There have been a lot of people lately that have said to me, "I don't know how you do it. You're husband is gone so much and you're by yourself with your kids. I couldn't do it and I don't know how you do it". It made me start to really think about the lifestyle that we have with Jordan being a professional basketball player. I'll be honest, it's not easy. It flat out just sucks to have him gone as much as he is. Especially right now. He's been gone for 21 days now and won't be home for 5 more. It plain sucks. We miss him. I miss him. The kids miss him. Skype just doesn't cut it. We have much more fun when he's here with us.
But you know what? As much as he's gone, he's home way more than any other husband is during the day I'm sure (well i think), and that's what's important to us. Sure he travels a lot, but he only has 2 hrs of practice a day and the rest of the day.....he gets to spend it with us. His being gone during the season is still less than him being gone if he had a 9-5 job all year. I absolutely LOVE that we get to wake up together in the morning every day, he's here when the kids wake up every day, we get to go to the gym together every day, eat lunch together, run errands together, make dinner together, put the kids to bed together, and go to bed together. All the time that we get to spend together is why we love it.
Even though we aren't raking in the money, we don't struggle. Sure I see things that I would like to have, that I would like to get my kids, or Jordan and we don't get them, but that's ok. Jordan sent me an email the other day and he said this in it "I know that I could easily do other jobs right now to make more money but I also know that it would take me away from the every day life that I love." When I read that, I thought to myself, "wow we are totally on the same page!". But you know what? It's true. He could easily go out and find a job/career away from basketball (although he wants to coach when he's done so it probably wouldn't be away from basketball) and make more money, we could buy a house, buy a new car....but non of that stuff matters. I see people all the time buying houses, getting new cars, going on vacations all the time and just buying new things all the time. Of course I would love to be able to do that, and sometimes I even think to myself "Geeze i wish we had more money", but then I remember what we do have. Playing in the D-League is great and gets him more exposure and is definitely the closest thing to the NBA, but it definitely doesn't pay that great. Sure we have to miss out on some things and sacrafice, but I'm proud to say that we have never ever been in debt in our almost 5 years of marriage. We don't struggle, but we don't have excess money and I'm ok with that.
When we were dating and when we were talking about getting married, I remember having a conversation with Jordan in my Jeep about what his plans were for his life. He told me, and I remember exactly his words "I will play professional basketball". I thought "Great! That's awesome!"and i was totally supportive of it. I love basketball and played it all growing up and into college, so I was happy to keep it a part of my life. At that time I had never seen Jordan play basketball, but I knew he was a realistic person. I still haden't seen him play when we got married and saw him play for the first time after we were married when his Junior season started. Basketball is definitely not a secure job. At any time you could get cut, traded, injured, etc., but it's what Jordan loves and that's what's important. There are so many people who don't like their jobs and Jordan absolutely loves his! We've been lucky enough to spend the last 2 seasons at home with family, but I know it won't always be like that. We had our little stint in Luxembourg which was awesome and we would love to go back overseas. There's much better money overseas, but you just never know what the future will be like.
Wyatt loves basketball and absolutely LOVES going to Jordan's games! He gets so excited when he knows Jordan has a game and he loved the Flash Fox! I worked with him when I did marketing at UV when he was the Wolverine, so we know each other and he always would find Wyatt at games and play with him. Jordan's team loved Wyatt and Chamberlain too. They would always play with them and even see who could get Wyatt to go to first after a game or at an event or after a practice. They liked to play with Chamberlain too even though he was still small and didn't interact as much. Those things are so fun for me to see. My kids happy. My husband happy. I'm happy.
It really bothers me when people are like "That's cool that he plays basketball, but what's he going to do when it's time to get a real job?" Or they act like basketball isn't a real job. Basketball is just as much of a job as anything else. He gets paid, and does physical work and just because he's not sitting at a desk, doesn't mean it isn't a real job. Or there's people that are like "Ok well he hasn't made it to the NBA so he should move on, go to the next phase of your life". Unless your LeBron James, or Kevin Durrant, or some nationally known player in college, your not going to get right to the NBA. There's so many people that have been in the NBA for years that play in the D-league or that are playing overseas. Sure the NBA is the ultimate goal, but it's not like his career is going to be a failure if he doesn't make it there. Basketball is Jordan's life, his love and his job and as long as he's healthy and can keep playing, he's going to, whether it's in the D-league, overseas or in the NBA. As long as he can provide for our family he will keep playing. He's not going to run this dream into the ground and keep playing when it's not providing for us and we're starving and can't pay bills. But as long as he can play, he's going to play. And we will be supportive.
Well, this turned into something I wasn't meaning it to be. I kinda starting ranting and going on and on, but it's how I feel and I think it's important for people to know that. So even though it sucks to have him gone a lot and have a job that is never secure, we love it. And we are happy to support him. It's not easy a lot of the time, but we wouldn't trade it for any other job.
After one of Jordan's game this past season
5 comments:
i think thats awesome and good for jordan. it may not always be ideal but what is. usually not much. love you!!
I loved this! I liked reading it, too! You're great & I'm happy for ya'll! & it's pretty sweet having a professional bball player for a cousin, hah but really, I think it's great that he loves it so much. This is really helpful with Weston deciding which path to take his career, I'll have to have him read this, the career he wants is physical and not so lucrative, but he's torn on whether to have an extremely comfortable lifestyle job, or something he loves...I keep trying to convince him that it's better for him to be happy in his career! I'm showing this to him when he gets home from work tonight!
I read the whole thing. I think it's much more important to have a happy husband WHO IS MOTIVATED WITH HIS JOB than a husband who doesn't care and comes home mad or depressed every day. I always say, I could never be a doctors wife or a military wife - that's just ME, but it works for other people and that's great cause guess what we need doctors and soldiers and basketball players too :)
Burgess is a filmmaker. HELLO! Talk about an unreliable career choice! People think he is crazy and people think I am crazy for supporting him. But he LOVES it. When we were getting married we prayed a lot about the decision and one day this overwhelming feeling came over me and I felt the spirit say, "what else would he do? Amy, this is what he was made to do." I knew it was true. We may not ever be rich and I may end up living in this apartment for the rest of my life BUT I will know that this is what God had in store for my husband.
With that said, I think you nailed it when you said that of course he wouldn't keep playing basketball if he couldn't put food on the table and that's the same with Burg. I think you have a good man and I think you are awesome for supporting him and realizing what is most important in life (it's not money). Good for you and good luck with whatever the future holds for you guys!
I think you guys are awesome! Good for both of you and I completely agree about doing something you love, or having your husband do something he loves, it makes such a huge difference for the family. Good luck with everything!
You and Jordan are such a great couple and so supportive to one another. Jordan is one of those lucky people that has an amazing talent and passion! Some people don't understand... just let them be dumb!
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