Imagine this. You grow up without much family or adult supervision and learn to rely only on yourself at a very young age. You find multiple jobs at 13 to accumulate full time hours on top of attending school. Due to home life, you move out at 16 and get a GED in leiu of a high school diploma. Early on in your adult life you continue on to be a standard single mom statistic but decide right then that that is where it ends. You find that you excel in sales and work 60-80 hours a week in order finance building your credit and saving for your family's future. Telling your kids not right now to not only monetary things, but time as well since you have to work, is commonplace. Telling them each time that it will be worth it soon and not much longer. Now imagine that you succeeded. You finally bought the home you and your children sacrificed so much for. You followed through for them, all on your own, and it feels great. You take great pride in this accomplishment as well as all the little ones that followed. Like starting traditions, taking vacations, building them a playground, rebuilding a deck, small plumbing projects etc. Involving them as much as possible so they also learn the value of hard work, perseverance and accomplishing something new. But minor setbacks occur. Then bigger ones. Before you know it you are paying bills in order of importance and urgency. More setbacks happen and you feel like you can't catch a break. Debt collectors are showing up to your house once or twice a day and you're afraid to even leave your house. You're making harder decisions like food or electricity. House or car. Soon, you don't even have the luxury of deciding anything at all. This is the cycle we have been in now for far too long. We have been without power for nearly 3 months and are at risk of being foreclosed on at any time. Our story is not unique and I will not embellish it to gain sympathy or increase our chances of donations. I value self sufficiently above most things so seeking assistance has been the hardest thing I've ever done. I cannot convey my gratitude enough for any donations, shares or even the time to read this far. Whether you are able to donate or simply share this fundraiser with others, any support means more than I can adequately express. Thank you for taking the time to read our story and for helping a family that is desperately trying to hold on to the home we worked so hard to achieve.