Piggybacking on this entry.

Yesterday was our appointment to go back to the local ward office and speak with our case worker for the first time... Or so we thought.

Actually, I had been sick for a couple of days, so I stayed home with Ryu (feeling better now, thanks.). Ai ended up having to go on her own, but she said that she was ready to work through things with them to ensure that we would be able to get support.

I know that she can often go into "flip-out mode" as I call it, when things aren't going the way she expects in an important situation, so I asked her before she left to just try and stay calm.

She said that she would and went on her way a bit after 9am.

She made it back just before noon and was very...

Once she started telling me what happened there, I could see exactly what her issue was to start with.

As noted in the previous entry, she really didn't like the inspector that came to our place and told her that Ryu needed to go into daycare regardless of the fact that I was not yet working.

Apparently, once she arrived at the office, this woman was waiting to meet her. At first, she assumed that she wanted to speak with her before going to the case worker, but she was then informed that, the inspector WAS our case worker.

Once again, she went to work on her about the daycare thing and she tried explaining that, although we would receive some assistance on daycare payment, we would still be losing money each month paying for daycare while I would just be at home the majority of the time. It's obviously unacceptable as we have been selling things just to get by and that is not something we can do indefinitely.

Not only would that be a problem, but Ai's job is not a Monday through Friday job, but covered daycare is weekdays only. We can have them watch him on weekends, but would have to pay more. So basically, I would have to search only for M-F jobs unless we want to put even more into it and lose even more time with our son!

Our wonderful case worker then informed her that, she needed to at least apply for the daycare today (yesterday), in order for her to process everything.

Ai decided that, OK, she has to go down there, but knowing that the daycare centers in our immediate area are full right now anyway, she just put those two down as her choices expecting to be rejected and buy some time.

While there, she spoke with the woman that runs that daycare program, and was informed that, she didn't have the paperwork necessary yet. When asked what she needed, she was told she needed proof that both of us were working. Of course, as stated, many, many times, I am not working and she let her know that.

Ai was told that, if we did not submit proof of my employment within 40 days of being accepted into a daycare program, he would be kicked out unless we chose to pay 100% of the fee.

Of course, by this point Ai was fuming, because the main reason we need support right now is because I am not working. The case worker was there and basically told her the same thing everyone else has - that I should "try harder".

Apparently, the fact that I have applied to every single job opening that has come open within a 2 hour train ride means nothing.
The fact that I have applied even for jobs I didn't meet the base qualifications on simply in the hopes that I could get an interview to show them what kind of person I am doesn't mean anything.
The fact that I woke up early in the morning and spent money we could have put to better use simply to visit their own employment counselor who told me that no jobs were available for me means nothing.
I have simply not been trying to find a job.

Ai said that she held it in pretty well after that, but that she really wanted to scream at her. Instead, she just stopped talking for awhile and listened to her drone on and on about how the situation is our fault.

So yeah, pretty thrilled to have a case worker like her going to bat for us.

It seems that, when the daycare manager was filing the paperwork, she asked our case worker if we were approved for support yet, and the case worker said it's "95% approved", but she was not sure yet.

So yeah, we could still be going through all of this for nothing and our case worker is, for lack of a better word, a complete bitch.