"I can resist everything except temptation." - Oscar Wilde

They say if you never ask, you'll never know. It isn't easy to admit that we need help, but we do. I do. I'm asking for your support, and I hope you'll consider helping us during this challenging time for our little family.

On a Saturday afternoon last month, I survived a carjacking attempt on the front porch of our home. My wife's mother had just arrived minutes earlier to babysit our 1-year-old daughter so we could go to the movies and have our first date in months. That never happened, as I was shot at point-blank range yet somehow survived with a gunshot wound to my foot.

As you can imagine, our sense of safety in our home vanished after that, so we were forced to consider moving to a new home; although we had just moved (April 2022) into the house we were considering raising our daughter in the next few years. Finding the right place is never a speedy process, yet we found and secured our next home relatively quickly, which was a welcome relief after a few challenging weeks of navigating through the pain and trauma as a family. It gave us hope. Hope that we will be able to recover and get on the road to feeling somewhat normal again.

That hope only lasted a few hours.

Oscar, our beloved bloodhound, vomited his entire breakfast around the time we were going to feed him dinner the day we got the news about being able to move. We then knew what was confirmed yesterday: he ate something or a few things blocking his stomach.

We took him to the vet, and the only way to save him is to have emergency surgery, which costs over $9,000. We are already under financial strain from making another move so soon. With the rest of our resources being used to cover medical and therapy costs to help us recover, our financial resources are tapped out.

He is family.

The holidays are for family, and now more than ever, our little family needs each other to heal.

We appreciate anything you can contribute and wish you all a healthy and happy holiday.

Thank you,

Iso, Annie, Jerry, Guy-Jo & Oscar.