Good morning to everyone who may see this. I'm making this GoFundMe but am hesitant to share it out of spite of it being hard enough to even make one of these. I warn you my mind is scattered and I got no idea what all I'm going to say, this is all raw thoughts. I've had these made for my son and me in the past to help get by when we are in the hospital for months at a time and my jobs in Michigan fire me. Well, now times have been more difficult as I cannot go back to work until the middle of May at my career in road construction. I do that because in the summer I have a caregiver for him, his stepmom Virginia. But she can't get paid to watch him when I'm laid off for the season, and she goes to work at the local ISD, which is a school for our special needs children. I worked there for a couple of years and was gonna go back in the winter instead of collecting unemployment. Well, that didn't work out as my son has required me to be home with him pretty much since October, and now here we are in the hospital for a week at the beginning of December. Let me tell you a little bit about our past couple of years to sum it up.

Life has been hard. I was a single man for a long time taking care of him, finding work that would work around my son's appointments and special needs. It's crazy. I got a great job at the school where he went. The pay was very low, but I could get him on the bus and be home before his bus arrived. It made life manageable, but only because my brother and sister-in-law let my son and me live there and pay some rent. It was all going good until I started feeling like a burden on people because not only was it Trenton and me, I also have 4 other kids. Two are older, and I adopted them at a very young age. They are Jordon and Lauren. Now they don't come around much, and I do not blame them. I haven't had a place of my own, and it was hard to get sleeping arrangements for 5 kids and 1 adult. But I have 2 other kids that come every other weekend and on vacation and whenever I can get them that love to come and stay, but we all slept 4 in one small room. I was thinking it's just too much for one room. What can I do to be a better father and make life good for my kids and me?

Well, things just got worse. My truck broke down that I was financing, my only means of transportation and getting my son to and from appointments with his wheelchair. It broke down in June 2023. I had a mechanic who I'm no longer afraid to name because he is a licensed mechanic with an LLC. His name's Joe. Everything is written in a contract of how much I would owe him for an engine rebuild, but sadly I was too patient with him. I let him have every excuse in the book as to why he kept delaying my truck after we had a written contract. Well, lo and behold, he texted and said he can't build it. Mind you, it's now been a year. It was June 2024 when he forced me to get it towed off his property, which cost me $200. Not to mention when he told me he made the engine worse, he wasn't lying. I had to purchase a lower mileage engine. Mind you, the engine cost me $1500, and I've now spent around $5k in parts, labor, and extra money for other parts I gave him cash for to buy as he got discounts, and he never refunded me the cash, not the parts. So my new mechanic, a great guy who has bent over backward and ate the cost of labor to try and help get my truck running, got it running, but it still has misfires. So until that's figured out, I am carless. So we're going on two years of what one mechanic drew up a contract saying he could get fixed for $500. And now, in the end, I've spent over $4500 and had to get a new mechanic, not to mention some of the parts he had me purchase are unusable for the truck. So what that part of the story is just a bit of what it's been like without a vehicle I've been paying payments on and insurance in total $500 a month for a vehicle I can't use. Some would say let it get repoed, but the truth is I can't because I can't get another vehicle. All I've ever wanted was to make e ought to get a wheelchair accessible van as my son is getting too large to pick up and put in a carseat. My credit's super low, and my income was super low as a single dad. So financing a van is impossible

But here's a bit of the good starting to grow. I met a woman, and we started dating. We got a house in August of 2024. Things were going good. I got a great job in the summer, and she was paid a very minimal amount to take care of him while I was working over the road, but I made good enough money we could make it by. Sadly, the work season ended short in September 2025, and I was busy playing catch up paying parts for the truck that wasn't running and catching up on bills and payments on one solid income that I just couldn't save up. Unemployment I was hoping for full benefits, and yes, I know a real man should always have a job, but the truth is one of us needs to be home with my son as he is severely disabled. I trusted his mom and her boyfriend with my son, and this is why he ended up over 75% brain damaged a day before his first birthday. So trust doesn't come easy. But anyways, sorry, long story short, unemployment is only $347 a week, and child support takes that down to $257ish a week, which isn't bad. My ex and I have a great co-parenting friendship. But anyways, as I got laid off and was hoping unemployment would help us get by until next season, I learned it will not. I was gonna go back to work, and the problem with that is my son has now been going on 2 months of hospital visits, appointments, and missing school every day because his vomiting and bowels are unable to be controlled, and finding a solution to his needs is a serious puzzle that doctors struggle with.

I've been very fortunate that my son's adoptive mom as she's also the mother to my other 4 kids. She has been there to make these for me in the past and to check in on us throughout these times. So I appreciate her as well. I could only wish so many separating parents had the co-parenting friendship we have

So now is the tough part. I'm asking for some help just to get by so I can stay home with my son, or in the hospital. They help with the food here, thankfully. It's not much, but one meal a day is survivable. What I can't manage is to take care of house payments, my truck, and our new family vehicle, so I may have to let the state repo my only vehicle. I'm not asking for much because I know I'm a father. I shouldn't let this happen. I should always be ahead of the game, and that's what beats me up is not being the man my kids need. I'm not there for everything. As much as I try, something like this happens, and then I miss my kids' sports events. I miss out on jobs. The state of Michigan just doesn't help parents with special needs children enough. So I guess this is my reach for help. I haven't done it in my 38 years of living. I've never asked for it, even when my son was abused and I had to miss work for months on end. I didn't ask for it whenever I lost jobs due to meeting my son's hospital needs and stays. But the burden is strong on me. I have a house, a family back home, and if I lose my home, who knows what will happen? Will the state take my son from me? I worry, and I'm scared as he's been my best friend since my divorce. He's all I had to look forward to seeing every day. So I just ask, please find it in your heart to help me find a way to stay home with my son for a few months until May. Whether it be resources or just to talk to me as a parent of a kid with special needs, I need some strength to borrow as my hope is wearing thin on my abilities to be a father. I just feel like I'm failing my son and the other kids by not being more. I know this story is all over the place. I know it makes some look weak, but I am. I am weak now. I'm no longer the same man I was years ago. The battle of doing everything by the book to get my son the help he needs and to do it all legitimately has taken its toll. I just simply feel defeated when it comes to hospitals and my son. I know they're trying to take care of him. Helen DeVos has been so good to my kids over the years, and yes, I have tried multiple hospitals when I feel one isn't providing the correct care. But yeah, I'll wrap it up with I feel Michigan just doesn't offer enough to parents with kids with disabilities, disabilities which prevent a parent from being able to hold a normal full-time job. My son is 14! And he should feel nothing but strength and love from me, so I'll continue trying to fight this battle with him to the best I can. Honestly, opening up to myself through this has helped calm me down. Sorry to rant so much in here. Bless you all ❤️