Help Jake's Family Overcome Multiple Crises
Donation protected
Most of you know me from my business, The Jake of All Trades, LLC. We have had a great run since opening in April 2020 and this business is what allows me to provide for my family. I am doing my best to keep the streak going another year but right now I need some help to make sure my family makes it through the end of this year. We have been hit with one emergency after another and can't keep up any longer. With vehicles not running or fitting the kids, major roof and ceiling damage that cut off house insurance and will force us to move quickly if we can't fix it, utility bills rising to shut offs now thankfully paid and on, losing health insurance while having a medically complex kid who has to have therapies and appointments weekly paid in full and unable to get out of attending, and family stress that has my wife taking care of kids and house and everything pretty much alone while I either miss work to help her or work and leave her stuck home because we can't share my work truck daily or find help with the hardest tasks. Life went from we can handle this to no we can't real quick.
I haven't let many know how bad things got and pour myself into my business and jobs hoping that fixes things. I didn't want more judgement on myself or wife or tonembarass anybof us asking for help. We are doing the best we can with what we have, it just isn't enough and now, it is so bad we need help from those that know and care about our family so we can save our home, restore our ability to live, and bring us all some much needed relief, peace, security, and hope.
If I could work all day I sure would. I love meeting new people, the way no day or hour is the same, the challenges of fixing things, and the ability to meet so many new people and help them. Work and hours and good pay isn't the problem. The problem is when I leave for work, my wife is home with all the kids and no support or vehicle and cannot leave the house to do the things that are necessary (schools, work, appointments, Izzy's medical stuff), either no one will help watch the kids at our house even when we offer to pay or want more an hour for dealing with the drive to us or learning to handle Izzy's medical issues, or just the fact a babysitter charges 15 an hour per kid times up to 4 kids and it costs more than I make an hour to get an extra set of hands and she still has to have me come home from work tonuse my truck so I skip days or weeks of jobs to handle the things that my wife can't do without babysitters or a vehicle to do it herself.
My wife has handled our six kids and all the things that come with kids ages now 2 to 20 so I could build my buisness. School, appointments, errands, events, running the house, fixing the meals is what she did while I was building The Jake of All Trades. She had to quit her job to take care of our neice, Izzy, when she was placed in our care and eventually adopted by us a few years ago. A lot know about Izzy, she's our resident unicorn- unbelievable despite her medical issues and the damage grounds of her adoption did to all families involved. My wife was able to keep up with all the things moms and wives often do themselves plus adding Izzy's new medical plans and appointments until her vehicle had transmission failure and we couldn't repair or replace it. Since then, when cash is extra, we have tried to pick up a 1500 or so vehicle that obviously wasn't smart since they broke down beyond repair within weeks setting us further behind. It was best we could do with what we had, because without a second vehicle at home, I would miss work to let her use my work truck, but financing or buying a good vehicle wasn't in the budget with missing so much income trying to cope. When you have kids all these ages and with medical needs living 25-45 minutes out from where all the schooling and appointments happen 3 to 5 days a week, me missing work to share my work truck to handle that adds up quickly to me barely working and then it was deciding between me going to work to earn money to pay for all the things I have been trying to keep up hoping to get enough to buy a better vehicle or skipping work to share the role of taking care of all the kids needing to be driven places every single day when only 3 could safely fit in my truck at a time but up to all 8 of us needed to be in different places at the same times! I can't do everything alone. My wife can't do everything alone. It was a client who told me flat out to ask for help this way because our expectations, circumstances, and obligations greatly surpass our abilities alone, resources, and support to overcome. He's right. It's an emergency and we need help from those around us. If you know me or my wife or any of our kids, it isn't their faults! They are good kids. We are good people. We just hit some really hard times. I can work more if some how I can help my wife to take back her role of caring for the kids needs- school, therapies, and medical appointments. She can and wants to go back to work. We are just sort of stuck between what we can do with what we have not being enough to do anything that is pressing as an emergency pay for it right now thing.
