The short of it:
Our needs are exigent, as I got sick with pneumonia as part of this current flu epidemic, sick enough to take me out for a couple weeks, with no sick leave benefits, amidst a new year season of little work to begin with. Could not have come at a worse time, and we are at the least, in need of a way to just keep the lights on and bills paid while I get back on my feet. This is all part of a bigger picture that already had us living hand-to-mouth, paycheck to paycheck, trying to right our own ship.

The long of it:
Right after New Year's, I caught the flu and went into a fever at full roar (just under 103) and pretty much stayed for a week and a half until this last Tuesday, from which I am still convalescing, at this writing. Had to go to the hospital, the fever had me in free fall mode at that point. The folks there were fantastic, and as soon as they saw me, flew right into action, I was that bad apprarently, even out of all the flu cases they were seeing. That ER, like so many ER's across the land were absolutely swamped by this, what truly is a flu epidemic.
Was diagnosed for pneumonia with the flu, given massive whale-killing initial treatments at the hospital, then with meds to take home and recoup with. Still convalescing at home, especially trying to help the mind wake back up, being baked over a week and a half by the fever really did a number on the brain, cognition and memory. Doing better now, thank you.
Starting on Wednesday was when I started realizing how bad off I was, and how bad off others had been. Started dialoging socially with others and reading the news, after so long of being hunkered down just trying to survive under such a long lasting fever. In the course of that, several friends suggested that I put forth our situation, financially dire as it is.
I just have not ever wanted to be a beggar, since there are so many out there who have not been blessed near as much as I during times of extreme financial need, so I just wouldn't want go step in front of others. Our pattern in the past has always been to be the people helping, but as one dear Christian lady who has known me since I was a boy put it, "if even only for your time off work without pay in my opinion it's a worthy need and your community of friends may well feel led to help out so don't stand on their air hose." 
I appreciate her gracious explanation, and any size shot in the arm would be greatly helpful. I have become rather invalidated in this experience, and have had no choice but to ride the ride, and try to get better enough at least to go back to work hopefully next week, as a dump truck driver. Not even really sure that there will be any work to come back to, from what I have heard through friends at work.
Please understand that due to our life circumstances even beforehand, this idea to go on GoFundMe had been suggested to me before, but I didn't feel right about it without giving the new job I had been given a chance. We have been blessed with the support of our church and friends all along, helping us over the last 5 years, but after such a long time of trial, and then to get hit with this now just as we were starting to get back on our feet, really is more to bear than anything before, and the resources available to us have already been tapped or used up to their fullest, certainly not by our design, yet we are grateful.

So what are our goals, how are we sitting financially, where do our concerns and prayers reside because of all this?
- Primarily, and essentially, just for helping us get over the hump this month of Daddy being out of work for two weeks, with little work before that - I had only worked two days since Christmas before that.
- Obviously, I just need significant healing, not just bodily, but particularly for mind also. The effects of the pneumonia are still pretty significant right now at this writing, and my mind was significantly addled because of this ordeal, and I am still fighting the battle of rebuilding it. Prayer and thankfulness has been a great help in helping bring the mind back into focus
- Missing out on work does not help us out at all. Especially with no paid sick leave benefits. This puts us over the barrel just to keep the lights on, we were having to live paycheck to paycheck to begin with. We were very thankful for this job, since I found it after I had to spend a year recovering from a work injury that took me out of circulation, and having to finally shut down my own business as an entity. The pay is not what we hoped, we have no benefits as I mentioned, but please don't get me wrong, we are really thankful for what the job has been. It was nice to at least be able to think about being able to put food on the table, instead worrying about how we were going to take care of the children.
- This sickness has put us right back at square one, after the past previous 5 years of financial devastation since losing my previous career in 2011 at the height of the recession, consequently trying avoiding bankruptcy twice, and then getting hit with medical bills especially from my health crash over 2012 and 2013, and a family medical emergency. Consequently, we just have to contend with the burden of the monthly payments from our debt obligations (which still total in the high $30k range). Even though we might be able to massage our monthly living bills here and there to just get by, the payments do not, and will not budge, and total together are the biggest portion of our monthly expenses. These payments come from medical bills and trying to avoid multiple bankruptcies, and from failing and closing my own business I had attempted to start, just to try to do something useful to make a living. Like so many other good people before me, the business didn't last, the injury I mentioned before that I had to take a year off to recover from not helping either.
- Needless to say, if we didn't have these payments, things would have been a lot easier, and we had hoped that with what would have been a  fresh and full start to 2017, we could start getting caught up on our debt obligations with this, which have been too longstanding and a millstone about our neck.
- Was also really hoping to let the kids keep their first real Christmas such as it was (a couple of the younger ones have known nothing but the hand-to-mouth need of the last 5 years), and to bless them along with having 2017 start as the YEAR to finally have a year of means, would also be a nice hope.

The picture you see of our family is obviously all our kids together at Christmas time, but certainly not what we are still taking care of. Some are out on their own, but we still do have 8 cherubs under our wing to take care of.

We are just thankful that my flu did not turn fatal, as it has already done for 45 people here in Washington state alone, from what I have heard. If you are so moved in any way, and could help us out in getting over the hump from my unemployment while being taken out from the flu, we would be most grateful. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and any consideration you can give in reading my hopefully humble little explanation of our situation. Our needs are immediately exigent, so any help would not be growing dust in being used for my family. If not us, then hopefully by reading this, then hopefully I have helped raise awareness for the trauma that can be wreaked from this flu epidemic, and maybe, if anything, we can at least reach out and check on someone who may be suffering nearby, if only to let them know someone cares. Please also remember our valiant men and women in the healthcare services who are doing everything they can to save as many as they can during this epidemic, yet are being stretched very thin and risking getting it themselves.