Hello, my name is Kelsey. I live in Lincoln, NE with my wonderful husband Brian, son Bradyn, and daughter Chloe. We have lived in our current home for 4 years now. Since we moved in, we have done extensive remodeling, rebuilding, and repairing. We have made this our home that is very warm and welcoming. We have put our blood, sweat, and tears into this house.

We are a very loving and caring family. Our two children, are both developmentally delayed and both suffer from seizures. So the love we put into this home makes it that much more special to us. They are on a daily regimen of several medications each. They both rely on some consistency and routine in their lives to makes daily functions better.

We have all 4 lived in Lincoln our whole lives. We may never call another place home again. So we know that weather in Nebraska can be a bit rough in December. Cold, snow, blizzards. But not in all my 39 years have I ever remembered having a 70 degree weather day that had potential for tornadoes all day!

December 15, 2021 was a day that many may be remembering. For my family, it will be the day that we lost our home. Having 80+ mph winds that day left a tree smashing down into 1/3 of our house from front to back, and top to bottom. We are no longer able to live in the house as we fear the tree will fall further into the house. We have huge holes in the roof and with cold weather quickly approaching heat is not able to be kept in the house. Half the roof has been bent backwards by the same wind. Insulation covered the front yard like it was snowing. My bedroom, vanity, and toilet area of bathroom are inaccessible. The ceiling of two other bedrooms are quickly falling in to the bedrooms as well.

We are in need of help getting this repaired, or replaced if it cant be repaired. We estimate that the costs of this is going to be expensive. We are looking into fixing the broken parts here at our home or finding a new place to live. We will be getting storage units as our stuff wont be able to go wherever we go for our temporary situation. We will be turning off our utilities more than likely as we don't want to start with a balance when we come to a new start. First and last months rent I'm sure will be a thing that will be needed as well.

Moving from place to place isn't the easiest when you have two kids that need medical attention very often throughout the year. With monthly visits to children's hospital for appointments the cost of the gas tallies up fast. It isn't the best timing of the year with the holidays right around the corner, Christmas is going to be a hard battle this year for the kids. I can hardly sleep knowing that my kids don't have a house to call home, they don't have their own room or bed to sleep in at night. The 2 kids and I are currently staying at my sisters-in-law house, sleeping on the couch downstairs. We are grateful to her for letting us stay there during this hardship. Dad and our dog (who is pregnant and ready to have puppies) are staying with a friend. Having our family split between two different houses during this is rough.

Thank you for helping us provide a comfortable, safe shelter for our family.

Thank you