Bless Jessica and her children

The past year has been traumatic for Jessica and her 5 young children. Full of deception, abandonment, betrayal & abuse. Their family had what seemed to be a good life, they were involved in their church, and active in their community. Jessica has been primarily a stay at home mom but has also worked part-time as a teacher for many years at a local Christian school. Her husband was a good provider & truly played the role well of doting dad and husband. But under the surface of their seemingly perfect family, he was living a lie - a secret, double life.

One night, Jessica confronted her husband about his recent, strange and erratic behavior. He wasn’t the same, he was frustrated and short tempered, recently fired from a great job, and always seemed to find excuses to suddenly be gone from home. He shrugged it off as nothing, but continued to pull away from their family.

They started counseling with their church at Jessica’s request. During this time, he delivered the unexpected news that he had filed for divorce and was moving in with a mistress after months of assuring Jessica he had never been unfaithful. She also learned that he had cashed out and spent his entire 401(k) and suddenly emptied and squandered their savings account and depleted every asset they had. It shook Jessica’s world and shocked her to her core. This was not his normal behavior or the husband she knew.

Soon after that shock, the facade of being a great family man began to unravel. One night stands were revealed, a couple of ongoing, secret affairs, a struggle with alcoholism, more secrets, lies, and the ultimate betrayal and shock of sexual misconduct to their children. With dad now gone from the home, two of their children were brave enough to speak up as they delivered some heartbreaking news: he had been inappropriate with them at times when he was intoxicated. The criminal investigation into this unfortunately revealed that others in his past had been affected by the same abuse.

In May, he was sentenced to 30 years and has been legally forbidden to be around or even contact his children. Jessica is not just a single parent, she is now the only parent.

Jessica is doing her best to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. She suddenly finds herself in the role of sole provider and caretaker. She now has no savings and no retirement. He depleted everything right before his arrest. She was left with bills she can’t pay alone. She doesn’t receive the financial support like most widows would such as life insurance or social security. She doesn’t receive and will not receive any child support or alimony due to his incarceration status. She is technically a widow in every sense of the word, but without financial help or support because her situation is unfortunately very unique.

Jessica is hard working and loves her job as teacher, but does not want to leave her children all the time for someone else to raise. She has always been present in their daily lives and at their school. The horrible choices of the man she married and the father of their children has rocked their world and taken away all their earthly securities. At times, it feels like she and the children are being punished for doing the right thing and speaking up about the secret abuse when it was disclosed. By doing so, she lost any financial support she could possibly get from him. Jessica is desperately clinging to her faith that the Lord will provide.

This is the story and this is why we are raising funds. We want Jessica to be present as much as she can be with her 5 children as they try to heal, recover, and process their grief, abuse, and pain, together. We don’t want them to feel punished for doing what is right.

What a blessing it would be to pay off her house and ease her financial burdens so she and her children will never have to worry about losing their home. They have looked for other housing situations but rentals are the same price as her mortgage and she is trying to keep something familiar and constant in her children’s lives since this last year has been so tumultuous and tragic.

By paying off her home Jessica will be able to financially support herself and her children. This goal will set them up for success with no fear of having to suddenly leave home, and no fear of being homeless. Sure, she could go back to the workforce, but her children would be alone and childcare costs would take most of her paycheck. Not only is their home close to where Jessica works, but is also where their community is, friends who can help out with the kids and that is so important, now more than ever.

They have been betrayed in the worst way, by the husband and father they were supposed to be able to count on and trust. Life will never be the same for them but I am praying we can bless them and relieve financial worries as much as possible.