Hi, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this. My name is Karen Garcia. I am a single mom of 3 children. Tommie is 17 yrs old (did not want his picture up), Nathaniel is 9 yrs old, & Yalissa is 8 yrs old. My reason for this go fund me is to raise money towards getting a used car to bring my kids to school. This page was challenging for me to do. I am not the one to ask for help or let anyone know what I am going through. I tend to deal with my problems on my own but thinking of my kids, and what is very important for them, I had to put my pride aside and ask for help.

I was recently told that the transmission to my 2007 Nissan gave up, and it's not going to last much. I recently fixed a few things that put a hole in my pocket to find out at the end that it was my transmission the whole time that was giving me problems. So I was told either I get a new transmission, which can cost the same as getting a new, used car. A car is essential because I live in Attleboro, Ma, and my kids still attend Chelsea Schools & Perkins School for the Blind. It's about an hour's drive back and forth without traffic.

To explain a little bit of how I got here is a little hard for me because I usually don't discuss my problems, especially with the public. I am very to myself, and if you know me, you know I would have never done something like this, but as I said before, I need to put my pride aside and ask for help because it's required. About a year ago, I lived in an apartment with my kids. My oldest, Tommie, has always slept at my house or his grandma's house. When he would stay with me, sometimes he did some things that I was not allowed to do in my building. As a teenager, he did it several times. I was then told he was no longer allowed to come to my apartment. I then thought about it and knew I could not live somewhere where my child cant come and stay with me. I decided to leave the apartment instead of fighting to stay in a place where we would never be comfortable. I moved in with my mom to save money to move to a new apartment. With my luck, I was laid off from my job, which affected my plans to move to an apartment with my kids. I was depressed, really thinking about my next steps because I felt like I was hitting rock bottom. I went through all the savings I had. It was not much, but it was the savings I was doing to move to our place. I eventually picked myself up and did what I had to do. We are currently in a scattered site shelter in Attleboro, MA. My daughter Yalissa needs a lot of accommodations when it comes to finding a place to live. Yalissa has congenital Hypotonia (low muscle tone), Global Developmental Delay, Autism, Cortical Visual Impairment, swallowing dysfunction and Epilepsy. In addition, she has a genetic diagnosis, PACS2-related disease. (It's a new genetic disorder, they are still researching it, but If you want to learn more, please feel free to reach out to me). As a result, Yalissa cannot walk distances without becoming extremely fatigued; She cannot navigate stairs alone safely. She has poor balance, as well as poor eyesight. In addition, Yalissa is easily overstimulated, which leads to aggression, agitation, and destructive behavior when she is in a loud place or is around a lot of people and is an area that is not familiar to her. On the other hand, she is good with consistency and routine. Because of all these reasons, it has been hard to find a place closer to home. I do not want any of this change to affect any of y children, which is why they are still going to the same schools with the hope of moving closer. Yalissa attends Perkins School for the Blind. This school has been a BLESSING for Yalissa. She has accomplished so much since she started going to Perkins. Everyone that knows Yalissa notices the difference in her. From then and NOW, Yalissa has performed and succeeded in so many milestones. No one expects her to do yet. Perkins has taught her so much. I can't imagine the thought of needing to change her school because I can no longer drive her there. Yalissa does not do good with change at all!! The change would be a significant setback for her. For her and my kids, I decided to put my pride aside.

As some of you may know, Yalissa is always full of smiles despite her condition. She is always happy as long as things go the way she expects them to. She is so loveable and loves to giggle when you pretend to fall. She will make you fall in love with her presence. Yalissa has been tremendously strong and became very set in her ways despite everything. Yalissa will let you know what she wants and make sure you get her what she wants you to do even though she is nonverbal. Her ability to do this speak volume about how smart she is.

We would be happy and blessed if I could drive my kids back and forth to school and home. Any amount helps. Even if you cannot donate, please share this page as many times as possible. We will greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

If you want to know more about Yalissa or us, don't hesitate to contact me.