Today is the day we have been dreading for a while. Today is the day that finally proved to us that no matter how hard we try, we will always be treading water surrounded by sharks. No matter how many times we reach out for help, the life raft never is close enough. We need your help getting a longer rope to save our family from drowning in the sea of debt and to pull us out of the jaws of the stress sharks.
My family and I have had it rough from the beginning. My husband and I got together as his divorce was being finalized. Like many times, the system failed my husband and our children, setting us up for financial struggles right away. After having to move numerous times in and out with family, we thought we were getting a break when close friends offered us to live with them. These friends and my husband had lived together before with no issue, but little did we know, this situation would be the catalyst for so many other problems to come.
To stay afloat we took out loans and pulled money from our retirement accounts to try and keep food on the table and a roof over our kids’ heads. This was after the “friends” we were living with decided they no longer wanted to pay their expenses or even for food for their kids. So, we took on the extra burden, like we always do whenever situations arise. This extra burden cost us much more than financial security. After we tried for several months to get things back in order, we had no choice but to break our lease and move out. Unfortunately, our roommates decided yet again to take no responsibility and left us to clean up and pay for all their damages. We lost out on our deposit, paid almost 2 grand in repairs, and were left with a bad mark on our records.
We moved in with family again hoping to repair our credit, pay off debt and save for some sort of future, but then covid started. I ended up out of work due to complications with my pregnancy. We had just had a miscarriage, so we didn’t want to risk any additional health problems from me working in the customer service field not knowing the effects covid could have on our unborn child. My husband was working, but only bringing home a few hundred dollars every other week due to child support raping him, even though he has 50/50 custody.
After a while, I got a job and we started to feel confident that we could get our own place again. A family of five living in a partially finished basement room was not ideal. So, we started looking and found the perfect place. We moved in and were doing good, but all good things come to an end for us as soon as we take that relaxing breath of the fresh air when things seem to be going alright.
After a hailstorm, we lost one of our vehicles. This now meant we had to share a car and coordinate our schedules to match. We lost out on hours of work trying to make our schedules line up for carpooling. It became too hard on the checkbook, so I switched jobs to make things easier. Easier didn’t happen as I then ended up sick due to OSHA and health code violations at the new job and had to quit. We ended up behind on all our expenses and needed to apply for assistance as I was looking for a new job. – this brings us to today…
We received the notice that we need to pay what we owe in back rent by Friday January 13th, or we need to vacate the premises. This isn’t a surprise, but it is heartbreaking still. Even though we have been communicating with our property manager about everything and told him how we applied for the assistance for emergency financial help, he still can only do so much. Originally, he was only giving us 2 days to pay and/or 4 days to pack up everything and leave but after discussing our situation, he was willing to give us an additional week and keep it out of the courts under the agreement that we would start making payments with my husband’s next paycheck. Unfortunately, the county told us that they are around 50 days out for processing new applications, so by the time our name got to the top of their list, it would be too late to keep our home.
That being said, we are now in the process of moving out and hoping someone like you will be willing to help us by giving us the steppingstone we need to get back on track. We need around $4,500 to pay our back rent and utilities so we don’t end up in court and for a moving truck and storage unit, so we don’t lose all our belongings. Our kids are losing their home, we want to prevent them from losing everything else too.
Any help is appreciated, even if it’s only a few dollars. We never ask for anything and are always willing to help others when we can. We have always found a way to keep on keeping on, but now are completely out of options. It is very hard for us to swallow our pride and ask for help.
Please help us keep our kids from seeing the negativity of this world.
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/McHenryFamily