I've been in contact with someone there for the past couple of weeks, and she put me in contact with Lara, Dave's assistant producer. On Thursday, Lara emailed me and asked me a few questions and offered a few dates to choose from. The next day, 25 FEB, was one of the available dates. I jumped at the chance!
Friday afternoon I got the house set up just right. I wanted to video this for our own memories, as well as a way to let the boys realize just how important this moment is. This is a moment I pray they never have on their own, as we are teaching them to follow this lifestyle forever, never getting into debt. I set up my laptop so mom, dad, and Josh could watch via Skype, and turned the table on an angle so the video would show each person. I printed out some coloring sheets from Twistynoodle with debt free sayings on them. These were used during the call to keep the boys entertained and they worked surprisingly well.
2 hours beforehand I as working on dinner, excited but nervous, and listening to podcasts. 40 minutes before, while the boys were watching a movie, I jotted down some notes just in case I went blank.
At 8:00 pm (2:00 pm EST) my internet went out. I about had a mini-freak-out, because I was really hoping my parents could watch. A quick restart of our modem fixed the problem, but, as it turned out, Skype froze up on them a few times during the call anyway. At least they were listening LIVE on Dave's website so they didn't miss anything important.
At 8:1o I dialed the number and within a minute, I was talking to Lara! I felt like we were on hold for a hour, but that was just because my heart was beating so fast. All in all, I believe we were on the phone less than 25 minutes, including wait time. Not bad.
During the waiting I remember worrying that Parker was going to get loud, so I had Matt feed him a jar of baby food. That worked, but he ate too fast, so had him feed him a 2nd jar. Then I remembered I had purchased Ritz crackers. That boy loves Ritz and we only give them to him occasionally... perfect bribery.
In the end, all 4 boys were quiet and we rewarded them a couple of times during the call with chocolate chips. And finally, we got to scream as loudly as we could. It was amazing and I hope many of our friends will be calling to do the same within the next couple of years. What a peace there is on this side of our journey.
Here's the video of our call, plus a little bonus video of us burning our statement from Sallie Mae that shows a zero balance.
WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was so funny to see you with the jitters! Congrats again! You've worked hard to accomplish this goal.
ReplyDeleteOh Jenn! I am so proud of you and Matt. I am sitting here crying my eyes out and SO proud of you. I can't express how much this means to other people so that you will be that shining example and a person that God wants you to be! Especially in our (both) parenting your children to grow up so that they won't make the same mistakes we we did. God bless you, Hamrick family. Thank-you, Matt for serving for us. We don't want that to ever be a "taken for granted" issue in our lives... we mean it with all sincerity. We've been praying for our troops and especially mentioning you daily and sometime more than once a day. We thank God for our being able to be a part of your lives and you a part of our lives. We love you all so much. Please give the boys a huge hug and kiss from Ommie and PaPa.
ReplyDeleteLove you!
P.S. Sorry - crying too much and didn't see my typo... I mean "Especially in YOUR (both) parenting your children..." Sorry. Hah!
ReplyDeleteLove ya.
Oh, Matt, Jennifer, & boys!!
ReplyDeleteI love this! The look on Matt's face is priceless as you are talking to DR about cooking!! By the way, good save Matt on missing out on eating out!!!
I was crying as I watched this! I am a big baby!
We are so proud of you all!! And I just love Carson's glove! I cannot believe how tall the big boys are getting!!! Seeing this video made us all feel like we were there!
We love yall!
~Audrey~
OK...sorry if there's errors in my spelling but I've got tears in my eyes that makes it that I can't see right...but this was awesome and don't worry I learned how to cook at 25, so it's not that bad....but your house always smells good from something you've cooked....You should be really proud of what you did and you guys are such inspiration for all of us!!!!
ReplyDeleteEvelyn
Our mutual friend Angie sent me the link to your blog. We have been doing Dave's plan for awhile now. The problem is we kept getting sidetracked and not staying disciplined. Reading your blog and watching your video has inspired my husband and I to an entirely new level. I am now learning to do once a month cooking, cutting coupons again, and living like no one else! Thank you for the inspiration and congratulations on being debt free!
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know if each of you will receive my reply to your comments, but I sure hope so! What an honor it is for anyone to call US an inspiration. I had a friend the other day call us, "impressive." I could only think, 'Yeah, impressively STUPID for having gotten in that mess in the first place.' He agreed, but said we were impressive on both ends. At least he acknowledged my point! :)
ReplyDeleteWhen Dave Ramsey asked me how it feels to be debt free, I answered him the way I have many other people who have asked me that same question. As we neared our finish line I THOUGHT I had an idea about how good it would feel. After all, I had been listening to the radio show for 2 years and could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was excited to see the end in sight! But *there*is*no*way* to describe the joy and peace that comes from being officially done. I want to really thank you for your sweet words! Being debt free is worth it, but knowing that our story may help someone else restart their journey, amp the determination up, or maybe even begin to look at their financial status with hope is icing on the cake. (The buttercream variety that Jessica G. makes that I could easily eat for dinner on a regular basis if I had the skill to make. God knew what he was doing by keeping me from that skill-set.)