Between my work jobs being booked solid and my family struggling and needing me home- not working- I can't keep up or choose what to do with what I have. I picked work more to keep money coming in to pay the house and utilities. Which meant my wife and kids have stopped leaving the house, switched to homeschooling, quit all of Izzys medical plan, and that has got really bad real quick for all of them. Their days at home are long, lonely, and hard. Needs are not being met, and that can't continue.
Off the job clock where I do my work and laugh and be the fun guy most think of me as- life at home is much harder to deal with and enjoy. All the things breaking, being missed, needing to be replaced, calls to come home for missing kid apppintments and needing to get to doctors, the days and nights blurring together for my wife who never gets a break, medical issues on one kid that we could handle spiral when stuck home, worrying about getting diapers or groceries, trying to find sitters to make it back to her job, then getting no where but behind and judged for asking for help.
When I'm not working my business, I have been trying to be a good husband and father to our 6, i remain hard working and loved by many but inside, i am torn from regretting not asking for help sooner but embarrassed and ashamed to do so.
Here we are about to start December which is my favorite time and I can't do the things I used to for my family. The last few weeks we found out pride isn't important as emergencies mount- my family is important and why I started my own business and when Im looking at what needs to be paid, knowing all I got is 2200 in cash, well, the saying about not knowing struggle until you become one emergency away from losing everything has hit us with multiple things needing all I have left and no understanding how to cover anything that hinges on another thing being paid for:
- House insurance is necessary in our park- without it, we have a 30 day notice to move out. Our roof is 33 years old, leaking, needing major repairs, and so far no house insurance will cover an old trailer with a bad roof until it is repaired. We cannot afford the repair quotes but might be able to temporarily extend the lack of insurance/total repairs with patching. We have called multiple agencies and been denied assitance or explained why their contacts cannot repair roofs in November/December due to the repair costs and not owning our trailer, and the trailer being in a park not land. Places won't help what they consider rentals and the full repairs require us to leave the house until the ceiling and rafters are fixed and return fornthe roofing repairs. We cannot find a place to stay short term or a longer term rental that fits all the kids and is affordable if we forgo repairs and leave our home for good. Do we move? If so, where with all these kids? And how when we can barely afford a trailer and rentals to fit 5 kids are much more expensive? Does anyone have an idea? We can't afford to quick patch the leaks and repair interior ceilings but maybe if we could do raise funds or borrow and find an insurance company that approves a temporary fix we can save our house. House insurance on a trailer is fairly cheap for a year if we get the roof and ceilings repaired. The quick patching to handle snow weightd and appease insurance to cover us will probably run me up to 5000 inside and out.
- My work truck blew a tire. They aren't under warranty any more so there's needing 4 more tires quickly because the rest are coming close to the same problem. The cash going to tires to keep my work truck going when driving 40k miles a year is almost the same amount we set to spend on our house, lot rent, and utilities fornall of December. We have 2200 in cash, on hand left. Nothing else. That amount total will cover the house payment, water, trash, electric and natural gas utilities, minimal groceries, and kids diapers for the month, maybe some gas for the truck but nothing else. Now we need tires to keep me working but the house and such is due for December. How do you pick? We already said Christmas isn't happening present wise, we can't cut groceries or diapers, we can skip utilities and the house payment espcially if we can't fix the roof and have to leave by January 1st but still may have to afford to move out in 30 days. All this is too much to comprehend but needs to be dealt with.
- Izzy's neuro-team called and wants her in for an MRI, CT Scan, and the surgeon followup apppintment immediately, with a pre-appointment clearance from her pediatrician. We lost health insurance and have been self pay with Izzy's medical. The bill estimate is sitting at 1800 to 2000 for the pre appointment, tests, and follow-up. It actually happens every 3 months or more often if she has a seizure as part of her care plan. The MRIs and neurosurgeon followup average 1200 each visit, more if we get referred to another consult. We are current in her past bills but cannot cover this one right now and the billing will not bill us out or do payments. We cannot delay the appointment date in December any longer, but, well that's also the same amount that we have left to cover anything until January so if we miss it there are reprecussions we are trying to avoid.
