When I found out that the boys’ child support cases were in the process of being opened by HHSC on Thursday (“with good cause claims upheld”, as I later found out), I filed complaints with the HHSC ombudsman, the child support office, and the National Child Support Agency… and I think it was that last one that managed to get my case attention on a Saturday. I didn’t go to all of the trouble of getting two good cause waivers, one for each of their child support cases, for the state to refuse to allow us to access benefits safely… and as for the reason that Bub’s child support case has a good cause waiver, it’s actually in my medical files even though I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here yet. At any rate, committing to filing those complaints daily until the state resolved this issue really seemed to do the trick, as I was e-mailed — by the “chief ombudsman”, who I had to unblock for purposes of this — letting me know that the cases were closed, the good cause claims were both upheld, and that everything should be back in non-enforcement sitting there by Monday. I should stop comparing my advocacy to Barret Wallace and Katniss Everdeen and just start calling myself a honey badger at this point, because I’m becoming less kind getting done what needs to get done… for the sake of my kids, but also myself. But especially for the sake of my kids. I should still be contacted by the HHSC Ombudsman on Monday, which I expect, because I want to talk about another issue that I’ve been having with the state — it’s the one that has to do with the state manual requiring (or “requiring”) something that is codified nowhere in Texas law because it does not exist in Texas law.

At any rate, I absolutely hate when this happens. It is significantly stressful.

But at least this time it has a good ending… this problem, anyway. I’ll take that. For now.