I decided to go to graduate school. By the time I got out, housing prices were going up and I was stupid enough to take out student loans to go through graduate school (no loans for undergrad) so we were swimming in debt.

Here I sit renting, making too much money to qualify for any sort of first-time homebuyer programs, with five kids (14, 12, 10, 7, 4), expensive rent, and ever increasing grocery prices. And I have the privilege of working a job and a half while attempting to be a good dad and serve in a busy spot in the church.

Most days I can stay fairly optimistic but some days I just feel so frustrated. We are on an extremely tight budget in order to try to save, but it feels like housing prices go up faster than our savings does. We've tried to buy houses in the past, and been able to qualify for a loan but we qualify for so little we would have to move to a rough neighborhood.