Help The Stock Family

Joshua Stock and his family, which consists of his wife Esther, two boys Zach (10) and Thaddeus (8), and recent legal guardianship of Robert (17) and Carrolann (15), are in need of our help. Josh is a giving pastor, a loving husband, a caring father, a thoughtful son, an all around kind, gracious, and humble man, and he’s also my brother. 

I realize that this is a little lengthy, but if nothing else, please give just 5 minutes of your time to a family in need. 

This is the last thing that I have written in this post. It has found it’s way here because placing it here was weighing way too heavy on my heart. I feel in this situation it best to just get all of the awkwardness of asking for help out of the way, in hopes that it will allow your heart to lead you through the story and to your whatever decision you make. I believe it took me writing the rest of this for God to get me to a place of bold honesty. 

So here goes...we do not know the exact amount of medical bills yet, but our best guess, as of now, is that it will be around $50,000. This does not include any loss of crucial income for their family, from his part time handyman work, over the next 4-6 weeks as his leg heals. Any pain medication or antibiotics. Or, the every other day visits he’ll have to make to the hospital, or possibly have a nurse come to their house every other day instead to change out the Pico pump packing in his leg. ***Please read this next part with caring, compassionate eyes as I am adding fairly personal information. Please, please do not take this as me making an effort to gain added sympathy. This is me saying that my brother’s family, our family needs help, and we’ll be raw and uncomfortably real. So, the estimated cost is $50,000. That is about the same as their yearly income, for a family of six. Also, they currently do not have health insurance. They have been covered up until recently, but because of the size of their family, and the fact Josh and his son are both diabetic, their monthly premium and yearly deductible/out of pocket spending are very high, and they had to make a choice between continuing coverage, or covering the cost of their insulin each month and other housing/cost of living bills. 

As you read the story below, I ask that you do so with a compassionate heart. Put yourself in Josh’s shoes as a husband, a father, and a provider. Or Esther’s, as a wife and a mother. Or even their kid’s shoes, as a child who is worried about their father or concerned about their parents having enough money to make it through the month. This family is my family...please love on them like you hope someone would love on you or your family. Lastly, I ask that you challenge yourself. It’s very easy to read through these, especially if you don’t know the person, and do nothing. I’m ashamed to even say how many times I’ve been guilty of it. I challenge you to challenge yourself to do something different this time, or to push your level comfort. I’m not just talking about financially. But since I’m being real, that’s the main reason we’re here, so I challenge you to push yourself in giving financially. However, If you usually read something like this and just feel indifferent, I challenge you to re-read it and feel something for someone. Feel sympathy, empathy, hurt, and/or love for someone. If you typically read something like this and you think to yourself that this is sad, but just move on...I challenge you to say something. Make a connection, give a word of advice, or take a minute to encourage someone who is going through a hard time in life. A word spoken in love can change generations! 

Thank you in advance to all of the wonderful people who challenge themselves, and choose to make a positive impact in other’s lives. 

———————Josh’s Story——————-

A little less than three weeks ago, Josh had noticed two small, what appeared to be some sort of insect bites, on the calf of his right leg. 

Before I continue, I feel as though I need to provide a little backstory. Aside from Josh’s primary passion of being a full time pastor, Josh does side jobs during the week, mostly small construction/handyman repair type jobs, to help bring in extra income to support just the basic, conservative needs of his family of six. And most days, between the many hats he wears as a pastor, offering a helping hand to anyone in need, and working side jobs in any of his spare time, Josh works anywhere from 14-18 hrs a day. In addition to this, Josh also has type 1 diabetes, that he’s had since the age of 11. His oldest son, Zach, also has had type 1 diabetes since the age of 2. I really hope that this brief backstory provides adequate insight into how caring, generous, and hardworking my brother is.

Back to the story. After noticing the red marks on his leg, Josh had a side job that he was working on that required him to work in a crawl space of a house, which unaware, contained harmful mold and bacteria. A day or so later he began to notice that the marks on his leg were worsening. Not wanting to use any of the money needed to provide for his family on medical cost or antibiotics, Josh tried to “tough-it-out” and tend to it himself, in hopes that it would get better. 

After a few days had passed, the red spots were only not healing, but were getting bigger and more painful. Being a diabetic and knowing how hard it is for any type of wound or infection to heal, he and his wife, Esther, decided that they needed to go see a doctor, spend some money, and get an antibiotic or something to help heal this before it got any worse. So, Josh went to an urgent care and received a prescription for an antibiotic. 

After about 4-5 days on the antibiotic, they hadn’t seen any change for the better. In fact, once again, things were only worse, and his marks that were once tiny red insect bites, had now become open sores and the redness was beginning to spread throughout his calf. On day 5 of antibiotics, he woke up to excruciating pain and a right leg, from the knee to the ankle, that was more than double it’s normal size. 

Unable to even walk now, Josh was taken to the hospital, and was admitted immediately. Within the first few hours of being there, they took numerous blood samples and ran multiple tests. Upon examination of the results, not only did he have an obviously serious infection in his leg (that they still weren’t sure what it was or what it was from), but his liver and white blood cell counts were nearly triple the normal levels.



After a few ups and downs over the next three days in the hospital, his doctors were able to finally get his white blood cell and liver levels back to a stable level. However, his infection wasn’t getting better, and Josh said that he was still dealing with “by far the worst pain that I have ever felt”. 

Day 4 in the hospital - they performed a scan on his leg in order to get a visual of the infection and determine if it had made it into his soft tissue, or potentially devastating news, into his bone. Which would mean amputation. And at this point, just from the visible, outer damage alone caused by the infection, combined with the Josh’s diabetes, made amputation a very real possibility and took on an overwhelming presence of everyone’s thoughts. 

Day 5 in the hospital - The results from the scan were inconclusive. The doctor didn’t think the infection had reached the bone, but couldn’t say for certain that it hadn’t, either. So, surgery was the only way to be sure. Just like that, it was scheduled for the following morning, and an Orthopedic surgeon had to be brought in.

Day 6 in the hospital- Nerves, followed by a soothing certainty that God is in control and that God is enough in any and all situations, is what filled my heart and mind that morning. I can’t imagine what Josh was feeling and thinking, knowing that he could possibly end up coming out of that room lesser of a man , but if I know my brother’s faith, and I do, I bet that he had as much confidence.