The last few days have been pretty eventful, unfortunately not in a good way. Heather was let go from her job on Thursday. This, as you can imagine, has made things pretty stressful considering that Heather has been our family’s primary “breadwinner” for the last year and a half or so. Making matters even worse is that Heather’s job supplied our family’s insurance which has been so incredibly important for Maddie’s well being.

When Heather was admitted to the hospital with premature rupture of the membranes a month before Maddie’s birth, it was this insurance that paid for her stay. Considering that Maddie was born eleven weeks premature, and that we were told many times in the days after her birth that she would likely die, this stay was likely a big reason Maddie survived. Every last minute the doctors and nurses were able to help Heather keep Maddie inside was crucial to her survival.

It was also this insurance that enabled Maddie to stay 68 days in the NICU where a whole other crew of amazing nurses and doctors worked their magic to help her get better.

Later, when Maddie was hospitaled for a couple long stretches with bronchialitis, this insurance paid for her time there.

It was also this insurance which has helped us shoulder the brunt of the cost of Maddie’s many medicines and doctor’s visits.

Now it is gone.

There are options, thankfully. There is Cobra insurance offered by the government in this type of sitution, and, despite being expensive, we will more than likely use it for Maddie. Another good thing is that for the last six weeks or so I have been doing copywriting work from home. The length of the copywriting gig is indefinite, nevertheless we’re hopeful it will continue for a good stretch as we try to figure out what we will do next.

One silver lining in all of this is that Heather will get to spend more time at home with Maddie. Heather’s maternity leave was used up when Maddie was in the NICU, so when Maddie finally came home Heather only had a few days with her before she had to go back to work. So, this will be the first time Heather will be able to spend longer than six consecutive days at home with Maddie. I look forward to seeing the two of them bond even more than they already have.

Looks like they already have started: