Our own medical bills are still in limbo. The hospital required I apply for assistance through an organization, and that is supposed to be resolved soon (-ish LOL). But we’ll wind up likely paying for a chunk of it. And in the mean while, we’ve had to keep up with paying for our other medical expenses and dental now that we can only afford catastrophic insurance. We are more focused on making sure housing is settled before our foreclosure/eviction situation that looms large in the distance there. I’ll give an update when I hear anything definitive. For right now, I try not to stress about it. Easier said than done.

If anything, both of these situations have caused our family to really tighten down on the budget, and on spending (more than before) and get serious about minding our pennies so that our dollars will take care of themselves.

We’ve arrived into the camp of looming medical bills about as big as the ones you had and it’s really been hard not to panic over it, at least for me. I have worked really hard at pinching the pennies when we had an income and a sliver of wiggle room where you could see those pennies turn into dollars over time, but now it has felt hopeless because the bills are so big and our income so small. I can see now why people fall into the way of thinking that $1 is not enough here or there to pay bills like this.

That said, as I’ve tried to think of ways to pay them (how did you pay for them, by the way? That would be an interesting blog post to read too . . . ), sometimes I’ve felt discouraged because we need money immediately, and a lot of it, and many solid ways to earning money take time. But I asked myself the same thing you were talking about here – even if I can’t pay it today, where do I want to be a year from now? What about two, when my husband graduates from law school and then we have loans to start paying as well? Thinking long term has helped me to make the shorter term moves to get there.

I read your book on living frually and really enjoyed it. I learned new lessons and remembered old ones. Thanks so much for reminding me what is REALLY important. Jesus is so good and I need to keep that at the forefront of my mind every day! Thank you again!
Karen Messick