Help us to start a new chapter

Hi, I am James -- a widowed father of 4 beautiful & amazingly strong children who lost their mother in 2011 after her long & brave battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. 

Although 3 years have passed, the emotional & financial weight of this tragic loss has now reached a point where we need to ask for help.

A year after Nicole's passing, the ripple effects of the recession combined with the responsibility of taking care of 4 grieving children culminated in me losing a job that I had loyally held for almost a decade.

After unsucessfully trying to find consistent work in the state of Florida, I had to make the difficult decision to leave the children in the care of their still grieving maternal grandparents.

I relocated to southern California to obtain work which would allow me to provide financially for my family, since my specialzed profession of over 20 years is in the music industry & education field.

After months of freelance work and interviews, I landed my current position as an instructor at an electronic music school and have begun the path to regaining financial stability so that we can finally be living together again and start a new beginning in California.

I was progressing towards my goal of getting financially stable and then moving the children out to California in the summer. Then last month, I was shocked to find out that their grandparents had begun legal proceedings in attempt to take custody of the children away from me and prevent them from leaving the state of Florida to be with their only surviving parent. This left me with no choice but to return to Florida, take physical custody of my children and bring them back with me to California. 

Now we are in a position where we need to move quickly as the apartment we are living in is not large enough for all of us, and we are having difficulty coming up with all of the funds necessary to move into and furnish a home that is large enough for us all.  The children do not have the majority of their personal items from Florida and we are basically starting from scratch.

This path has been extremely challenging since there are many financial debts (including medical and attorney's fees) which are still unpaid, as well as a depleted savings for my children's future.

Please help us get into a new home and get settled so we can begin this new chapter of our lives and continue our journey of healing.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story and for all of your help, support and prayers.