By Leslie Tullis, February 16, 2012 — In 2009, my husband and I went from having two jobs and no kids to having two kids and no jobs. I lost my job first, but at that point we were still able to make ends meet. On December 5th of that year I was five months pregnant. I came home from Christmas shopping with a new pair of shoes and books for my husband. I fixed us a good dinner of roast chicken.
When he came through the door, I knew something had gone terribly wrong. He told me his company had gone bankrupt and would cease to exist in two weeks. No health insurance. No severance. Nothing. At first we were both terrified. I had two little people inside depending on me. We had boarded a train and there was no getting off.
The next day we took back all our Christmas gifts. Christmas was cancelled. I cried, but after a few days I realized what a gift we’d been given. We woke up together, my husband and I. We ate lunch together. We went for walks and talked and shared things we never had time for before. When I had to go on bed rest, he was there every moment. He set up a tree in our bedroom so I could see it every day. He was there to make sure I ate right. We could never have done that if he’d still had his job.
Things were very tight. We had nothing for Christmas except each other. It was the best Christmas of my life so far.
