For ALL who choose to judge.

For all of you who have an opinion about those on welfare or long term unemployment.  You are welcome to your opinion, but before you go spouting it off, think about a few things.

Do you know someone in this situation?
Do you talk to them?
Do you have any idea what they do on a daily basis?
Do you know the stress they have to deal with?
Do you know what self esteem issues they are faced with because of the situation?
Do you really KNOW the situation?

Do you know your words hurt?
Do you really have the right to judge?

I am astounded at the lack of consideration some people have.  Skyler has been unemployed for over a year now at no fault of his own.  He has worked tirelessly at looking for jobs, filling out applications, adjusting his resume to fit those applications, writing cover letters, doing follow-up calls, writing thank you notes, going to training classes with the church to improve his interviewing skills, etc.  On top of all this he is going to school and will soon be entering his senior year.  He is earning a degree that many in his family never thought he would.  He is doing something none of his siblings have yet done.  He is making something of himself rather than wallowing in hard times.  It is not his fault he has not been chosen for a job.  He has been to at least 25 interviews this year with nothing to come of it.

Yes, we are on unemployment, yes, we are on welfare, yes, we use medicaid for the kids, yes, we have free lunches for the kids and yes, we live with family.  We are not ashamed of this.  We spent years paying into this system and right now we need it and we will not let our pride stand in the way of taking care of our family.  You may see this as sucking off the system.  We see it as doing what we have to do to survive.

Maybe next time you have an opinion on this subject you should ask yourself, "What can we do to help" rather than make judgements.  I know there are some "sucking off the system" but I can guarantee you we are not those people.  We are not purposely taking advantage of the government programs.  We are a family truly in need.

Elder Russel M. Nelson said, "Whatever your work may be, endure in the beginning, endure through opposing forces along the way, and endure to the end."  That is what we are doing.  I have no idea what the Lord has in store for us or where we will end up.  I only know that this is our trial and we are doing the very best we can in this trial.  We live in faith, we pray in faith and we know some day soon we will be blessed for our endurance.