A bad year. A house for my family.

This time last year I was the supervisor at a youth facility. My wife worked, we had our own place, and my daughter was healthy.

It's funny how your whole life can get flipped upside down in under a year.

September last year my wife was laid off from work. We lived in Edmonton, Alberta and as the world knows, the economy here is not doing so well. I spent the remainder of the year fighting as hard as I could to try and make ends meet for my family, working extra hours when I could, cashing out my RRSP’s and such to try and pay our rent and buy our groceries.

Then on January 8th 2016, I was arrested at work for something I didn’t do. A child I worked with, who did not like me thought it was good idea to make up a story and tell the police I had assaulted him. Without doing a proper investigation or looking at the fact there was no evidence, the showed up at my work and arrested me. Because of the arrest and the pending charges, I was put on a ‘leave’ from work until the investigation closed. This was understandable coming from a business stand point. However, it was the most stressful time of my entire life. I loved my job, loved my co-workers, and loved the kids that I worked with and hated being away from it all. I had countless sleepless nights and cried quite often. After a few weeks the child finally admitted to his social worker and police that he made up the story to try and get me in trouble.

Stress can cause the human brain to think erratically and be too impulsive.

This happened to me and my family.

Because of the stress I was under, and the stress my wife was under without work and our family being financially unstable, we decided to sell everything, pack up, and move back to Nova Scotia to stay with her parents. We decided to try life out there again to see if we could make it work.

We spent some time there, enjoyed our stay, and spent some time with family and friends, but something was missing.

We did some research and because of the way the economy is in Nova Scotia, both my wife and I would have had to go back to school to be able to find half decent jobs and we did not have the time or the money to do so. We went broke quick, and we quickly realized that we made a huge mistake by going back to Nova Scotia.

So in two short months in Nova Scotia, we moved back to Alberta. We are currently staying with friends of ours.
I got my job back but not my supervisor position. That position was filled when I was away. I am now a youth care worker.

At the beginning of August my three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. We spent the week in the hospital leaning about diabetes and how to take of it and keep it under control. It’s quite the lifestyle change. We check her blood sugar up to eight times a day now and give her insulin twice a day. Her diet has been revamped and this learning curve is huge for all of us. Especially my daughter.

Only two short weeks later, I, myself was diagnosed with moderate to severe Crohns Disease. I only have a certain amount of time to get it under control or I was told I would have to have surgery. Having surgery means I would be off work for a while. I don’t want to do this, and cannot afford to do this.

My wife has a job but her hours are getting cut back and the economy in Alberta is still not good.

We’re staying with friends but we cannot stay here much longer. My friend wants to move, they do not have children, they need their own space and we need our own space as a family.

But we do not know what to do and have nowhere else to go.

Were scared of moving out and signing a lease somewhere in case my wife gets laid off again. We have no furniture and need to start from scratch. But yet we really need our own place for the health of my family, and my daughter. We’re paying 800 a month in child care alone and I pay child support back home for my other children and a car payment for the vehicle we have here.

I’ve lost so much in the last year and nothing seems to be getting better. I am in a constant state of worry for my family and where our future will take us. I am in a constant state of emotional break down and just want to scream, or lock myself away and cry.

I wish so much for us to just have a stable environment so we can just move on with our lives and try to make things better for ourselves but our predicament we are in is too tricky.

I am starting this ‘Fund me Page’, not for criticism or people to ‘judge’ me, but for help, advice, and answers. I don’t want my family to sink and I definitely don’t want us to be homeless.

I’ve lived in apartments and condos. They were surrounded by domestic violence and murders. This is stressful, and not healthy for my family.

Our predicament is so tricky; I am turning to Go Fund me to get support on buying a home.

This would give me stable, healthy environment for my family and finally give us a break to get life on track.

We are looking to raise 50,000 by the end of September for down payment of a home.

Please help my family and I. Please share this page so others can hear our story and try to provide help as we need it before time runs out as we don’t have much time left.

We will forever be grateful. My daughter will be greatful. Weve had such a rough last year, we just need a break for once.

Thank you for your support in advance.