A family in need of support love and faith

Hello everyone, Id like to introduce myself and the reason behind this go fund me creation. My name is Shayna and I am raising awareness and the potential possibilities to help ease a family’s transition , who’s very dear to my heart, going through a very hard patch in life. My partner Joseph aka JJ- has two children, Brooklyn 11, and Maceo who is almost 3. My partner and I began fighting for custody of his children back in February of 2023. What was a long mentally , emotionally and spiritually draining scary process, of tons of obstacles to cross, we finally obtained full custody of his children in July 2023. Once we got the children, many more heavy things began to unfold. We unfortunately were not given any of their belongings that the judge court ordered us to have: for example : their clothing, shoes, toys… ect - that JJ had provided them over the years: my partner had been their main provider and was left with starting from complete scratch with them. Unfortunately, the show must go on and we kept trucking through to support and help rebuild an entire new life for his children to be helped, healed, loved and cared for in a proper healthy environment. When we first got his children, our biggest goal was to stabilize as much as we could, as fast as possible. We also had to cross the hard bridge of getting his son proper care, due to many evaluations for early intervention being blocked. Once we got his son, we began his journey and ours. Therapies, doctors appointments, trial and error with so many things. Due to these specialized doctors appointments taking forever to get, we just found out about a month ago, his son Maceo was finally fully diagnosed with severe autism and fetal alcohol syndrome by Children’s Hospital in Union NJ. With that being said, JJ has had to stop his personal painting business since we got custody in July, and put work on hold. He has had to take a huge step back from working at all; his usual fast pace working lifestyle turned to full care taking and many doctors visits for therapies as well as in home therapies. The expenses have gotten really high, due to most of Maceos doctors appointments being in Toms River and Union NJ. JJ’s son Maceo is the sweetest soul. He has so much more learning and growing to accomplish, with all this new help and care in his life having family fully focusing on his needs. With a heavy heart, we all just got news that JJs ex, the children’s mother, has passed away as of November 14, 2023. Although we have had the kids full time since July, with a no contact order instilled, we were constantly denied and ignored every attempt we made to reach out and gather their things for a smoother transition for the kids. Still til this day, we never received ANY of Brooklyn or Maceos belongings after we repeatedly kept trying to obtain them. We have had to rebuild from scratch for these two children who have been through enough trauma, stress and change that no children should have to endure in their short time on this planet. JJ’s son does not eat food, does not speak, does not use the bathroom and the doctors informed us that he may never be able to do these things; we are working on many goals to get him to begin to work on normal basic skills in life. The expenses for rent, car payments, food, driving to all these appointments, diapers galore for how many diapers we go through due to Maceo only drinking fluids, as well as with the holidays approaching and Brooklyn just had her 11th birthday- I figured why not reach out and tell our story… tell Brooklyn and Maceo’s story… and ask for help for JJ to make their holiday season a little less stressful on him and his extended family; who has done so much to try and help JJ and these children. Until Maceo turns 3 years old, at the end of December, he can’t be in school. No day cares will take him due to his severe disabilities. I have never asked for help from anyone in my life, and I am not asking for help for myself. I am asking for help for these children. JJ’s daughter Brooklyn is such an incredible soul. This little girl is the strongest, sweetest human and for how much she has gone through, she stays vigilant in her studies, she is top in her class, an incredible artist, she is kind and loving and has a huge heart. To be 11 years old, and lose your mom, and be aware of what has transpired.. as well as losing all of your belongings, this quite frankly just sucks in so many ways for us all. Yet it is time for a fresh new start, new beginnings, and faith in the universe that things will get better for us all. I want to give Brooklyn and Maceo back some of the things they have lost during these hard times. Money does not buy love, money does not bring back their mother. Yet, money can help Brooklyn rebuild her wardrobe, shoes, girly facial and hair products, her hair tools, her accessories, her art supplies, rebuild all the things JJ provided her and Maceo their whole life that he had built over the years; that was not given back to them after the July court hearing. I do not want to make this about money or what happened or what didn’t happen. We have been managing to get by regardless of the circumstances, making these children’s needs a priority, but it has been a very very stressful year for everyone involved in this. Therefore, your donation, anything you give, is considered to me, the biggest mitzvah ( good deed) you could do. 5 dollars, one dollar, it all adds up and it all is greatly appreciated. I want JJ, Brooklyn and Maceo to go through this healing journey as a strong unit that knows no matter what, family and friends are going to be there. It takes a village to raise children, and it takes an even stronger patient loving an caring village to help with a family who has a severely disabled child that had been harmed since in the womb. Once confirmation was clear from Children’s Specialized Hospital, it was a lot for us all to digest. Yet we are strong and determined to keep up with all his needs and help him get to school in January, where hopefully more help can give Maceo a better chance at living a healthy long life and more help to JJ so he can go back to working a normal schedule while his son will be safe in school. With all that being said, I ask that you show some love, some hope, some faith and please donate what you can to help these children and their father. All proceeds of this will go towards both these children who could really use some extra love and hope during a really hard transitional time in their lives. Thank you for taking the time to read, and if you donate, I am thanking you personally from the bottom of my heart.