As some of you may know, I was "fortunate" enough to be laid off just in time to fill out and mail a financial aid application for Jordan's school. This "simple" form took me probably close to three hours to fill out and gather and copy papers for. But the most troublesome aspect of the form was it focused almost solely on 2008. If my 2009 was like my 2008, I would not be applying for financial aid. We have paid for day care for over five years; we would not have had any trouble paying for tuition.
But now we are down about 50 percent of our income, I have to pay for health insurance, and I no longer have a medical allowance that pays for dental, eye, and co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions. So as it currently stands, we will have to pay for tuition out of savings. Savings that we could very well and probably will need for any number of expenses.
Concerned about this, I emailed the company who handles the financial aid, only to discover that they simply gather the info you send and submit a report to the school. I next contacted the school, which gave me an email for someone in the diocese. I explained my situation to this person, and let him know if I found a job with similar pay and benefits, and if I received financial aid, I would give additional money to the church. I certainly do not want aid if I end up not needing it.
And here is the one-sentence response I received from this person:
Does this mean I will be receiving some aid, and then come the fall, if I don't have a job, I should contact him to receive more aid? Most likely, even with the word "additional," he probably meant that I should wait until the fall to see if I still need aid, and then contact him. Never mind that the monthly payments begin this summer.
I am hesitant to email him back, since he said to contact him in the fall. So I guess I will just wait to see if I end up getting aid, which will supposedly happen in June. But the pessimist in me assumes that we, who have saved for years, will end up with no aid. And some other family, who takes nice vacations every year and who never denies their kids anything, will end up getting aid, because they have not bothered to save. Isn't that often the way it is?
Perhaps this is the sign from God I have been looking for. He just may be trying to tell me to give up being a stay at home mother for a few months, because it is only to cost us in the long run. Sigh.
But now we are down about 50 percent of our income, I have to pay for health insurance, and I no longer have a medical allowance that pays for dental, eye, and co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions. So as it currently stands, we will have to pay for tuition out of savings. Savings that we could very well and probably will need for any number of expenses.
Concerned about this, I emailed the company who handles the financial aid, only to discover that they simply gather the info you send and submit a report to the school. I next contacted the school, which gave me an email for someone in the diocese. I explained my situation to this person, and let him know if I found a job with similar pay and benefits, and if I received financial aid, I would give additional money to the church. I certainly do not want aid if I end up not needing it.
And here is the one-sentence response I received from this person:
Please contact me in the fall concerning additional aid.
Does this mean I will be receiving some aid, and then come the fall, if I don't have a job, I should contact him to receive more aid? Most likely, even with the word "additional," he probably meant that I should wait until the fall to see if I still need aid, and then contact him. Never mind that the monthly payments begin this summer.
I am hesitant to email him back, since he said to contact him in the fall. So I guess I will just wait to see if I end up getting aid, which will supposedly happen in June. But the pessimist in me assumes that we, who have saved for years, will end up with no aid. And some other family, who takes nice vacations every year and who never denies their kids anything, will end up getting aid, because they have not bothered to save. Isn't that often the way it is?
Perhaps this is the sign from God I have been looking for. He just may be trying to tell me to give up being a stay at home mother for a few months, because it is only to cost us in the long run. Sigh.
Comments
I finally responded to your comment on my little campaign blog. ;) I suck, I know.
When I visited the school in February, I asked the principal what would happen if I were laid off past the financial aid app due date (meaning I would not have applied for it), and she said that all the money might be doled out by then. So I am hopeful this means that is not the case.
It could be worse. The mother of one of Jordan's friends is going through a similar thing. But her first payment (different school) is due in June, before she will even find out if she gets aid. And she will be able to send her daughter only if she gets aid. That is crazy!