Hello, my name is Michael Maxim. First off, I want to be perfectly clear and honest. I hate doing this. I'm a firm believer in taking care of your business yourself and not having to rely on others unless it's an emergency. Well, it IS an emergency.

I'm a father of five kids with two I need to take care of, Ben (17) and Abby (11). Two weeks ago, my wife of 24 years picked up and left us all, draining our bank account and leaving me with nothing to take care of the house and kids. Sadly, she is addicted to opioids and moved out with her new boyfriend and dealer. I myself am disabled with severe neck problems and migraines, needing surgery in the near future, so I'm on a fixed income which I don't get until January.

Since she left, we have struggled with food and money, but out of the kindness of family and emergency sources, I was able to stabilize things for now. However, in the course of the past week, I have discovered she has seriously neglected our bills. I received a 10-day shut-off notice for gas unless we pay $800 right off the bat. We have a $650 electric bill that will threaten shut-off next unless paid by January. Those two bills alone take my whole SSI check. The mortgage is months behind as well, which is about $800 a month. Not to mention, she took the only stable car, so I will be facing car repairs very soon too.

I'm looking for a job which will not aggravate my neck and head issues and will fit in the guidelines of SSI. I am looking into other avenues of relief as well, but those all take time. Time I don't have. I'm not looking for handouts because I'm lazy or anything long-term. Just enough to get all the bills up to date so I know my kids' home is secure. All this has been a nightmare, and I'm in full panic mode. I feel that she just dropped a nuclear bomb on our whole family right before Christmas. Fine, she wanted out, but leaving us all high and dry in this situation is just a mess.

So please, I am humbling myself for the sake of my kids to ask for any kind of help and prayers to get us through this initial dark time. If you cannot donate, please pray for us and share with others who might be able to help. Thank you one and all from the bottom of my heart. Merry Christmas and God bless you all!