New Perspective

So, for those of you who know us, which you better if you are reading this, you know that we have worked very hard to get where we are. Our first 3.5 years of marriage were spent in Utah where I worked 40 hour weeks while going to school. Adam worked two jobs, volunteered, did breast cancer research, and went to school. Those jobs carried us through our undergrad at BYU. We made it out of BYU with two college degrees, two paid off cars, absolutely no debt, and a baby on the way. Now, Adam is in medical school! We have a son who's almost 6 months old! Life is amazing!

Is it life on the streets? Nope.

I thought you had to live on the streets and be really poor and have no direction in life in order to be on government programs such as WIC and Medi-Cal.

Yes, we saved our money and counted our pennies when we were at BYU, but our savings could not even cover the amount of one year of medical school tuition and simple living expenses....let alone the 4 years we will have.

So, Wesley gets free checkups, his delivery was pretty much covered, and WIC gives pregnant and nursing moms checks to help out with certain food such as milk, eggs, cheese, whole grains, and peanut butter.

Today was the first appointment that they gave me some checks for Wesley and I realized how truly blessed we are. I got 15 jars of meat, 20 of fruits and veggies, and an 8oz box of cereal! Throughout the month I will end up with a total of 60 (4 oz-stage 2) jars of f&v, 31 of meat, 24 oz of cereal, and 4 bananas. That's just for one month for Wesley! I have the same checks for the next 3 months. They are probably figuring he won't like some of the things I give him, so they plan for extra. (Or maybe some babies eat this much food! Wes has only had a total of 4 little jars of baby food and some rice cereal, so I don't know how much most people go through)

Am I ashamed to be on WIC? Nope. I feel like we are in the perfect position to receive help considering the fact that Adam is in school to be a doctor and cannot work. If I were to work outside the home, that money would go towards paying a babysitter, so I might as well stay home and enjoy watching my sweet baby grow and giggle!

I know we'll give back to the community in the future, and we will always be frugal with our money because that's just who we are. I am SO greatful that these programs exist for people like us. Without it, we'd be paying for this food with loan money that we have to pay back with 7% interest over four years...meaning on top of the value of the food we probably would have to pay an extra $10.