Blessed and stressed

by Valerie
(Tulsa, Oklahoma United States)

As a trucker's wife you learn to be the man and the woman, the mom and the dad. We don't celebrate birthday and major holidays until dad's home, however when he's gone you wear both caps. Everything has to be done and it's on you to take care of it. The things you used to say, "ask your dad" is not suddenly also up to you. The jobs he used to take care of when he was home are now up to you.

This is life gives you stressed moments and blessed moments. We homeschooled our kids, so they were blessed to be able to take their schoolwork on the road and see the country. They've been to New York City, Mt. Rushmore, The Alamo, California, The Grand Canyon, Petrified forest, salt plains, and more. He has sacrificed a lot to give us this life and actually missed the birth of one of our children, his first son. He was offered a load and told him to go ahead and go since I still had two and a half weeks until his due date. Well, this boy decided to come exactly two weeks early. When I went into labor June 27th, 2007 I called him and though he pleaded for me to wait I couldn't hold out long enough. He made it home a few hours after he was born in our home on June 28, 2007. Our fourth and last child was induced because he did not want to miss another birth.

While life can be good and freight plentiful it can also dry up and be tight for months on end. My husband is a smart businessman and has given us a blessed life. On his income alone, we purchased our dream home 15 years ago, with 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and two living areas, three car-garage plus a shop and two carports, one big enough for our RV to be parked under all with his income alone.

We have just recently gone on our own trying to create our own trucking company.