Support Victoria's Maternity and Family Leave

My partner and I cannot wait to welcome our baby Carter to the world in May. But neither of us are in a financial position to take family time off and keep paying the bills. Because I am a freelancer and work as a Graduate Assistant in my Masters program, I have no employer-sponsored maternity leave.

We live in a small apartment and we are keeping our baby registry at an absolute minimum. This may be an unconventional registry item, but rather than spending money on expensive gifts, we are asking our friends and family to help us fund our family leave. Without a little support, I will be scrambling to find income just a few weeks after Carter is born.

If I can raise at least $4,000, I will have secured my current monthly income for 3 months. Anything above that could go to giving her dad, Jordan, a little more time off of work to spend with us past his one week of paid sick time and two weeks of paid vacation.

$7600 would allow Carter's dad to take his full 12 weeks off with us. While he has 12 weeks of family leave available, it is unpaid and we are unable to afford him taking that time off. 

We don't need a lot of fancy material things to care for Carter, but we do need to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table and the car running. We do need time to bond with her.

Three months of maternity leave will also give me the time to figure out where I will begin working this Fall to better support us and begin saving up for a home where we can raise our family in the years to come.

Y'all know me. If I could make a suggestion -- it's time to start pushing our Congressional representatives to pass federal paid family leave so that my family and millions of families across this country are no longer put in this position. Vote out the ones who won't support it. :)