<div>When Ken and I met, it was during the worst point in my journey with severe chronic illness.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I became unable to work due to neurological issues that caused painful spasms and difficulty with mobility. I was unable to walk without a cane, walker, or wheelchair. I also experienced migraines, endometriosis, and suspected lupus. I have undergone multiple surgeries, and shaved my head to make maintaining hygiene more manageable.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>After 10 years of working in early childhood education as a teacher and preschool director, I had to resign. My health deteriorated to the point that I was unable to maintain a job as a supermarket cashier, even with FMLA.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I moved across the country in March 2017 to live with my sister, who offered to help support me while I applied for Medicaid and disability. I was unfortunately denied for disability benefits.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I met Ken through mutual friends on Thanksgiving 2017. We quickly became friends and began dating the next summer. I was hesitant to get into a romantic relationship because I didn’t want to be a burden, but Ken never shied away. He gladly carried me up and down the stairs of our second floor apartment every single day, and held my hand through every flare up and hospital visit.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>In our relationship, Ken has been my caretaker, as well as working, taking care of our pets, and now our two children. Although I’m so grateful that my health has improved since then, I still struggle, and it has had a drastic and lasting impact on our situation that we have not been able to overcome.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>In 2021 Ken and I both got COVID. Ken was hospitalized and later put on oxygen, I was in and out of the ER with pneumonia, and our 11 month old son had to go stay with my sister for several weeks. As attachment parents, it was extremely difficult to separate from our son but we had no choice, and we are so deeply grateful for that support. During this time, he began calling my sister “Mama” and was visibly confused when he saw us again. This also abruptly ended our breastfeeding journey - when he finally came home he would no longer latch. It was extremely traumatic for him, and all of us. This experience is when we began to fall behind on bills and rent, and we’ve had difficulty catching up ever since.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Ken’s work in commercial HVAC slowed in December of 2023, and he got laid off in February shortly before I had our daughter and has been out of work since. Although we are extremely grateful to receive government assistance, and unemployment benefits as of April, right now what we receive is not covering our rent, bills, and basic necessities like diapers, wipes, and toilet paper. Ken has been diligently looking for work, and donating plasma twice a week. It has been a challenge to find an open position that is full time and pays enough to offset the additional financial loss our family would incur by losing our benefits including Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>In addition to being unstable with housing, we are currently 5 months (over $2,400) behind on our car payment, and have received notice of repossession. Registration expired in March and we have been financially unable to renew. On 7/3, Ken got ticketed for expired registration when he had to report to the courthouse for jury duty. Then on 7/5, he was pulled over and given another ticket on his way to meet up with someone who was gifting food to our family. At this time our car is being kept in our garage until it is inevitably repossessed. We have no alternate form of transportation, and now have have hundreds of dollars in parking and traffic tickets added onto our debt as well.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We have also fallen behind on electric, gas, and water bills. In April, our daughter underwent oral surgery that was not covered by insurance and cost over $500, not including pain relief medications. 
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We have been utilizing diaper banks and our local “buy nothing” group, as well as a charity program from a local restaurant for free sandwiches to offset costs. We’ve been borrowing wifi hotspots from our local libraries in order to have access to internet. As of 7/5 we no longer have access to these resources due to lack of transportation.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Through these past years of juggling bills and accruing debt, our landlord has been so kind, gracious, and patient. We have maintained a verbal agreement to work together as long as we continued paying what we can toward the back balance. Our landlord has gone above and beyond to accommodate and support us, but of course we understand that she has her own responsibilities and struggles as well. At the end of May, our landlord informed us that we either need to pay off our back rent balance of $10,000 by 6/30/24, or face eviction on 7/1. (*The deadline has been extended for now, see update for details.)
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Even if we are able to achieve a miracle and pay off the back rent balance, our housing situation remains uncertain. We need to be able to pay our monthly rent moving forward, and at this point we don’t know whether our landlord will be willing to renew our lease which expires in September. And if the lease is renewed, we face a potential rent increase as well.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Although our financial crisis expands beyond rent, we are prioritizing keeping our family housed. Right now we don’t have another place to go. We are doing everything we can think of to earn and save, and just praying for a miracle.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We definitely understand times are tough for many right now, and this campaign is a last resort. If anyone is in a position to help by sharing or donating, it would truly mean the world to us and our children.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>$10,000 is the total amount owed in back rent. Any additional funds raised beyond that amount will be used to get current on other bills that have fallen behind, secure transportation, cover necessities like diapers, pay rent and/or moving costs going forward, and to serve the well-being of our children and our family.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We are also open to leads on jobs and housing, as well as assistance programs we may not have heard of or tried. If you know anybody looking for energy work or side/cash jobs please keep us in mind. Thank you so much!!
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>With love &amp; gratitude,
</div>
<div>Michelle &amp; Ken Lau
</div>

Anonymous

Guy Wiggins

Monique Jackson

Minh Chung

Jung Chung

Anna Hoang

Mark Price

Help the Laus Keep Their Home

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Eligible for Profile Comment Badge

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

isEligibleForProfileCommentBadge

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Help the Laus Keep Their Home

Still $7,120 to go. Help us build momentum.