Throughout my entire pregnancy, we have had one short, simple motto. The motto is, “there are no flaws in this plan.”

We use our motto whenever doubt gets the better of us and we start to worry that perhaps we’ve made a mistake. I use it when I start to doubt my ability to be a good mom or my ability to give birth naturally. We use it when I start to question whether now was the right time to start our family, whether it is really wise to do it while we are in Japan. We use it when we are faced with people who doubt us or question our decisions, relating to pregnancy or raising our future child. It is something that I have repeated to myself countless times and that Aaron has said to me just as much. Basically it is our catch-all reassurance, reminding us that we can do this, that we will do this, and that it will go just as smoothly as it ought to, regardless of how much (or little) we worry. Or how ready (or not) that we are.

Just last week we were reassured, again, that our motto is in fact correct. Despite the fact that my contract with work clearly states that my pre- and post-natal leave is unpaid, they have decided that this is unfair and unreasonable and they would like to pay me for the 14 weeks that I am given.  Now, instead of living off of just one salary as we had both expected and prepared to do, we will be living off close to two. My work will be paying me for 14 weeks at 67%.

Even though we had anticipated the loss of income, it is obvious that this is quite the generous gift that we are being given. It frees us up a little more, gives us one less thing to worry about, and the opportunity to stash even more money away in our “rainy-day” fund. (Which is otherwise known as the down-payment fund, the we are moving back to the U.S. during an economic crisis fund, the use it for what you need it fund). I can’t even begin to explain or describe how thankful I am and how genuinely surprised I am at the generosity of the Japanese. Never in America can I imagine that something like this would happen.

This unexpected turn of events has shown us once more that there are, in fact, no flaws with this plan and that everything seems to be going just our way. And to me, that’s perfect!