Plan C: Make Lemonade

Plan C: Make Lemonade

“C” for Creativity.
Creativity isn’t just for making art projects. Creativity is for making life better—no matter your circumstances.

As a child, I always wanted to be a mother when I grew up. That was Plan A. Several influences shaped that desire. My religious beliefs played a large role, as did my upbringing—my own mother was a homemaker who raised eight children. I loved growing up in a big family. The idea of a traditional career never really appealed to me, and for a long time, I didn’t imagine another path.

That vision didn’t change much as I got older, though my interests broadened and my understanding of what a “career” could be slowly expanded. After I married, I was fully prepared to put my education on hold for what I believed to be a higher and nobler calling: motherhood. But life didn’t unfold the way my husband and I had planned.

So I moved on to Plan B. I continued my education. I told the Lord in prayer that I was willing to quit school if motherhood came—but perhaps He wanted me to finish my degree first. A few years later, I graduated. I told the Lord I was ready now. Still, no children came.

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When There Is No Plan C

As I struggled to understand why my heart’s deepest desire was being denied, I began asking difficult questions: What did God want me to do instead? What did I want to do with my life? That was when I realized something painful—I hadn’t prepared a contingency. I had no Plan C. The possibility that Plan A might never happen was something I had never allowed myself to consider.

Practical thinking said, get a job. But I already had two part-time ones: teaching positions and a handful of private art students. I was using my fine art degree, technically. The deeper issue was that I had always viewed work as temporary—something that would exist alongside motherhood, not instead of it.

Facing the reality of Plan C after graduation was emotionally devastating. I hid that struggle from most of the people in my life, which only deepened my isolation.

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Creativity as Survival

What ultimately rescued me from despair was a quiet but powerful realization: I had been given an opportunity.

Instead of focusing on everything I could not change, I needed to focus on what I could do. There were many things my friends with small children couldn’t easily pursue. I had time, energy, and creative training. I had majored in fine art—entirely impractical, I know—so now I would have to get creative with my creativity.

Rather than dwelling on what I didn’t have, I started asking myself a new question: What else do I want? What were the dreams I had always deferred to “someday”?

Publishing a book was one of them.

So, in need of a Plan C, I decided to find out whether this might be someday.

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Making Lemonade

Life is rarely what we expect it to be. But there are always possibilities that can bring joy. As Maria says in The Sound of Music, “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.”

God does not always give us what we want—even when the desire is righteous. But He has given us a portion of His creative power. Sometimes that means learning to reimagine our lives when circumstances refuse to bend.

Our greatest disappointments may turn out to be unexpected opportunities—paths we never would have chosen, but ones that shape us nonetheless.

Instead of being a mother, I have two dogs, a Bachelor’s degree in fine art, and I am writing a novel. I never would have planned my life this way, but I am happy. And the next time life hands me lemons, I already have a recipe for lemonade.

The key is creativity.

How have you made lemonade out of life’s lemons? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.