Reinventing the Wheel for over Ten Years
Hey.
A personal post, this.
Jonathan is in at:
UWashington-Seattle
USC (the west coast one)
UMich
Tufts
He is in the honors college at:
UMich
Woot!
We are still waiting to hear about two other honors college admissions.
And we've heard very little about financial aid.
grr.
In regards to which:
I am told that the actual gummint policy is that each person in a family living at poverty level needs 14,000 and change. I f a family is serious about edjewkayshun they should live at the poverty level in order to put junior through. So anything you make above $14K x number of family members should all go to education. Hmmm. Not a totally realistic policy, number one. That this would mean that, say, a family of four would be below poverty level if they make less than $56K/yr., which also seems...wrong...yet...
Anyhoo, the oh-fish-ul parent's financial contribution expected of me and Dawn is breathtaking.
Let me be clear. This is, insofar as it's a personal psychological/spiritual issue, about being content with much, and the consequences of that. We have certainly been content with little: I found our first tax return as a couple, and we together made like $13,000 our newlywed year. That be livin' on luv. But God, who was good to us then, has continued to be so, and we are, as they used to say of the Quakers, not only doing good but also doing well.
So in no way are we persecuted or falling apart. However, everyone's challenges are their own. Imagine Bill and Melinda Gates trying to raise normal children. May I never whine.
Yet, we are faced with starkish realities, even if we have the wherewithal to take advantage of them.
Hence, we are moving toward trying to sell the BabySwiss. The recommended asking price according to the realtors is ludicrously high in terms of what housing should, in my humble opinion, cost. But by the time we pay off our mortgage, get out of other kinds of debt, get in another place to live, and do our part to help Jonathan in school...the enormous maw of demands on us has consumed the absurdly high markup on the house. So, financially, a no-brainer. Particularly since my consulting income from Baptist sources looks like it's coming to an ignominious, whimpering end, and none of my philosophy job applications has elicited so much as an interview.
Nateurlich, the burden of this tends to gravitate towards Dawn, who has a real job, and would like to have less of it, but feels under the gun to have more of it. All the more so as it seems the time for her mom to move down from Kentucky and move in with us is approaching with all deliberate speed.
Sooooo...upshot? No gun at our head yet, so we can ask for and wait for our price for a while. But oh my, not what I wanted Jonathan's parents to be dealing with his senior spring.
Those who pray might put the Iraq situation and the ongoing shame of Katrina non-recovery and such like well ahead of me and Dawn. But should you make it down the list and still have some time, throw a thought or two heavenward in re:
Steven's final charge towards graduation
my job applications (esp. here in town at SMU, UD, and Eastfield)
my relationships among the Baptists
the possibility of regularizing some of my informal groups
Dawn's mom's evolving situation
the right place for us to live: either the resources to stay here, or a place convenient for Dawn, pleasant for Beth, safe for Dawn's mom, and affordable in a way that frees us up considerably
Jonathan's honors college admits
his financial aid
his final decision
Dawn and my relationship amidst the sturm und drang of all this
that God would exercise sufficient ingenuity to gain some glory out of this morass of middle-class lifestyle epilepsy
that somehow Dawn and I could see clearly God's direction for us as it emerges from these changes
candidly,
mark
A personal post, this.
Jonathan is in at:
UWashington-Seattle
USC (the west coast one)
UMich
Tufts
He is in the honors college at:
UMich
Woot!
We are still waiting to hear about two other honors college admissions.
And we've heard very little about financial aid.
grr.
In regards to which:
I am told that the actual gummint policy is that each person in a family living at poverty level needs 14,000 and change. I f a family is serious about edjewkayshun they should live at the poverty level in order to put junior through. So anything you make above $14K x number of family members should all go to education. Hmmm. Not a totally realistic policy, number one. That this would mean that, say, a family of four would be below poverty level if they make less than $56K/yr., which also seems...wrong...yet...
Anyhoo, the oh-fish-ul parent's financial contribution expected of me and Dawn is breathtaking.
Let me be clear. This is, insofar as it's a personal psychological/spiritual issue, about being content with much, and the consequences of that. We have certainly been content with little: I found our first tax return as a couple, and we together made like $13,000 our newlywed year. That be livin' on luv. But God, who was good to us then, has continued to be so, and we are, as they used to say of the Quakers, not only doing good but also doing well.
So in no way are we persecuted or falling apart. However, everyone's challenges are their own. Imagine Bill and Melinda Gates trying to raise normal children. May I never whine.
Yet, we are faced with starkish realities, even if we have the wherewithal to take advantage of them.
Hence, we are moving toward trying to sell the BabySwiss. The recommended asking price according to the realtors is ludicrously high in terms of what housing should, in my humble opinion, cost. But by the time we pay off our mortgage, get out of other kinds of debt, get in another place to live, and do our part to help Jonathan in school...the enormous maw of demands on us has consumed the absurdly high markup on the house. So, financially, a no-brainer. Particularly since my consulting income from Baptist sources looks like it's coming to an ignominious, whimpering end, and none of my philosophy job applications has elicited so much as an interview.
Nateurlich, the burden of this tends to gravitate towards Dawn, who has a real job, and would like to have less of it, but feels under the gun to have more of it. All the more so as it seems the time for her mom to move down from Kentucky and move in with us is approaching with all deliberate speed.
Sooooo...upshot? No gun at our head yet, so we can ask for and wait for our price for a while. But oh my, not what I wanted Jonathan's parents to be dealing with his senior spring.
Those who pray might put the Iraq situation and the ongoing shame of Katrina non-recovery and such like well ahead of me and Dawn. But should you make it down the list and still have some time, throw a thought or two heavenward in re:
Steven's final charge towards graduation
my job applications (esp. here in town at SMU, UD, and Eastfield)
my relationships among the Baptists
the possibility of regularizing some of my informal groups
Dawn's mom's evolving situation
the right place for us to live: either the resources to stay here, or a place convenient for Dawn, pleasant for Beth, safe for Dawn's mom, and affordable in a way that frees us up considerably
Jonathan's honors college admits
his financial aid
his final decision
Dawn and my relationship amidst the sturm und drang of all this
that God would exercise sufficient ingenuity to gain some glory out of this morass of middle-class lifestyle epilepsy
that somehow Dawn and I could see clearly God's direction for us as it emerges from these changes
candidly,
mark
posted by Mark at 10:32 PM
3 Comments:
hmm...both comforting and not to see that people older and wiser than me still face existential crisises (crises? crisii? plural of crisis). you guys will definitely be in my thoughts and prayers, and if you get past the world's issues, stick me in yours too as i figure out summer and new fall as couple type situations. i will also be keeping fingers crossed for jonathan to get some mad awesome merit scholarships, which i assume will be announced in april?
how i wish i was in dallas for holy week and hard labor!
wish you were, too. the less-controversial tuesday went well this evening. and amidst it all, only 11 weeks til the Ruben and the Naseem return to Dallas...which would make it 12 wks and change til you guys do weddingy things.
wish you were, too. the less-controversial tuesday went well this evening. and amidst it all, only 11 weeks til the Ruben and the Naseem return to Dallas...which would make it 12 wks and change til you guys do weddingy things.
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