I Quit my Job!

So I quit my job a little while back and it is a decision I have known I would make since the day I got married. I always knew my heart and knew being a stay at home mom is who I was meant to be (in addition to being an engineer). After getting married I knew I wanted to build my career in my dream job as an engineer and use my Materials Science Engineering degree that I worked so hard for. Engineering is my passion but being a mama is who I am if that makes sense. So Cody so graciously agreed and supports me with our decision that I will stay home and have the most important job in the world, raising our babies (in my opinion). 

So after we got married I knew I wanted to build my career to have something to go back to too, and we needed to significantly build our finances to prepare for kids, a house, dog, vehicles, savings, investing, etc. so I went on the hunt and found my DREAM job with Shaw industries and stayed there for over 4 years. I don't regret a second of it and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. It helped shape who I am now. The plan was for me to work 4-5 years until we were ready for me to quit and try to get pregnant and that's just what we did. Right on schedule, we hit every big milestone in our lives and marriage, and it came time for me to quit my job. It was the easiest and hardest decision I had ever made. I knew what God had placed on my heart and where I was meant to be but I LOVED my job and the people I worked with. They threw me a going away party and I left knowing I had put in the 4+ years I had been yearning to reach. I felt free to finally be and do what I was meant to do but it was a bittersweet departure. I look back and smile to myself because I knew the day I accepted the job after my interview that this was the first step to the rest of my life and I was focused on this goal. I spent those 4+ years diving into my job and work and didn't give an ounce less of myself even knowing my plan and my path. 

While everyone else my age in engineering in my company was going back to get their masters degree, career planning, job hopping, interviewing, traveling, creating professional groups and teams, going to bars, and events, thriving for the best apartment in downtown Chattanooga, not looking to date so they could focus more on their career, not settling down, or even laboring over the decision to get a dog, all I could do was get through my day, week, month, and year, to be one second closer to MY dream, and my future. Being home with the babies I finally get to make, praise the Lord! Every work day I thrived to rush home to my quiet apartment in Ooltewah with my husband, furiously plan our next steps and how to achieve them quicker to reach our goals faster, and to spend time with family. That was where I belonged. In my career I always wanted to better myself and strived to do so to be the best employee I could possibly be. I wasn't looking to be a 'boss woman', or move up the rankings, or to even jump salaries, it was not where I would be for my future. I worked on building my real future, building our house, finances, and family! And all of that should be ok and should be an option. It is usually looked down upon and unheard of but it is the reality of many people! I should have been born in the 40's where you get married at 18, and have all of your kids by 21 lol, I would have thrived haha. But if you are the one on the flip side, that's 100% ok. If that is your goal and what makes you happy, you do you and thrive too! :)

Now that I have been home for a while, I am SO content. I clean our house, sell items that we no longer use to earn a little money, I do all of the house chores, and am helping learn to do the cooking. I have launched a Youtube channel for mommy and me content, and I've been loving blogging keeping the virtual scrapbook of my life alive. I spend all of my days with Lucy with my sweet baby boy and all of the fun and learning we will do in his first 5 years of life and when his little sister comes;). I have spent a lot of time at doctors for Conner's feet but now I can do that with ease. Every day feels like a vacation and my body has never been more relaxed and at peace. I wake up with such joy and have a spring in my step as I even do the laundry for the 1,000th time. I have big mom plans for Conner. We will do sensory bins, learn to count, read, and write, I will make my own baby food, we will do baby gymnastics starting at 6 months (and go until he is 4) and will do baby-and-me workouts at 6 months old. We will sign up for local play dates, walk the neighborhood with Lucy daily, I will go to the park just me and him at 10am and swing in the swings and stop for a picnic lunch in the grass. I have envisioned that forever. We will hike new areas together with him on my back! I will take him to toddler time jump park dates, and I will teach him to ride his bike without training wheels at 4 years old, how to ride a unicycle and rip stick at 6 years old and how to do cool flips on our trampoline at home! We will do the baby reading plan as soon as he can make a few words, and I will let him experience so many new things in his little life like early morning zoo dates which are enriching to his brain, and the creative discovery museum. I have big plans for my kids and plan on doing fitness as well on the side of all of this along with nourishing my family with healthy meals. So when people ask why I quit my job. This is my why. This is what fills my soul with such everlasting joy and I could not ask for more!

With so much love,

Kayla Raborn 

9/6/22