While a blizzard howled outside, our house caught fire in the middle of the night with my partner Aaron and our two dogs still inside. I was thousands of miles away on a plane returning from Seattle, unaware that everything we had built was burning. A neighbor saw the flames and alerted him just in time. He escaped with the dogs and the clothes he was wearing. Everything else was lost.

Firefighters battled the blaze in brutal winter conditions, but the house was a total loss. By the time I landed and turned my phone back on, our home was already gone. We are endlessly grateful that he and our dogs survived, but we are now facing the reality of starting over from nothing.

We did not have insurance. In the middle of winter, we suddenly have no place to live and almost none of our belongings. Right now, we need help covering emergency housing, food, warm clothing, transportation, replacing critical documents, caring for our dogs, and immediate cleanup and recovery costs.

Any support beyond our most urgent needs will go toward stabilizing our lives and, hopefully, rebuilding a modest home so we can begin again.

Asking for help like this is difficult, but disasters don’t wait for perfect circumstances. If you’re able to donate or share, you’re helping us survive one of the hardest moments of our lives and take the first steps forward.

Thank you for reading, for caring, and for helping us move forward after losing everything.