Our entire family lives here and they are the biggest form of support we have. Without them we'd be a shambles so moving isn't really an option. Both sets of grandparents have made monumental efforts to help us. A weak example but it is one...

Today is my 33rd birthday and my wife and I usually go out on a date about 2 times a year. We didn't do a single thing on our anniversary in June (had a lot of really stressful things going on) which is putting as happily at the 12 year mark (married since we were 20). So tonight we really want to go out somewhere and my parents are going to watch the kids. My mom is not intimidated at all by watching Katie and they are willing to 'vent' her and everything. My parents have totally embraced Katie and her condition (so have Deanna's) and so we actually have trusted child care. Of course they also have an entire manual (my wife typed up about a 14 page long guide) for caring for Katie and "What to do if..." which has doctors phone numbers, etc...

So tonight we are going out for the 2nd time this year (last time was in March) and just she and I will go eat somewhere. Usually we only have enough time to eat and relax and then we go pick up the kids and head home. I cannot imagine being able to do that in NYC.

Another problem is that if we sold our house right now we'd take somewhere around a $40,000 to a $60,000 loss before paying agent commission. The market tanked here and there's a huge saturation of homes. They've placed a moritorium on builders and no new homes can be built. However, houses still appraise really high. We are hoping/trying to get an appraisal on our home high enough to fold a lot of our debt into it. We know that's stupid but it sure would take so much stress off of us. Buying groceries on an American Express is really getting hard.

...uhhhh where was I...

Yeah, so the other problem is that Katie was born when I was a Junior in Computer Science at Boise State University. I had to drop out. So I don't have a degree and in the U.S. Job Market that puts me at the bottom of the barrel. The last job offer I got for a bona fide position was $15.00 an hour. Even though I worked at Micron for $64,000 a year. The job market here for tech labor is horrible. Especially since Micron just laid off the rest of their IT department and outsourced all of it.

Plus... if we didn't have the medical/related debt from being laid off, losing a home and being medically uninsured the income I make is pretty good. We could have a very comfortable life (not wealthy but I could just work 40 hours a week and we'd be fine).

So ... I just spilled my financial guts and now I feel kind of sick to my stomach. Ugh!!! This has been a very hard thing to go public about but people really do have a right to know if they are going to give. I have to be transparent to not look like a scammer. If I was my stories all over the internet wouldn't match up *BUT* they DO!!!

Happy Birthday To Me; I'm Turning 33.