A car for Anika and Jaden.

Anika and Jaden are members of our local Catholic Christian community and could use a helping hand. Their car has recently broken down, and due to the excessive cost of the repair, it has become more reasonable to find another used but reliable vehicle. Unfortunately, this surprise is beyond their current financial means.

As background, Anika (at age 21) selflessly adopted Jaden when he was 1 year old (now 8 years old). Jaden was born to a relative of Anika. Jaden's parents were uncapable of caring for him. Upon birth, Jaden underwent withdrawal from drugs and has had lasting developmental repercusions from his biological parents choices during his fetal delopment. Over the last few years Anika has juggled getting a degree in social work while working and parenting Jaden. This has often required a mix of working jobs that line up with/when available extended family or friends could care for Jaden. Due to Jadens challenging background and learning disability, Jaden has had to switch schools multiple times. Most recently Ankia has found a solution by working at the school Jaden attends as a para-professional. This has allowed Anika to be available when Jaden requires extra attention during school hours.

Unfortunately, finding work that can be done while watching Jaden over the summers has been a challenge. Anika is currently having to juggle this along with trying to study to take her social work professional exam. The difficulty of this is now compounded by a lack of a vehicle.

Hopefully this brief description created a concise snapshot of some of the many challenges Anika is up against.

We would like to offer a helping hand.

The hope is to find a used, fuel efficient, reliable car for as reasonable of a price as possible. The hope is a car somewhere in the $2-5,000 range. If she is blessed with more than what the vehicle ends up costing, the remainder of the fundraiser funds could be used for an "emergency/repair fund".

Anika could also use help gathering a network of contacts who could help her with caring for Jaden when she needs to study and/or work.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and prayers for this fundraiser to be a success.