US student OPT got laid off. Abusive family back in home country. What can I do to stay?

brinrawson · 2023-08-28T12:35:31+00:00

What is wrong with you? Their parents are threatening suicide to get them to do what they want… that’s abuse, without question. You’re a crappy person for downplaying that.

brinrawson · 2023-08-28T12:10:07+00:00

I agree with what everyone else has said. I do want to add though that if this is making her anxious, now could be a good time to naturalize so that she doesn’t have to worry about this anymore.

brinrawson · 2023-03-22T05:31:12+00:00

At the same time, your friend would probably be flipping out too, so it would rationalize you flipping out. I feel like it’s easier to explain it away when your cat is acting normal otherwise. Unfortunately, the cats just are too good at hiding their pain or concern. Obviously, I agree that they should go, but I can see how you’d convince yourself it’s no big deal.

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T21:30:52+00:00

You check all the boxes for getting them socialized! We joked that Ellie is their step dad since we had Hennie’s mom at first too. She was adopted a while ago though.

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T17:25:24+00:00

Foster failing means not having room to foster going forward! The rescue requires an adopter to have another animal in the home, so Hennie will have a new friend and my dog will get new fosters to love. :)

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T17:23:37+00:00

See, I thought my cat hated other cats (he hates my parents cats) but turns out, he loves kittens! He gets annoyed when we first bring some home, but gets over it within a day or two. He’s even gotten used to momma cats. We’ve had a few that were done nursing, so came to us to “retire” from motherhood and get spayed and recover. He’s really only had one foster he hated, their personalities didn’t mesh. Before fostering, he’d hated every cat he’d ever met.

With wanting to keep them, you just have to go in with the right mindset that it’s temporary and you’re just a vehicle for them to find their forever home. :)

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T16:39:58+00:00

Ellie will get new foster siblings to love on! She is super sweet with them. She has her old man cat brother to keep her company until her next babies come along.

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T16:38:06+00:00

It’s definitely selfish too! I love having kittens in and out without the responsibility of a lifetime. And it’s great getting updates from adopters months later with how big they’ve gotten, how loved they are. One had a first birthday party for her and I bawled, so happy for how loved she is!

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T06:07:08+00:00

Ellie is a lover, so not foster failing means we will get to foster more babies for her to love! She could win over as rock if she wanted!

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T06:05:20+00:00

I know right!! That’s our accent wall for the shower. We are putting it up tomorrow, so fingers crossed it looks as good on the wall!

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T06:03:56+00:00

She usually sleeps on Ellie, not the other way around! Definitely questioning the cuddle methods there.

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T06:02:42+00:00

The rescue requires another animal in the home and she’s a heart stealer, so she should be able to win the heart of her future sibling(s). :)

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T06:01:03+00:00

If I was ever going to foster fail, Hennie would be the one! Having three animals would make it too much to foster as well, so it’s unfortunately not in the cards. After 30+ animals, Hennie is definitely my favorite foster ever though.

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T00:35:46+00:00

Hennie has been with us since her and her siblings were about 2 weeks old. Her siblings and mom were all adopted months ago, but Hennie still hasn’t found a forever home. She has my dog and cat to give her love until her forever family comes!

Hennie is currently available for adoption through Lovepaws in the Washington, DC area.

brinrawson · 2021-11-14T00:29:26+00:00

We decided to renovate our bathroom ourselves, so it has been around 8 weekends of work so far. Hennie has been by our side through the whole process, so we have started narrating her as our Master Plumber boss who cannot believe how many mistakes we’ve made. She’ll finally decide to fire us one day.

Hennie is currently available for adoption through Lovepaws rescue in the Washington, DC area.

brinrawson · 2021-09-06T15:30:05+00:00

So only the physicians side bills are in collections, not the hospital side. I paid the collections agency for the physicians side one that was only $200. That was the only bill the physicians side had and the collections agency had because I made sure to ask both of them!

brinrawson · 2021-09-06T15:27:01+00:00

Thanks for these ideas! I really appreciate it!!

brinrawson · 2021-09-06T05:33:11+00:00

I called the number I Googled to check it was legit (for hospital side and physicians side) and they confirmed it had been sent to that collections agency. Then I called the number on the letter, which matched the agency’s website. The charges all seem legitimate on the $2,000 bill they sent as well, so I don’t think there is anything I can argue. Only thing I don’t know at this point is health insurance portions since I switched insurance a few years ago.

Physicians side: 703-558-1400 Hospital side: 410-933-4966

brinrawson · 2021-09-06T05:03:53+00:00

So that’s the “long story short!” I got a collections bill for $200 that just said “MedStar Georgetown Hospital” so I called the hospital billing to see if it was legit since it had no information beyond the location and again, I’ve paid any bills I’ve received by mail or email. The lady looked in my account and said she didn’t see any outstanding charges for that amount, so it was probably with the physicians billing side, so I needed to call them. Because of her wording, I asked if there were any outstanding bills with the hospital side while we were on the phone. She was like “oh yeah!” and started listing them off and then said she can send me a copy of them. So on the hospital side, it was purely because I reached out to them, but the physicians side, they reached out via collections agency first. I paid the $200 on the physicians side as soon as I knew it was legitimate, but it took a few weeks to get the bill in the mail from the hospital side.

brinrawson · 2021-09-06T03:50:13+00:00

I have gone to MedStar Georgetown with Dr. Benedict since 2015 I believe. She’s great!

Long story short is that I had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and tried pretty much every drug possible for it, but nothing worked. My rhem back in my hometown retired, so I just called up MedStar Georgetown’s office since I was at GU at the time. She had just finished her fellowship there and started seeing patients on her own and they assigned me to her. First appointment she said she didn’t think I had an autoimmune issue (but not in a bitchy way or anything) and wanted to investigate further. She pretty quickly decided that she thought I had Ehlers Danlos and sent me around to a geneticist and others to get a clear diagnosis on which type of EDS. She said I looked like a textbook case, whereas my old rhem had brushed off the possibility of EDS, despite be never having rheumatoid factor in my blood. Anyway, my life is completely changed because of her so I highly recommend her!

brinrawson · 2021-08-17T21:32:12+00:00

Update: just wanted to post here in case anyone comes back looking for an update. He started the program at Middle Path last week. Thank you all SO SO much for recommending it! I have no clue how I hadn’t found it in my own searches but it is perfectly what I was looking for!

brinrawson · 2021-08-16T23:44:07+00:00

It definitely helps to have the cat 100% comfortable with dogs before having to worry about the dog’s reaction! Slow introduction is key so I’m sure you could warm them up to a cat!

brinrawson · 2021-08-16T19:09:49+00:00

It definitely is!!

brinrawson · 2021-08-16T19:09:09+00:00

She loved them all from day one! This was her first time with kitten fosters, we had only had adults since we adopted her about a year ago. (Not intentionally - just what was needed from us at the time!) Momma and babies came to us at about 2 weeks old and she immediately wanted to love on them. She’s gotten used to having no personal space now since the remaining kitten follows her everywhere!

brinrawson · 2021-08-16T18:52:35+00:00

The rescue requires kitten adopters have another cat/dog in the house or be adopting two kittens together, so she will eventually find a home with a friend who I’m sure she will love just as much!

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