My husband said these words to me the other day and they almost knocked me out of my chair. If you knew me years ago, you’d know that these were the last words I ever expected to come out of anyone’s mouth to describe me.

In my teens, I fully expected to make enough money to have someone cook & clean for me. In my twenties, when friends started marrying & having kids, I expected to remain a single corporate career-minded woman for years to come. By the time I’d hit my thirties, I’d already realized that corporate American life just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

The stuff that feminist perspectives had been feeding women for decades was turning my stomach. Why were so many women feeling so run down after trying to “have it all”–family, higher education, and career? The truth is that nobody can have it all at once and not have some part of her life suffer for it. We weren’t created to be wholly contained individuals, but to be interdependent. I started to feel like the more I gave to my corporate life, the less I had to give to any other area. I had a sense that I was made for more than pushing papers. So I quit my job, entered seminary, & became an urban missionary to Philadelphia; I met and married my best friend in the process. (That last sentence carries more weight and life lessons learned over the course of 6-7 years than will fit in a blog post. And I wouldn’t trade them for the world.)

Now, as I enter my forties in less than two weeks, I’m grateful for the change of heart I’ve been graced with over the years. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than watching my newborn daughter stretch her arms after nap time, or fixing a dinner plate for my husband after he’s had a hard day’s work. It’s taken four decades for me to get here, but I’m embracing this new season of life!