- We did get our utilities paid in full through the end of November with part of that 2200 being some gifted money set to pay December's utilities and we do not have any shut offs, thanks to some amazing clients who went above and beyond and encouraged me to ask for help and not be concerned about my pride and fear of judgement. They said ask- and we will either get help or be in the same position and know we tried everything.
- We feel we just really need a second vehicle that runs and drives reliably and seats 3 car seats minimum to stop this downward spiral and get back on out feet. We cannot finance a vehicle or sell my work truck but going without something that she can use with the kids while i work is keeping my wife and kids home, stopping us from having a "regular" life- we can't go anywhere as a family, we can't go to church, the kids have to be homeschooled, Izzy needs to get to her therapies and appointments but we can't keep up daily, we can't fit in my work truck and keep using that because then I can't work and our income stops. My wife has to be able to take kids to school, their jobs, their activities, their appointments. She has the ability to return to her previous job in Real Estate but must drive to Allendale from Fennville to do so, she has an affordable daycare lined up for our 2, 4 and 6 year olds. Our 4, 6 , and 12 year old can all attend the same school where Izzy would be able to join a Special Education program that provides the same therapies we have to pay out of pocket at no cost to us and would save so much money each month. We could resume our previous lifestyle and give our kids back things that others take for granted with a second vehicle or just a vehicle that fits kids and a parent. We can find a good used vehicle around 3k to 5k. We could get a second income and make payments on a better financed vehicle if my wife goes back to her job, so that's an option if we could find a way to get her to and from work and the kids to their schools and daycare daily for a few weeks until we get the finance approval off her income. That plan would help us not face another year of going without, struggling, and falling behind. Our kids deserve a quality of life that we did provide until emergencies piled up. Especially Izzy who has therapies 3 to 5 days each week and has life long medical issues that would be easier to handle if we weren't left without adequate support and resources. She has Autism which is eased with her attending therapies, and ordered routine monitoring of ventriculomegaly (fluid filled brain ventricles), a central brain lipoma that has been growing since she was born that causes random seizures and memory loss and muscle issues, a frontal scalp mass with bone loss that we are waiting to hear what it is from the CT scan, vision loss, right side weakness, and other accompaning issues that stem from her changing brain pressure and such from fluid retention. She does not recieve financial support or state based services as her adoption was between family members and remains a point of great tension.
Friends and family, clients and strangers, I am not the guy who will admit defeat or ask for help or let you see what my wife sees because I was taught as the man we provide and don't admit struggle. I am hurt, embarrassed, and worn down writing this, imagine how it has been living it the last year and a half, knowing multiple times a little help could have set course different yet I let pride win and asked no one. My wife has been asking for help with the things I said were not a big deal and taking the judgement and being told she's a bad mom for not going back to work and even some went as far as saying she lied because I would say we were doing fine while she asked for help and stories didn't add up. I have been saying we are okay and it's nothing we cant handle...and that was the lie. We tried and tried and it isnt enough alone. God provided much because I don't know how else we made it this long, this bad, but I fear we cannot keep it up and are facing things we cannot do alone.
We are not okay.
My business is doing great and my clients and job hours are enough, if I can work as normal. I cannot work my normal hours when we are in panic mode and facing so much due at one time with the issues at home. If we could raise enough to purchase a second vehicle or enough to cover one of these emergency expenses due in December, it would make such a difference. I don't want to move or close my business or see my family split up because we can't find a place for all of us to go together if we can't save this house. my family doesn't want to see another hardship or major change or struggle until we hit the point of, absolute unknown and loss. We don't even know how we would move in 30 days, where we would go, how we would do it. And of all times this hits at Christmas when I don't want to tell my kids we can't get them presents, and have to move. I need your help. My family needs your help, if your heart and circumstances allow, we would in every sense be better off.
This is a lot to ask. We don't want judgement or hurtful words. We will go over specific needs and show paperwork trails and doctors records and such if that helps make sense. We are open to discussions, ideas, and anything else that can help us with what we have not tried, or need to try differently. Thank you for taking the time to read what I dont say outlook.
Organizer
Jacob Taylor
Organizer
Fennville, MI