lows and highs

Looking forward to my sister moving to the US. She apparently received the package I sent her that included a form I-864, three of my most recent pay stubs (as proof of salary and current employment), and copies of 1040s for the last three years. I need to fax her my citizenship certificate, so I will be taking that in to work tomorrow. Woops, I mean today.

You know, the poverty line is grossly low. You know how I know it’s low (this is quite poetic to my ears)? I know it’s low because in order to be a sponsor for my brother-in-law (side note: my sister and her kids are US citizens, but she can’t sponsor him because she does not have an employment history in the US for the last three years), I have to make 125% of the poverty line for the number of people I support. By “people I support”, I mean 1) myself, 2) people I claim on my taxes as my dependents (my mom and little bro), and 3) the total number of people I am sponsoring. This bring the total to four people.

I was like, man, four people. I knew I must be over 125% of the poverty line for four people, but I wasn’t sure by how much. When I looked up the numbers, it turned out that I can sponsor something like 13-14 MORE people with my income.

THAT is how I know the poverty line is too low.

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The guys came today to start working on re-drywalling the two unfinished bedrooms. Yay! It will cost us some money that we could really use to save for the wedding, but I honestly believe that this is the better/more right use of our money right now. Any improvements to the house will pay off in the future, I know. It still does sting a bit in the short run, but I’m happy that our home will become even more homey.

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My sister also told me that my dad went to stay with his mom in the country. This is really good news, as it means that they must have come to some sort of reconciliation. It means some pragmatic things as well: we don’t have to worry about him not having a home or having food to eat. His mom is pretty well off — not rich, but pretty well off, and he’ll be living in the home that has been in our family for generations, living near farm land that our family owns. He’ll be in good country air, so his asthma should be better. He’ll be able to eat good foods, so maybe he will put back on some weight.