So Many Emotions Running Today

Not only can I believe my first born is 5 years old today, but it also marks another anniversary. 

I have been working at home for a full 5 years now. That just amazes me in all different directions.

You see, Madisyn was a scheduled induction for December 19, 2002 so I told my supervisor that I was going to take off the day before December 18, 2002 to make sure I had everything planned and ready to go. I was an art technician for a company called Paxar. Ever wonder where I got my love of doing graphic projects for clients in Photoshop? Hehe now you know!

I gave all my good byes to my fellow co-workers and they wished me well on the delivery and I told everyone I would keep in touch and be back to work after my 12 week leave in March. I had my baby girl and was she ever such a joy. I was so in love with my girl and knew I wanted to spend every waking moment with her.

Well at about 8 weeks, I took Madisyn over to her daycare provider to try and get her use to her. We were going to do weekly trips up until she was 12 weeks when I would go back to work. Needless to say Madisyn cried the whole entire time we were there on the first visit. That just broke my heart to pieces :(. I kept making excuses for the next visits and we never did go to anymore ;).

It comes time for me to report back to work and that week before my supervisor called me and was getting all the info from me for when I would come back. I told him… I just can't do it. I can't leave her. There is no way. He said listen, Jennifer we need you. We want you. So go ahead and take another week with your little girl and we will see you in an week. Phew… I was so relieved by that.

Well that week just flew by of course and it was getting towards the end of the week. My supervisor calls back and talks to me to see what time I would be coming in. I immediately started crying and just told him can we not do something else? Can I just come back as part-time? So he talked to HR and they said I could use my vacation days for the year and only work 6 hours a day and use vacation hours for the other two hours to make my complete 8 hours for the day. I thought and thought and just said there is no way I am going to be able to leave my pride and joy. I asked if I could just work 3rd shift, but there was already a gal that did that, so they wouldn't let me. I asked about working at home half the time like the 3rd shift girl and they said no. So right then and there, I made my decision to turn in my resignation.

I was NOT going back to let someone else raise my child, watch her first steps, here her first words. I went out on a leap of faith and said I was going to work at home. I began telecommuting the very next week. I telecommuted for different companies till December 2005, when my business had taken off so much that I dedicated full-time hours to it.

So here I am today, five years later. I cannot believe I have been out of Corporate America for 5 years. It amazes me. In one way I do miss it, as I had a lot of great friends at work and loved that aspect of it. Also my work was done and I could come home to just be with my family and not worry about work. Where as working at home, work is always blaring me in the face haha. But guess what? I would never change it for the world!

I keep in touch with some of my co-workers, so I called them up today. They couldn't believe it was 5 years either. They said yea, here we thought you were coming back and you still have never showed up hehe. 

This last five years have honestly been the best 5 years of my life!!!