown of what happened over the next 7 years.
- Patrick graduated from school with his A & P and became an airplane mechanic at a company near the coast.
- I went full time with my photography.
- He would fly to work most mornings because he worked at an airport.
- One morning his engine failed and the plane was totaled but he walked away with only a few bruises. BTW I was 33 weeks pregnant and thought I was going to go into labor from the stress. I’ll never forget that day because it was one of the scariest days of my life.
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- We bought another plane.
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- He worked at the coast, commuting 3 hours a day for almost 3 years.
- We started looking for a 4 seater airplane to buy in 2018.
- He started working at GE Aviation in Durham (a 30 minute commute) in July of 2018.
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Ok, fast forward to our current timeline. We just bought a 4 seater airplane last month after 2 years of looking and last night, we flew as a family of 4 for the first time. It was a literal dream come true. A dream that took 7 years to come to pass by hard work and dedication.
Our 2 seater airplane was never meant to fly us as a family, so we had to make choices on who was going to fly with Patrick. This resulted in us never being able to fly as much as we wanted to because it required a babysitter. Patrick also never took Amelia up (even though she’s 2.5) because we wanted to experience her first flight as a family.
Because my husband chose to leave the safe and secure zone, 7 years ago…. look at what has happened.
He has a job, building jet engines, close to home that offers us WAY more financial security and benefits than what we had 7 years ago.
He is a pilot, A & P and IA. This basically means he’s a unicorn in the aviation field.
He took the leap, pursued his dreams, worked harder than anyone I know and look at where he has brought our family.
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Being able to fly our own airplane on a random Thursday afternoon…. just because we can.
If you are where we were 7 years ago… at the crossroads of what’s safe or pursuing your dreams…
Pursue your dreams because they really do come true.
It wasn’t a walk in an easy park filed with sunshine and rainbows. There was so much sacrifice, hard work, praying and trusting God but look. Look at where God has taken us!
People ask me all the time if I ever thought this is where I thought life would take me…. and my answer is no. Never in a million years did I think we would have an airplane… let alone 2.
I’m so thankful though that Patrick came home that day and said the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, “I’m going to quit my job.”
