I have been thankful many time since this move that government assistance is available to help those in need. The funny thing is that now that we need it more than ever, it's been consistently just beyond our reach since the move. Here's a story for you.
Before we moved here, Jeremy was offered a job at Globe High School, but in order to get that job, he had to pass fingerprint clearnace with the FBI. That is something that usually takes a long time, but at that moment the list was backed up pretty far, and they said it could take up to 8 weeks to process. Well, we hoped for the best, packed up our life, and moved back to our house in Globe. It just so happened, though, that our tenants caused a lot of damage to the house in Globe. And one of our cars broke down on the way here. All of that means money, and at that point we were getting kind of low on money.
After almost 5 weeks, the clearance still hadn't gone through. We were starting to sweat a little, watching our money supply dwindle. I applied for government assistance because I didn't know what else to do. I knew it would be a headache because it always has been, but I bit the bullet and got it done. I turned in a bunch of paperwork, I did my phone interview, I turned in more paperwork, Jeremy and I did an in-office interview, I spent hours on a workbook about how to get a job, I filled out a big stack of forms, and I spent hours trying to get copies of bills and take them in and writing note after note that said, "We're living off savings. Nobody's helping us. It's all running out, dang it!"
In the middle of all that, Jeremy started working at the high school as a volunteer, unable to be paid teaching the classes that would be his when he was hired. But at least he wasn't sitting at home going crazy. This led the DES to think that he had an actual job. We had to write a note saying he was just volunteering and have the school do the same. His fingerprint clearance finally came in on Saturday. He ran down to Tucson with it on Monday and got CTE clearance, and he was officially hired yesterday (with our first payday being still 3 weeks away). I was relieved to hear yesterday that we were approved for all the assistance we applied for and there would be money in our account today. Things were sure looking up.
Well, this morning I checked to see if there was money in our account, and there was not. After calling DES several times and having nobody answer, I finally got somebody, and she said some idiot had put in our records that we're self-employed, so we have to bring in more documents. What the... We're not self-employed! Our income is still a big fat zero! Well, to up this latest misunderstanding we have to come in for an interview or have another phone interview. The phone interview list is long, and my boys are about to come home, so going to the office is out of the question. No doubt they will just ask me to bring in more documents either way.
So here we are two days shy of a month after applying. We still haven't received any assistance at all. The endless stream of proof and documents I have had to provide has given me the impression that they just don't believe us. Because our circumstances are unusual, we have had to provide more proof than the average Joe. And because we don't have a paying job at the moment, they've got to give us more hoops to jump through. I just don't understand it. Don't you think that somebody should see that we're in dire straits and help? It seems like the fact that we're in such need has instead alerted the whole DES world to slow up the process in any way possible. It just seems backwards. Does it seem backwards to anybody else? Or is it just me?
And I know I shouldn't be angry. I am working through it. I know that nobody's out to get us personally, but I feel so beaten down. I also feel like all along I've been greedy and that I need an attitude adjustment. I was so overwhelmed with thankfulness yesterday when I heard we would have money. It was practically in my hands - that deliverance. And then it was snatched away. Maybe that's what's really wrong.
All that being said, please don't think that I am begging for help from any of my readers. We do still have some savings left and money is on the way. My biggest concern right now is that we've got a hefty home repair bill sitting here and an even heftier car repair bill coming up, and right now we can't pay either one. More bills are coming in the mail, and, I'm sorry, but food is going to come first. And we still don't have working lights in the hall or the boys' room or the workshop. But, yeah. I'm not asking for money. I'm just venting. And I know that we will be ok. We always have been. We do what the Lord asks of us, and things always come right somehow.
