Please Help House our Family

Hi, my name is Joshua.

Since late 2020, I have been a stay-at-home dad to my little boy Kai.

It has been a challenging two years for LOTS of people, but I need to tell you about our struggles as a family and as new parents because we NEED your help.

Because of Covid, not only did Kai's mother have to work in complete Personal Protective Equipment during her entire pregnancy, because she works in the medical field.

Which was stressful enough on its own, but that extra stress on her body during her pregnancy, along with all of the other stressors of being an expecting mother sent her into preeclampsia and a very early, dangerous, and forced delivery date for our lilttle boy.

Not to mention a terrifying and stressful hospital stay and delivery for his mother and myself.

We spent over three weeks in the hospital, trying to stabilize her blood pressure and make sure our son got what he needed in order to come out healthy.

Kai came into the world underweight and unable to regulate his own body heat, but in every other way perfectly healthy.

We are SO blessed.

He spent over a month in the NICU, and his mother was there by his side every day while he finished getting to where he needed to be before he could come home.

If that doesn't sound tough for a new family, wait until I tell you about the next two years.

With Covid in full swing, I (his father) was unemployed, luckily, his mother wasn't, so she was able to work, and I became our stay-at-home parent raising our son.

We didn't have a place to live at that time; we were lucky enough for his mother and him to stay with his grandparents. But due to some unexpected health problems for Gramma, that ended quickly, and Kai had to move in with me in the house I was crashing at.

We didn't have hot water, a working washer or dryer, or anything we needed, minus food and a crib/pack N play/ and some toys.

But we made due, and Kai was safe and well cared for.

Being able to be in that house ended a few months later, and we had to find a new place to live, which proved extremely difficult because I was unemployed. His mother was over her head in debt and couldn't afford to provide us a place to live with her pay and available income.

At this point, I was homeless, and we had no other option but for Kai to go back to living with Gramma and his mother.

This proved very hard and problematic for Gramma and his mother because she was still trying to work full time and be a full-time mom while I was homeless.

I did everything I could to find work and housing, I was able to generate over $7500 dollars to help get us settled into a place, but because of all the stress she was under and my foreclosure from 2018 we couldn't get into a place.

Because of that, I ended up trying to buy a bus to rehab into a tiny home which proved to be a nonstarter for MANY reasons, specifically and most importantly, because I was homeless.

Finally, thru hard work and help from her parents, my son's mother and I were able to move into an apartment this time last year.

We struggled to pay rent because we didn't have childcare and very little or no support from family and friends.

After all, let's face it, the last two years have been extremely exhausting and scary, and everyone was just at their limit and unable to help because they were struggling to help themselves.

His mother worked full time, applied for promotions, worked over time, and did everything she could to support us financially while I was at home with our little guy.

I worked part-time when I could, sold all my stuff, crunched numbers and eliminated unnecessary bills, got signed up for all of the available aid available to us from the state and federal govt.

We didn't and don't qualify for most of the programs available; we have been lucky and blessed enough to have food stamps supporting us this last year.

Because of all of this stress and other postpartum complications, my son's mother has been out of work for the last almost two months dealing with some mental health issues, and I've been struggling day to day to provide for her, myself, our pets, and our son.

It came out of the blue, and no one was prepared for it, but I'm adjusting, and we are trying to move forward.

But now we are here again, facing homelessness or having to rely on grandma and grandpa for the assistance they can't afford, mentally, physically, or emotionally.

The difference is I am FINALLY able to get employment, which I am working extremely hard on, and I KNOW that I'm on the cusp of a job any day now.

We desperately need your help in securing our new place; we've located, viewed it, and are in love with it; we have a plan in place for returning to work and being able to make ends meet and make sure we aren't homeless ever again.

But we don't have the down payment/ first month's rent or what it will cost to rent the Uhaul and all of the other costs associated with moving.

We have to be out of our apartment by July 9th 2022.

Please help us.

We are so close to being in a place financially to provide a stable and healthy household for our son.

We need to get over this one last hurdle.