Thursday, October 26, 2006

Benefits Recieved

No, no baby yet...I've just been a slogger for the past couple of weeks. She'll be here next Friday (I go in to the hospital at 6 am). In the meantime, I'm sleeping and getting all the laundry done (how is it she has so much laundry and isn't even born yet?).

I have exciting news. One of the perks (the only perk?) of being bi-vocational for the past year is that I was eligable for maternity leave. This is a big deal for me. Ben and I are doing well enough financially (as in not having to live paycheck to paycheck) because he gets paid really well and our rent is super cheep. However, I have a line of credit from school that I'm slowly chipping away at, and we like having a bit of savings. Add on a newish car and a baby, and things were going to be a bit tight with me not working. In fact, us getting the car was a real step in faith for me, because I wasn't sure how much I was going to get for mat leave.

Basically, I needed to be recieving about 400 a month for my loan and to put a bit in savings for the baby, plus help with the price of diapers so that ben's paycheck wasn't streched too far. I didn't know if I'd get that much because most of what I worked was part time (under 40 hours).

Well, I checked today, and God has been good to us. I'll be getting just over 600 a month! The unfortunate thing is that it is only for 24 weeks instead of the full 53, but I can live with that, either going back to work part time when Ben's home, or seeing how far we can make things strech. I really want to be a stay at home mom as much as possible, and with my work at the curch (which will be starting again in January) I never planned on working full time anyway. We'll wait and see what happens.

I'm so excited about this, one more way that God is taking car of us and affirming that He wants us here doing what we're doing. Calgary is a VERY expensive place to live, but so far we've been taken care of. God is amazing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome, Steph!! Can't wait too meet your baby girl through pictures...I will be praying for you and your family this last week as you prepare for baby's arrival. And I too have a TON of baby laundry to do....it IS insane how much laundry they can generate....even before they're born!!!!

Anonymous said...

Due to my insane, gramatically correct, melancholic,and perfectionistic nature, I must correct my mistake....what I meant to write was, "Can't wait TO meet your baby...." :-) Just couldn't leave it alone...it was bugging me!

Mommy of Four said...

WOW! YAY! And you get a LOOONG maternity leave!! We only get six weeks...period! Then it's back to work same as before!!

Unknown said...

ahhhh... one more week that is increadable. man a lot goes on when you are out of comuntry. I can not wait to come up and meet this wonderful gift from god. and It is great to hear how god is blessing you!

I love you allso much!

Dena said...

What an answer to prayer, Steph! I'm glad you can take off all the time you want. It's wonderful to be able to be there for every "first" of your little one's life!
(Side notes-Jess I totally empathize with the grammar obssesion. It drives Ell nuts. And Steph, do you know how to get in touch with Lindy? I have been trying to find her for a while.)

Richards' said...

MAN! I only got 4 weeks, and I had to give up my sick days for this current school year to cover half of the days because my job actually does not do a paid leave! I had 14 days of paid leave (my sick days from last year and this year) and then 5 days where I did not get paid! That is awesome what you are getting! I can't wait to be back in Canada where things seem to make more sense in taking care of the people! Ok I am now taking a big step down off my soap box! I can't wait to see pictures of your little angel!