I found out last night that because I dropped a class (it was either that or take an 'F') as of March 16 I am no longer going to receive child care assistance. Meaning, I have one week left of day care! As far as I can see, I do have a few options. I talked to my day care provider and in order to maintain our current day care schedule it will cost me $50 a week/$200 a month, which really isn't bad considering what most places charge. So, here are the options I can see. 1) I could pay it myself out of the money I saved from my student loans, but then not be able to afford a new place and be homeless as of June 1st. 2) I could send Lilly to live in Des Moines with my parents and visit her on weekends... or 3) I could drop out of school. I am doing everything I can to avoid having to make on of those decisions and see if there is the hope of having anything else available. I was considering reapplying for FIP since child support isn't really happening (haven't received a payment lately and it's not enough to hold out for) but unless I'm a full time student I would also be required to have a job. But on the upside, I would not only be receiving money through Promise Jobs, but they would also pay for child care... I could take an online course and hope that will bump me back up to full time status or put out ten job applications a week and hope that nobody calls me back (and drag Lilly along while I do all that). I decided there was no harm in filling in an application for FIP and talking to somebody about my circumstances and seeing what could be worked out... I know that when I first started receiving FIP awhile back they allowed me to not do the job searches because of my treatment schedule. So I am hoping that my continueing treatment and taking three classes will be enough... or the online class... but if I don't even have enough time to get all the homework done that I currently have and that's why I had to drop one of my classes, how is adding another class to my schedule going to be a good thing? My worker (at the YW) thinks that the fact that I had straight A's last semester will help me make a case... I don't know. I'm just really stressing about this whole thing. How much is one person expected to be able to handle in one lifetime?? I have an appointment with a FIP worker person at 3:00 today, they were able to get me in suprisingly fast... So I guess all I can really do is pray and see what happens with that. I really don't want to have to make the choice between being homeless, sending my daughter to live somewhere else, or dropping out of school...
Dropping out of school is not an option. It's not so much as Lilly living her - it would be you commuting more. You will never ever be homeless, home is where your heart is - no matter how annoyed you are with me!
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