Hi all,

<font face="Calibri">     It’s been a while since I blogged, I wanted to give you an update.  First a recap, my husband worked for a sleep lab here in Oklahoma City, he worked for them for 12 years.  In January the doctor who owned the business sold it to another company.  The new owners are unscrupulous and don’t care about anything other than their own bottom line, a sad attitude in healthcare, but not unusual I guess.  Anyway the new company fired my husband, first of course they tried to get him to quit, and when that didn’t work they fired him to bring in their people.  That was 2 months ago.  </font>

<font face="Calibri">     The company said they discovered something shocking about my husband and were firing him for gross misconduct, but they wouldn’t say what he had done wrong.  This was about 24 hours after an email thanking my husband for his hard work.  My husband applied for unemployment, the company said they didn’t have to pay unemployment due to his gross misconduct, and then they refused to pay out his earned PTO (Paid Time Off, or vacation pay) stating the same reason, gross misconduct.  Since they decided to not pay out my hubby’s PTO, my hubby didn’t work all of his hours and had asked for some PTO so his last check would not be short, the boss said OK on the phone, but then his last paycheck was $500 short.  Another blow came when we wanted to get COBRA so there wouldn’t be a lapse in our health insurance, turns out the company has less than 20 full time employees, so we weren’t eligible for that either.  Our health insurance coverage technically ends May 1^st we are hopeful my husband will get his coverage at his new job by then. </font>

<font face="Calibri">     When he lost his job we didn’t have an emergency fund, we should have, but didn’t, There was enough money in the account to make it 3 weeks.  I prayed over the account, I asked God to make the money stretch, like Jesus did in the story of the loaves and the fishes.  I want to tell you God answers prayer, we are now 2 months out and there is enough money in the account to last 3 weeks, oh and all the bills are paid!!!  I don’t know how, but I’m very thankful!  My husband applied for unemployment and they investigated the allegation that my husband had committed Gross Misconduct we gave them the emails between my husband and the new owner too which I think helped a lot!  They (Unemployment) ruled there was no gross misconduct, that the unscrupulous company had made it up to get out of paying it.  We went to the Labor Board and told them the company refused to give my husband his PTO (160 hours!)  The labor board investigated and they too found the company to be making false statements about the alleged misconduct.  The unemployment isn’t much money, it helps but it’s like a third of his paycheck, here in Oklahoma our state does not qualify for President Obama’s $25 extra dollars a week.  Today we got a call that the Labor Board did collect the money my husband was owed, and we got the check!!!!!!!!!  Whoooooooo Hoooooooooo!  I’m so happy!  Now we can pay my husband's tuition at school so he can enroll in the next semester.  It upsets me that the company doesn’t get penalized for slander, they did lie about the character of my husband, but I’m thrilled we got what we were supposed to get.</font>

<font face="Calibri">     I work at Mercy Sleep Disorders Center here in Oklahoma City.  It is the best place to work they have been great to me!  A few of the Technologists that I work with knew of my family’s situation, that my husband lost his job, and gave me their shifts so I could earn some money!  I want to say Thank You to Floyd, Sarah, and Mona, they all gave up shifts for me!  Also my boss the manager of our sleep lab, Dan, he has been great, he has given me Public Speaking opportunities, Computer work opportunities and he is giving me the opportunity to do some marketing for the lab!!!  He has been great, and very supportive.  Thanks Dan!   June, our Administrative Assistant is the one who told me to go to the Labor Board to see about getting my husband’s PTO and it worked, I’m so thrilled.  I am so glad to have wonderful supportive people around me!!!  I have been working a lot, both days and nights; I’m tired, but extremely grateful for the work in my time of need.</font>

<font face="Calibri">     Well as I said my husband has been out of work now for two months, he has a Master’s degree, you would think finding a job would be easy, but it’s not.  He finally found a job he begins his orientation next week!!!!  The job has benefits medical, dental, 401K, retirement, Vision, the benefits are great and he likes the atmosphere.  The job pays about half (a little less than half) of what he was making, but at least we will have benefits!  Oh and the job is at nights on the weekend, so it won’t interfere with his college schedule!  He also got a job working for an online college teaching a course, so that will help with the income too!</font>

<font face="Calibri">     I want to thank all of you who have been there for me, who have offered your thoughts and prayers for what I have been going through!!!  You all are wonderful, and I am soooooooo happy to have good news!!!  The people on this site are wonderful human beings, everyone is so supportive and I honestly don’t know if I could have gotten through all of this without the support of all of you!  It’s not over yet, we will still have to figure out what the new pay will look like, and budget accordingly, but for now, I can breathe again.  Now that I am through the worst of this crisis (I hope anyway </font><font face="Calibri">) I can be on the Doctor’s Site more often and maybe get into a little trouble with Sheilah and Yvonne!! </font><font face="Calibri">   </font>

<font face="Calibri">     I wish for all of you the kind of blessings I’ve had lately!</font>

Michele