I was divorced in 2006. It was a shock and I was devastated. Unfortunately my newly opened business did not make enough money to support my son so I went back to work fulltime. I struggled to juggle both my new business and my new job, but was not able to. I lost the business, and due to the debt, had to file for bankruptcy. 2006 was a financial nightmare for me, as I struggled to make ends meet for me and my son.

During the summer of 2006, in the middle of our financial disaster, my six year old son and I were talking about where we would go if we could take an amazing vacation. He asked me where Disney's Lilo and Stitch lived and, when I told him Hawaii, he asked me if they spoke English in Hawaii. I told him yes and we decided then and there that in the summer of 2007, we were going to go to Hawaii.

I had no idea how I was going to afford it, but I was determined to make it happen. Over the next year I scrimped and saved, used frequent flyer miles from business travel, and sold every single piece of jewelry my ex-husband ever gave me to pay for the trip. And, as you can see by our book, we made it. The entire trip was paid for in cash so we didn't have any credit card debt. We made a lot of sacrifices to make it happen, but it was well worth it! We snorkeled, climbed a volcano, visited Pearl Harbor and even surfed. My son is a natural!

For me the trip symbolized a return to financial security, the adjustment to my new life as a single mom, and the importance of spending one on one time with my son.

I am now a Senior Director of Quality and Data Analytics at a heath care company that I had worked for several years ago. Their senior leadership welcomed me back and offered me a salary that did not penalize me for taking time off to try out my new business. They are an amazing company that encourages a work life balance and rewards their employees well. I anticipate that I will have a long tenure with them.

In hindsight, the benefit our financially difficult year was that it taught us the basics of what we really need to exist. Wyatt and I have become aggressive savers and we look forward to many years of exciting debt-free travel. We have now decided that a special vacation should be a yearly tradition... next year we're off to Mexico!