I’ve been living in a mobile home for about a year and a half now and found out in January my landlord is selling and i need to be out by the end of the July. So since then I’ve been setting aside any extra money i make so i can prepare to move. I was working as a carpet cleaner making commission of 20% on each job which used to be a pretty profitable occupation before covid. Since then business has slowly been dying with the past year being the worst. The beginning of the year is when we’re the slowest anyways but this January we were down to almost no jobs the whole month so the company had no option but to let go of most its staff, myself being one of them. That was January and was the first speed bump, the one that followed in February came out of nowhere and hit really hard. A quick backstory of My sister, she’s a single mother of 2 amazing daughters (9 and 14) has been having financial troubles after her she lost her job and had her car repossessed and sold at auction. When that happens she’s still obligated to pay off the rest of the lease amount, in her case that equaled 13,000 dollars. Obviously she can’t pay that so they are suing her and garnishing her wages. Other than paying them the money she owes the only other option she would have is filing for bankruptcy. She was stuck in a bad situation with 2 hard options to get out of it. She let the stress of everything build up and started using drugs as a way of numbing herself to it all. I can understand needed a way to relieve the stress but can’t believe she would choose drugs 3 years after we lost our cousin, who was my best friend, an amazing father of 4 and the nicest person you’d ever meet. He started using the same drugs she’s currently in which led to him taking his own life which was extremely hard on everyone so to find out she’s doing the same drugs just blows my mind. The one thing I’m thankful for through all of this was that she had a good enough state of mind to bring the girls to my house where she knows they’d be safe and taken care of. I just don’t know how to make it happen financially. She basically dropped them off, didn’t say where she was going or when she was coming back. She just left and never came back. Changed her number, blocked everyone on Facebook and disappeared. I’ve tried everything from driving through bad neighborhoods looking to trying to file a missing persons report but couldn’t since she left willingly. I’m more than happy and willing to accept full responsibility with raising these 2 girls but since I’m not a legal guardian i can’t do much. Even picking them up from school Is like pulling teeth because I’m not a parent and I’m not on the list. I use that analogy because the older needs to go to the dentist but legally i can’t make the appointment or even so much as bring her to the doctors office. I’ve found an attorney who can help me out, starting with filing for temporary guardianship but her fee is $2000 and i don’t have anything close to that but if i did it would have to go towards finding us a place to live, my car payment/rent/phone bill plus we need food and clothes since all the girls had when they were dropped off were a backpack with a few outfits each. I’ve found work and i pick up as many hour’s as i can, the job doesn’t pay that well but it’s better than nothing until i find something better. I’ve also rented a booth at a flea market selling off my comic books and action figures and pretending i have my own store of collectibles instead of selling so the stuff i collected for myself. I dont mind selling the shirt off my back and working my hands to the bone for these girls but it feels like I’m doing that and i just keep getting deeper and deeper into a whole. I’ve never been one to beg or ask for help but these girls deserve something better and i promised to do what it takes to get them there i just need a little push.
assuming anyone is still here reading this i want to thank you for listening to my story and if not, it was at least therapeutic to get these words out and write down what I’ve been going through. I guess i fondly understand diaries… which means I’ve already gotten 2 things out of this so I’m winning already but if anyone would like to help in anyway, then the girls and I would appreciate it. Thanks for your time.
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