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Making the decision to be a stay at home mom.

I am the proud mother of the most beautiful and endearing 3 year old child. My daughter was born 3 months premature and weighed only one pound fourteen ounces at birth. She struggled for four months in an incubator just to survive.

As one could well imagine when my maternity leave ended I had some difficulty with the idea of going back to work. I chose to be a stay at home mom and took an additional year off of work on an unpaid leave of absence.

My daughter is now almost 4 and she has been attending daycare since she was 2 years old. It has been very hard for me to be away from her and I have felt extreme guilt knowing that I am at work and missing out on spending precious time with her.

I thought it was all worth it, all for the best and that my sacrifice of working was so that she could have a better life. I was planning ahead thinking about her future, about college and her wedding day and how we would need a two income family to support her throughout her life.

I thought it was all worth it until that cold March day when the preschool called me and told me there had been an incident. The children had been outside playing after lunch and there was a commotion that had occurred which caused them to bring the children in early.

All the children were brought safely inside except for my daughter. My child was left outside alone for God only knows how long. None of the daycare staff noticed.

She was outside long enough to be noticed by a stranger but not by the daycare staff? A stranger picked up my child and brought her into the daycare to see if she belonged there.

When the phone rang and the daycare supervisor told me this my heart almost stopped in my chest. The realization hit me that we could have lost our daughter that day.

The angels were watching my sweet baby that day because the strangers arms that brought her back home to me could have so easily been those of a predator that could have taken her away forever. I will always be grateful to the woman who gave me my child back and saved my life because without her I would not have a reason to live. She is my whole world.

That was the last day my daughter ever attended daycare. I am a stay at home mom now and although times are tough financially it was the best decision I have ever made.

I am currently looking for options to make money from home and finding odd jobs on the weekends when my husband can watch our daughter, sure we have to be on a budget now but I have the peace of mind of knowing that my daughter is safe and thats worth more to me than all the money in the world.

Learn more about this author, Raven Storme.
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