I Can't Even THINK of What to Title this Post....

On Thursday, Darin brought home some papers he received from one of his bosses on his way out the door.  It was a recap of the new insurance set-up for the coming year.  Darin said he read over it, but didn't get it, so I decided to take a turn and immediately I understood why he didn't understand what was on the paper.  WHO WOULD?  Who could believe what was right there on black and white?  To recap: it seems Darin's company has thrown it's employees under the bus on this one.  I won't go into the details, but it seems that way. 

Here's the deal: Our health insurance premiums went down 25 bucks a month to $400.  Starts out good.  Then comes the Freak Out part. 

Our deductible is $5,000 per person, or $10,000 for the family. 

But after that we're covered at 100%, baby!

Sigh.

Basically, our insurance has gone up from close to $5,000 a year to $9,000-$15,000 per year.  <cough! choke! SPIT!!>

We're amazed. 

We're also not signing up for this joke of a plan.  Our immediate concern is the birth of our new baby girl in December.  We cannot pay for a hospital birth.  We looked up what we and our insurance company paid for Sophia's birth - about $12,000.  We paid 20% of that after our $1000 deductible was met.  But now we can't imagine being able to pay $10,000!  Oh my.  That just gets my heart beating real fast.

So....we are checking out a local midwife that some of my friends have begged me to go to for the last couple of babies.  ;-)  It should be a fraction of the cost without the presence of those abhorrent spine numbing epidurals.  eeek!  Please, REALLY.  Say a prayer for me about this.  The good news is that my labor has dramatically sped up with every baby.  The other good news is that I have never been one to have to push longer than 5 or 10 minutes.  The OTHER good news is that our chiropractor has been getting my pelvis good and lined up so the baby can just come right out with no hang-ups.  He told me today that I'm perfectly lined up and ready to go and that he can't wait for the delivery.  (me too! ;-) The other good news is that I have already been working at trying to psyche myself up for an epidural-free delivery, but I was keeping it to myself because ya know, if one talks about things out loud, it tends to make it harder to follow through.  At least for me it does.  My resolve weakens and then I give in to whatever it was I was trying to psyche myself up for.  But I don't have to worry about giving in to the epidural this time since there won't be an option for it. 

I know I sound like a total wimp to some of you ladies out there, but I have been induced with every baby.  Those induced contractions are STRONG and painful. 

Anyway...it is what it is.  Definitely no epidural this time around.  I'm almost relieved that the choice has been made for me.  I won't have to feel like a failure for giving in this time around, if you know what I mean. 

ANYWAY...say a prayer for the protection of our family.  We are going to use the money we would normally pay towards our insurance premium to pay for the midwife.  After that, we will probably try to sign-on with Samaritan Ministries (we've heard good things).  Pray that our family will stay healthy and injury-free!