Hailey and Mason were four months old now, healthy and chubby, and had picked up a hilarious habit of babbling loudly together whenever they wanted their bottles.

We had stayed right on track with our monthly hospital payment plan after qualifying for a forty percent hardship reduction on our total medical debt.

Our savings account wasn’t exactly growing by leaps and bounds, and some weeks every last dollar was budgeted down to the penny before Peter’s paycheck cleared.

But somehow, through strict discipline, home-cooked meals and sheer motherly stubbornness, we were keeping our heads above water without giving up our dignity.

Peter had stayed with his brother Luke in Dayton for six weeks before moving into a small one-bedroom apartment only two miles from our subdivision.