By Caleb Keith –

*Written by my beautiful wife Erika, who is helping me through a busy week.

I met my husband, Caleb, just after finishing my sophomore year of College at Concordia University-Saint Paul. We were camp counselors together, and our relationship moved pretty quickly. We both knew within a few weeks of dating that we would marry. It was an exciting time, but we were going to school in different parts of the country. We made some difficult decisions pretty quickly; I would finish the fall semester at Concordia in Saint Paul and then transfer to his school, Concordia Irvine, in the spring.

The school transfer was a little bit bumpy, but it was all worth it to be together again. Caleb proposed to me just over two months after I moved out to Irvine. We were both ecstatic to begin life together, so we got married just five months after our engagement) in the middle of a national forest (thank you, Paul Koch). It was wonderful to be married to Caleb!

There were some complications, however. Caleb lost his scholarship because he was no longer a dependent after we got married. We had to decide some things about school. We both took a semester off so we could make some money to put away. Ultimately, I chose not to go back. It would have incredibly hard for us to both go back to school financially. And to be honest, I was no longer interested in what I had actually gone to school to study. Instead, I got a job. I became a hostess at a restaurant near my home, and I was able to make some good money. With some time and hard work, I was promoted and am now a waitress.

There are many college students who work at this restaurant, most of them going to UCI. Often, guests will ask me if I am a student. I reply that I am not and tell them that I quit school and instead work to help support my growing family. Many ask me if I plan on going back, and when I tell them that I do not plan on returning in the near future, very often they say “But you will” or “You should.” Of course, as a waitress, it is my job to make guests happy, so I will often appease them and say “Maybe one day I’ll go back.” But today is not that day.

However, today is a day that I am a mother, a day I am a wife, and a day I am a sinner saved and justified by Christ Jesus. And today is a day I am happy to know that my vocation as a wife, mother, waitress, and my salvation does not require a degree. And hopefully, one day, Caleb will get his shit together and I’ll become a full-time stay-at-home mom!