I am so thankful for my sister.  Mom told her about the IUD issues, and she called me tonight.  Apparently she'd been doing a bunch of research and she found a NC state-sponsored program that assists in family planning for any family that falls at 185% of the poverty line or below.  for those of you not familiar, the poverty line starts at a base of $10,400 annual income for one person and increases by $3600 for each additional family member.  For Newmommy, Newbaby, and I, the 100% level is 17,600/year, and the 185% is $32,560/year.  We fall well within that guideline.  their website says they may assist with our past bills for up to three months previously- kind of like medicaid.  Hopefully that maybe gets turned in to a definitely.  Sister also told me most states actually have family health programs for us poor folk that fall over medicaid maximums, but that they are extremely well-hidden, so I'll be searching for those.  In the meantime, Newbaby is covered at least for the next year, and it looks like Nemommy's OB bills will be taken care of for the same period.  That leaves me still completely uninsured, and Newmommy not very well covered, but it's a start, and certainly better than a sharp stick in the eye.

In other news, does anyone have advice on disputing medical bills? We received a bill in May for some bloodwork Newmommy had done back in October.  This was outside of Medicaid's 90 day limit, so we've been trying to work with the lab and see what can be done- so far we've determined that they have no payment plan, no forgiveness plan, and apparently low levels of patience.  Should we just refuse to pay due to improper billing practices, or is there another way to go about it?  $2300 for a glucose test sounds like pricegouging to say the least.

Newbaby was dedicated during church yesterday. For those not familiar with the process, it's often likened to Catholic Baptism. Basically, Newmommy and I carried him to the pulpit at the beginning of the service, accompanied by his godmommy, the Pastor said a few words on how Baptism is a sacrament better saved for when a child can make his/her own decisions about faith, and that Dedication is Newmommy and I promising to raise our child as a Christian, he blessed Newbaby, and an older lady of the congregation gave us a rose to symbolize the congregation's pledge of support. The whole thing took about 5-10 minutes, then the service continued like any normal service at that church. In short, with the exception of those close to our family, it could be viewed as "Nothing Special." In fact, even some of those close seemed to treat it as such.

My in-laws are a heavily liturgical bunch- Catholics, Lutherans, and Congregationlists to the last drop- and have all been baptized during their second or third month of life. When we crazy protestants first mentioned the Dedication, they had all kinds of questions- Does he need a Christening gown?(ew, no.) Should we send out invitations?(If you like...) Do we have a party afterwards?(does Mexican for lunch count?) Is it the same thing as baptism?(No.) This all culminated to Newmommy's godmother sending a congratulations card because she couldn't find one that said "Dedication" on it (My mother had no difficulty doing so, but that's a story for another time). She, like most of Newmommy's extended family, was congenial and genteel about this little fact, found the most appropriate card she could, and wrote her own little note in- I think there was a gift involved, too, but I don't remember what it was. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, decided congenial made no sense when Snide was an option. In her I'm-pretending-to-joke-but-am-actually-serious voice, she said "I don't think this is a real thing." I was rather frustrated, and really wanted to bust out my Bible- it's a seminary student's prerogative, after all- and show her that no where does it discuss baptism of anyone under the age of 30, let alone below the age of accountability. On the contrary, Jesus Himself was "consecrated" when he was 41 days old (Luke 2:22-23, Leviticus 12:3-4) and not Baptized till He was around 30( Luke 3:21-22, among others). Lo and behold, Newbaby was exactly 41 days old (he's 6 weeks today) at his dedication, almost as though we were following Biblical standards!

I talked it over with my dad, who was raised Catholic yet had each of us dedicated in various Protestant Churches, and he said his family was a little confused, but they just went with it, and were supportive. After giving myself some time to breathe- aided by the in-laws' early exit- I decided it wasn't worth it to fight over something that the other party isn't even capable of understanding. Still, it got me thinking; why do people go through religious ceremonies? My in-laws certainly didn't raise my wife explicitly Christian, she didn't accept Christ until she was 19, and the Jury's still out on her brother. Yet they insisted on baptizing them, sending them through confirmation, and were appalled when she and I wanted to get married by a Justice of the Peace and postpone the "real" ceremony till later (we ended up not doing this) because it wasn't a real wedding unless it was held in a church- preferably one built prior to the Civil War. They don't espouse Christian morals, yet her father was a Deacon at the church. Christianity seems more like a social network or something done to keep up appearances for them.

On the other end of the spectrum are my parents, who got married at a courthouse for starters. We left a church when I was younger, even though they wanted dad to become an elder, because my parents didn't feel that it was a Christian atmosphere anymore. They supported Newmommy and I when we decided to get married, regardless of where we did it. And above all, they tried to instill good morals in us- morals that dictated we never went to church, joined a Bible Study, attended Christian functions, or whatever, for networking purposes, or for any form of selfish gain. When we were dedicated, it's because my parents wanted to raise us as Christian, when Newmommy was baptized, it's because it was the proper thing to do.

Why do you do your "Church stuff?"