Homeless

We lived in Virginia less than a year ago.  So one of my first phone calls while we settled back into the area was to the girls' old elementary school.  I called right away and asked if we could get them back into school.  Their school is critically overcrowded, housing 6 classes per grade and teaching over 50% more students than the building was built to hold.  Do they live within the school boundaries? 

No, I answered honestly.

Then they can not come to school here.  She remembered me, and she was kind.  But she has no space for extra students, even if she did like them.

I kept asking questions, trying to worm my way in.  I was taking up her time and she was getting annoyed.  Then I grasped at the last straw, What if my kids are homeless?

She got quiet, put me on hold for a few minutes, and then told me that I should come in and talk to them.

So, here's the funny thing.  By any definition of the word, we really are homeless.  This truth feels shocking.

I assume that the rules in our home county follow national guidelines.  Here are our guidelines.  We qualify as homeless as long as lack a permanent address.  Lacking a permanent address, we qualify for the local schools as long as our temporary address is within the boundaries of our county.  This could be sleeping on someone's couch, parking our car at the Walmart or living in a hotel.  The last one is us.  If we qualify as homeless within our county, we can then choose to attend either the school nearest our temporary housing or the school our children last attended.

And there we go - I can register my kids at their old school, and they can start as early as next week.  Hallelujah!  Stability found!

Further blessings within this designation - once we register them for school, so are allowed to stop being homeless.  That is, if we find a home within the county but outside of our school's boundary, our kids may remain at our school until the end of the school year. Hallelujah!  Flexibility found!

So, we have answered the school problem, and thank goodness for that.  But, we still have the problem of being homeless.

Today, we are waiting to hear which post we will see next.  At this point, we believe the choice is between three jobs.  One would have us living here for at least the next one and a half years, probably two and a half.  The second would have us here through the school year, living in temporary housing and attending language training until we move to post over the summer.  The third would have us leaving immediately, with no additional training.

Should we stay in a job here, we have to find our own housing, and fast.  We love the idea of staying here, and providing that stability for our kids.  It also gives Dave the option to attend some short-term training classes which we would otherwise not bring our kids in for.  Dave is excited about the job opportunity.  But I'm only excited about coming back home if we are actually coming back to our home neighborhood.  Beginning all over in a new town, a new school and a new neighborhood seems overwhelming to me right now.  I was already working on making new friends and finding a new place.  I have no energy to do that again.

If we stay here, we only want housing in our school district.  This is the decision we reached yesterday.  As far as we can tell, there are 2 houses for rent and 2 houses for sale in our district.  Of these, one is far too small and one is far too expensive and one will change school districts next year.  That leaves us one house, for sale and only just barely affordable.

If Dave gets the language post, we stay in temporary housing for the year.  This isn't all bad - the government pays for temporary housing, and has already found us a 3-bedroom apartment.  This keeps our salary consistent, instead of halving it with rent or mortgage payments.  That is great.  And because of the homeless rules, that housing may be anywhere within our county.  No problem.  The apartment is furnished and serviced with dishes and blankets, so we can take our time replacing all of the things we left behind in Venezuela.  This is good as well.  And we are hearing really good things about the post.  This is great, too.  Of course, its still awfully unstable.  Following this plan, Lilly would be in 5th grade before ever having attending a school for more than one full year.

The third option is to leave right away.  The girls aren't excited about this, and neither are we.  We would keep them out of school until we arrive at post, giving them a dead month or two in the states.  They would have two moves within one school year, and then arrive at a school very different from one they have ever seen.  The school at this option only teaches 60 kids between pre-kindergarten and 8th grade.  Grades are combined and classes are small.  We hear that this is a great way to teach the kids - very similar to a Montessori school, with very individualized learning for every student.  If you've got to lose half of your school year, its probably best to catch up under such conditions.

This post turned into a bit of a rambling mess, which is nice evidence of where my mind is these days. We have a ridiculous number of choices to make immediately, but as of yet have no information for making them.  Decisions range from the very big ones I've described above to even the very small.  We could use a laundry basket in this hotel room, and certainly in our future life.  But do I buy one today at Target?  Or will the new place on Friday already have one?  Sadly, nothing is simple this week.

But even being honestly and flounderingly homeless, we are still in our home community.  We went to our home church on Sunday.  Dave is back in his old office building.  We know this metro system with our eyes closed.  We've got Target and Starbucks and things that make us feel cozy and comfortable when we need something.  We've got friends.  We've got lots of friends offering to help and just to meet up for coffee.  And we've got friends outside of town offering to come in and visit or to donate furniture.  And we've got a countless number of people praying for us and thinking about us.  With the thoughts and prayers of so many supporting us, who can be against us?