Anna was a single mother with two children. She worked all day and then would come home to take care of her kids and put in more hours doing household chores. One evening, she came home from work feeling tired but happy because she had finished the most difficult part of her project for the day. When she walked through the door, Anna found that her three-year-old son was trying to pour chocolate syrup all over his baby brother’s face as they both giggled hysterically.
“Boys!” Anna exclaimed, “I can’t believe you did this again! You are going to be so sorry when mommy has time for herself.” Anna grabbed the bottle of syrup from her son and rushed both boys into their bedroom. “You are going to have to stay in here for a very, very long time.”
Anna’s husband came home not too long after that. He walked through the door whistling as he always did when he arrived home from work. However, today his face was not as cheerful. He walked into Anna’s bedroom and closed the door behind him.
“What is it?” Anna asked, “Is something wrong? Is everyone ok at work?”
“I got fired” he announced.
Anna was shocked. Her husband had been working for that company for more than ten years and from what she could tell, he was very skilled at his job. “What happened?” she asked.
“It’s that jerk of a boss! He is always on my case because apparently, I don’t work fast enough for him.” he explained. Check the products here.
Anna and her husband sat down together to talk about it and figure out what they could do in this situation. They talked about it for a long time and finally decided that they would have to make some changes. Anna would need to find another job and her husband would have to start looking for a second job. Knowing that this was going to be hard, the couple did not say much to each other except ‘be safe’ as they went off to work.
When Anna arrived home from work, she was exhausted and could not seem to find the energy to start taking care of her children. When they walked through the door, Anna looked at them with a smile on her face because even though she was tired, she knew that it would be worth it in the end.
“Mommy!” said her four-year-old daughter with chocolate syrup all over her face, “I drew you a picture!”
“That was very nice of you,” Anna said, taking the drawing and tucking it into her pocket to keep it safe. “You know what mommy would really love right now?”
“Chocolate cake! Yes!” Anna’s daughter said, “With extra chocolate syrup! It’s my favorite!”
Anna smiled and tickled her daughter. “Mommy loves you.”
“I love you too mommy.” the little girl said, smiling as she followed her mother into the kitchen where they made some chocolate cake together. After dinner, Anna felt tired but happy because she had finished the most difficult part of her day.
When her husband came home, Anna watched him anxiously to see if he was having a good day. When she saw his face, she could tell that things were not going well because he had a sour look on his face as usual.
“How was your day?” Anna asked, “Did you find a second job?”
“No.” he replied. “I went to about twenty different places but they either wouldn’t hire me or did not have enough work for me. I’m going to try again tomorrow though.”
Anna nodded and walked her husband into the bedroom where they talked a little while longer before Anna left to take care of her children.
Anna worked hard for the next few days but soon she realized that she was going to need a second job if her family wanted to make it. She started looking online and asking around at work for any opportunities. One day, when Anna came home from work, there were two envelopes sitting on top of the table next to some chocolate cake.
“Who’s this from?” Anna asked, picking up the envelopes and noticing that they had no names on them.
“I do not know.” her husband admitted, “They were just here when I got home.”
Anna opened the letter from the first envelope and read it. “Who’s that from?” her husband asked.
“Apparently someone wants me to be a caregiver at their home. The lady who wrote this wants me to take care of her son while she is away.” Anna explained, “This job would pay more than twice as much as my other one does so I think we are going to give it a try.”
“That sounds great!” said her husband, “I’m sure that this will work out very well for us!”
Anna felt nervous about starting such an important job but was also excited because if everything went right then they would have plenty of money to live off of again! She made dinner and shared the chocolate cake with her children and husband before tucking them into bed.
When Anna got up the next morning, she got dressed as fast as she could because she did not want to be late for her first day on such an important job. When she arrived at work, Anna discovered that the woman who hired her lived in a very nice house and that it was going to be much more of a challenge than what she had been doing before. She found out that they would need to do lots of different chores throughout the day but before they started anything, Anna read the list of instructions from the lady so that they knew exactly how everything was supposed to be done! After reading through all of the lists, Anna began working around the house with her new son. The day went by very quickly and before Anna knew it, it was time for her son’s dinner. She worked all day but she did not mind because the job was fun!
When the lady came home that night, Anna shared how their day had gone with the woman who hired her. The woman smiled and complimented them on doing such a good job. At the end of every week, Anna got paid and used some of that money to buy new things so that her family could be happy again! One day, however, when she got paid, Anna felt something wrong because there were only two envelopes instead of three…
“That is strange.” said Anna to herself as she counted up all of the money in each envelope. “There is the right amount of money in one envelope but the other only has $5 in it. I wonder what happened.”
Anna went to her husband and told him what had happened. They decided that they should go back to their old job until they could figure out what to do next. The woman who hired Anna was very confused as well, so she called Anna up and asked why there were not three envelopes this time around.
“I’m sorry but there was only one envelope with your money in it when I got home,” said Anna, “the other must have fallen out on its way here.”
The lady sounded a little annoyed about this but did not stay mad for long. When Anna her husband about the phone call, she told her that she had found the missing money.
“Oh no!” Anna gasped, “I hope I haven’t done something wrong by telling you about this.”
The lady on the phone assured her that everything was fine and just like before, Anna got paid every week for taking care of her son. One day, Anna’s husband brought home an envelope from work. Inside there was a letter that said that they did not need him anymore because of the economy being so bad but he would get to keep his job if he wanted it back some day in the future. This did not sound very appealing at all but what could he do? He took their oldest boy with him to work each day and left their daughter with Anna while they worked. Sometimes Anna came home to find her husband asleep on the couch waiting to wake up and make dinner for their son but he was never mad or mean about it because he knew that times were hard!
One morning when Anna woke up, she saw that her husband had already left for work. When she got dressed, she put on one of his old shirts and tied a scarf around her hair. She did not look very pretty but as long as it got her through the day then who cared what she looked like? That day at work, Anna found out that they were going to be taking care of two little babies instead of just one so they would have more things to do every day. While cleaning the house, Anna could hear one of the babies crying and she needed to change the baby’s diaper. There was a fresh diaper in the bag but how would she put it on? She looked down at her son who shrugged his shoulders as if he had no idea what to do.
“It cannot be that hard,” thought Anna, “I will just try to figure it out.”
Anna picked up one of the pieces of cloth like she did with her own son and spread it over the table. The lady walked in right when Anna was trying to figure everything else out so she showed Anna which part went where. With some practice, Anna finally got everything on straight and changed the newborn baby’s messy diaper! When they were done with their work, Anna changed into one of her own dresses and ran home to see if her husband had come back yet.
He was not there so Anna sat down at the dinner table like she always did and ate a sandwich that her children had made for her. Her daughter tried to make conversation with her but Anna’s mind was somewhere else because she knew that something bad might have happened to her husband while he was out looking for work. Finally, just when it seemed like his trip would be a wasted effort, Anna saw him walking up their street. He looked exhausted and very thin but they were going to be okay!
Anna started crying tears of joy when she saw him walking through the door after being away for 2 whole days! After hugging him tightly Anna gave him one of their sandwiches, which he devoured in just a few bites. Her daughter smiled and gave him some milk to drink. He drank that too but was still very thirsty.
When the kids went off to bed, Anna told her husband about how she changed the babies’ diapers and thought for sure they were going to fire her when they saw how much of a mess she had made!
“Oh no,” said Anna’s husband, “If you can do everything by yourself then why would they want to let us go?”
Anna opened up another sandwich and started eating it while thinking “maybe times are not as bad as we think.” Then she looked out the window at the sunset. It was just hello beautiful as always.