Praise

For a long time, my mother and I have worked jointly on my student loan cause. I obviously pay everything and anything I can toward my debt as possible on a monthly basis and every so often she will gift me money to throw at the loans. For as long as I remember, my mother has had a side business going from home around the holidays making and selling a traditional food to our culture to family and friends, and now friends of friends as it continues to grow. When one of my aunts was living in the area, we would both hunker down every holiday season to help in the cause to make a little extra money. Since taking a night job and with my aunt moving to Florida, the production line has diminished greatly and now we produce more as a hobby than anything else.

Recently, my mother approached me to let me know that she would like us to make the effort to resume the little side business as much as we could for this upcoming holiday season and that any profits we made would go toward my student loans. Queue in my taking a "day off" to work the production line with my mom about two weeks ago and we were able to pull just under $600 in profit for a hard day's work. We sold all of our product and started getting pre-orders for the next batch we make coming up in November.

Around this time, my family also gathered together to catch up as one of my aunts is in from out of town. As my mom took orders, she also let them all know our plans. She also happened to mention how excited she was because with the next production we would be able to knock out one of my loans as it only had about $500 remaining. After a day of fun, as my mom got ready to go home, one of our family members approached her and gave her the money to finish paying off the loan! As of Sunday evening one of my student loans is completely paid off!

While I still have another five student loans, thankfully I never consolidated them, I have a renewed sense of hope. Working my debt snowball and the entire Dave Ramsey plan can be so daunting at times when you have so much debt and so little income and your debt free date looks so far away. Trusting that if I put my faith in God and continue the path I know to be true can be so hard to someone that often deals with crippling anxiety especially surrounding money. This week, He reminded me who my Father is and who will ultimately provide.

For this, I am thankful.