The Governments Idea Of: Helping the People in Need

It is Tuesday afternoon and my husband and I were lounging around the house think of the best ways to make this months payments on time. We only had three days until our next bill was due. My husband has been working part-time. Nine hours a week if he was lucky. Sometimes not even 2 hours a week. But on the weeks that his job doesn't get work, we are stuck figuring out a way to pay our bills. We even came to the conclusion to not buy diapers for our 8 month old son for a few weeks to get some money for tomorrow's dinner.
Money was and still is tight. We were getting desperate. I was thinking of donating blood, but because I am a breastfeeding mom I can't. We needed to find a way to get some assistance so we wont starve. So it came to me, It was 12:00 in the afternoon and I told my husband that we should go to the food stamp office and get some assistance. I called my mom to come watch my son and we went off to the Family Services Office.
As we arrived we entered the building and saw that the office was full. We grabbed an application and went to an empty table and we started filling out the form. It took us about 30 minutes to fill everything out. we go back to the receptionist desk and stand in line. This older lady was at the desk, she was at least 60 years of age. My husband I are standing there waiting for assistance. She was gazing at her computer screen, heck, she had the whole time in the world to come close to even asking us if we needed assistance. She finally gets up after 20 minutes and walks around her desk and asked us what we needed. I told her "I am here to apply for food stamps and money assistance" She hands me a number ticket and tells me to have a seat. (they recently moved to a new building and didn't have a ticket machine on the wall yet)
So we sit there waiting for our number c04 to be called. The number that was being assisted was b99. I said to my husband "oh this is going to go by quickly" Boy did I speak to soon. We where waiting for one hour when finally the number c00 was finally called. Oh my goodness I was pissed. There was so many people coming in and getting help before us. None the less that there was so may homeless people in there, One that smelled and reeked like poop, and walked in there and the staff seemed to know who he was and it looked to me like it wasn't his first time in there. I seriously thought that if these people where getting assistance, then a suffering family of three would get assistance no problem. Well another hour has gone by and finally our number was called. We walk up to the employee that called our number and she takes a look at our application. she asked "your applying for TANF?" and I told her "Yes we are" she repays "Oh, well you have to go to the other side of the building and talk to the receptionist at the desk." my jaw fell to the floor and said "I waited for 2 hours for someone to tell me this!!!!!" all she said in a calm voice was "Oh, well I am sorry about that." and called the next number.
So we go off to the other side of the building and it was deserted in there. A lady was being helped and we go behind her and wait in line. Meanwhile the homeless that was in the other waiting area came into the room and tried to sneak in front of us in line. I gave him a dirty look and thought to myself "just cause you are here more then I am doesn't give you the right to just cut us in line" But he decided to go back to the other side of the building.
So it is our turn in line and we made our appointment. and the receptionist told us that we were eligible for about $600 a month for 3 people, plus food stamps and medical. I was so happy about that amount, I was expecting like $200 or something.
A few days later we come back for our appointment, which of course the lady we where seeing was backed up and we had to wait an extra 40 minutes. On top of that they made us come in 15 minutes early - I alway wonder why, it is the food stamp office, they are never on time. So finally we get in, the lady does all the computer data blah blah blah's and makes us sign papers to let them know it is OK that we are giving our information to them and so on, So then she starts asking us questions about my husbands part-time job, we showed them our W-2 form for 2007 and showed her how little we were making. She laughed a bit and asked us about our living situation. We told her that we live with his Parents, but rent out a small living area that is like a mini apartment. (pretty much a house with 2 living spaces) 2 kitchens, two living rooms and what not. She then asked us our ages. I told her that I was 20, and that my husband was 22. She started to shout "shoot, shoot, shoot!" I was like, 'OH MY GOSH, NOW WHAT!?!?' She started to explain that "the 'government" believes that the parents are responsible for there children until they are 22 years of age" and that "I have to file with my parents" I started to get upset and I told her "WE LIVE WITH "HIS" PARENTS" and she said "It doesn't matter." then I told her "WE ARE MARRIED" and she began to say "I totally understand what your saying" and then I got a bit in her face and said "WE LIVE IN A SMALL LIVING AREA THAT IS ATTACHED TO HIS PARENTS HOUSE. IT IS AN APARTMENT TYPE LIVING" and then she began to say "I will try the best that I can to get you approved for this." and put our application on hold until March 6th. (which by then we could easily die of starvation) I was so pissed off. Not only am I married, NOT living with my parents, and have a child, but I NOW HAVE TO FILE WITH MY PARENTS IN ORDER TO GET FOOD STAMPS, EVEN THOUGH I AM NOT LIVING WITH MY PARENTS.
So she put our application oh hold for the food stamps and we go on to the TANF (money assistance) part. She starts to explain that we do not qualify because my husband is not working 35 hours a week, and ME A BREASTFEEDING MOTHER have to work 20 hours a week in order to get the TANF. and then I asked her in a very irritated voice "BUT ISN'T OUR GOVERNMENT THE ONE WHO SAID TO BREASTFEED OUR CHILDREN UNTIL 1 YEARS OF AGE?" She then said to me "I totally understand, but you are going to have to put him through day care. " I was so pissed off. To top things off, my husband has to apply for unemployment, since he is not making enough to support us.(that gives then an excuse to give us less money as well) Which makes things worse since we had to wait 5 days after applying on-line to get some paperwork in the mail. Now we have to go to the unemployment office to claim everything and get his unemployment started. We have to wait until Feb. 26th or something like that to be approved for TANF.
So now we have to go in and see this lady again after we get my husbands unemployment situated, and have to make an appointment with the "JOBS" program in order to get money assistance. Thank you so much Government, not only are we starving while waiting for the paper work, but we are behind on all of our bills, and can't afford diapers for our 8 month old son. Not to mention that applying for Jobs take weeks cause your application needs to be viewed, then an interview has to be set up, and by the time you get accepted for one of the 50 interviews you have went to, and having to go threw training and finally getting your first paycheck, you just might be dead or living in a cardboard box since we did not have an emergency reason for getting food stamps nor Money Assistance.