My mom's journey to finding her Dad!

My mother has never met her dad so about a month ago we ventured out to find him. The only information we had on him was his name, the age he was when he and my grandmother got married, and where he went to high school. This is his high school picture.

His name is Francisco Rodriguez Jr. and he doesn't have a middle name (which made it only that much harder to find him). We knew he would be around 73 or 74 years old because he was 16 when he and my grandmother got married. After looking for hours on the internet without any success, my sister and I decided to post a picture on Facebook. My sister read about the best way to spread a message quickly and it was to have a person hold a sign, to make it more personal. Here is the sign we made for our mom to hold. Isn't she just precious!!!

My grandmother tried to find my mom's dad by searching for his sister. She called a number and found out that his sister passed away a couple of years ago but her daughter (who is my grandfather's niece) gave her a contact number to try to reach him at. On 5-26-14, my grandmother sent my mom the following text message, "I found your dad. Today is his birthday. Best present he could ever have is the prospect of meeting you. I had a nice visit with his girlfriend, who he has lived with for the last 12 years. She is great. I haven't talked with him yet because he is out golfing. Maybe we can have a reunion here soon." 

PRAISE THE LORD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!!! We set a date to go meet my grandfather on 6-21-14. Here are some pictures that his girlfriend emailed my grandmother. 

I love him already!! 

My mom got a chance to talk to her dad for the first time on 5-27-14! She stated that he was such a sweet man and so loving to her. He is just as excited to meet her as she is to meet him. When she was asking him if he had a Saturday available to go up and meet him, he said, "Sweetheart, you can have all my Saturdays." AWWWW my heart just melted when I heard this. I am so overwhelmed with the anticipation of meeting my grandfather! I can't even comprehend what my mom is feeling. After almost 56 years, she is going to meet her Daddy for the first time. I can't wait for that moment to happen!!! I am going to be there (bawling my face off) recording it all and taking in every single moment we have with him. I'm beyond grateful to be apart of my mom's journey and see the wonderful relationship she builds with her Daddy. Thank you Lord for this opportunity and the blessing of fathers.   

Getting the Right Mindset

One of the most important steps to getting out of debt is having the right mindset. I recently heard on the radio that people would rather tell their weight than talk about their finances. This doesn't surprise me because talking about how much debt your in doesn't really make anyone feel good about themselves. Debt is a topic people feel very judged about (at least I have). One of the many hurdles I've had to overcome is caring about what other people think of our financial situation. We have $100,000.00 in student loan debt, BAM, its out there!! :) It's freeing just saying that, but what feels even better is actually doing something about it! Having support from our friends and family has made such a big impact on our ability to get in the right mindset. A lot of our friends are in the same predicament we are financially and talking about it has really brought us closer together. Communication really is the key in building all relationships and theres just something about being honest and vulnerable that can change your life forever. I feel like Facebook and other social networking sites often hide our true story. We can post pictures and show all the wonderful things happening in our lives and hide the true struggles from day to day. This makes others think our life is perfect; when in fact, most of us are going through the same thing. Pick your friends wisely because they can make all the difference in you getting out of debt. If you hangout with people who are frugal and money conscience, I think it's easier to be the same way. Just like it's easier to spend money when you hangout with people who like to buy stuff all the time. 

Right now, we are in the early stages of trying to get our house fixed up to sale. We still have some work that needs to be completed before we can list our house and I'm ready to get this part over with. We are also trying to figure out what we should sale/keep from our house. My husband really wants to have an estate sale and get rid of everything so we can contribute that money to our debt and pay it off quicker but I have mixed emotions. Some days I want to sale it all but other days I think about how expensive it would be to start over. Plus, I might be a little attached to some of the crap we have acquired over the years! 

To all the people out there trying to get out of debt, stay strong! Hangout with people who support and encourage you to fight the good fight! I'll leave you with this quote Dave Ramsey posted on his Facebook page. "Success requires sacrifice. The first step to a good plan is deciding what you are willing to give up."