Seeds of Hope was blessed to recently receive the inspiring story below. We are happy the family agreed to allow us to share it!

Thank your for asking us to share our story!

We currently have two children attending St. Bernadette Catholic School, Nevea (8 years old) and Jeremiah (7 years old). We have had the blessing of having them both registered at St. Bernadette since Pre-School.

Our story is unique and we feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to continue religious education for our children. My husband and I started our family at the age of 17, being blessed with our first child Moranda who is now 23 years old! Moranda is graduating from MSU and leaving for Belize to join the Peace Corp. to serve and educate the less fortunate all within the month of June! At the young age of 17, we still considered this a blessing and although we were aware this venture would be difficult for us, we knew with God guiding us, we followed our faith and began to raise our little girl together.

As the three of us grew together as a family our faith grew even stronger and with that came the blessing of two more children 15 and 16 years later. At a much more mature age and being more active in the Catholic community, we decided that we wanted our kids to attend a school where God would be the center of all topics. To be honest we underestimated what this would end up doing for our entire family!

Because Nevea and Jeremiah have had the opportunity to continue their Catholic education, we as a family have become even more educated and inspired by our faith. Nevea has continued to succeed and maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her educationally career. Jeremiah has struggled in the academic area, however his faith continued to stay strong. We decided to have Jeremiah repeat kindergarten. With a lot prayer and dedication from the staff, particularly Mrs. West and Mrs. Duran, I am happy to say Jeremiah has excelled and is academically and mentally prepared to move forward to 1st grade!!

Although we attend mass every weekend, I have found great pleasure in also attending the school mass with the children every Thursday. As we continue to grow in our faith as a family, we have made some pretty drastic financial modifications. Attending church more often and volunteering at the school and overall being more present in my faith I decided to leave my six-figure job to become a better support system for our family. I prayed about this before I made the decision and I feel that God guided me and gave me the strength and courage to make such a bold decision as I was the primary financial provider.

Words can’t explain how following my faith improved my family. My husband no longer suffers from depression as he has become the primary financial support system for us. I am a far better wife, although I will be honest – cooking and I still have to work on our relationship. 🙂 I am no longer rushing my kids out the door every morning so I can get to the next executive meeting. I have time to prepare their lunch and make sure they have a little note in there to remind them to thank God for everything we have been blessed with and to always remember to be kind and serve others.

My story is a true example of how powerful prayer is and to ensure you all that God will always provide. I was blessed to find a job where I can work from home 80 percent of the time. Although our income is a fraction of what I use to make, our overall physical and mental health has improved as a family, which in my eyes is priceless.

God is Great!

May God bless you all.