Keeping the Przylepa Family Together

Hi, we are Cam & Chace. We are raising a beautiful, tenacious, and incredibly unique family on a mini-homestead in Maryland. Three beautiful kiddos, and a whole bunch of animals on half an acre. Literally? Our dream life! Unfortunately, we have found ourselves in a desperate, emergent situation after almost a full year of scary, intense legal battling to keep our family together and safe.

In 2019, Cam left an abusive marriage with nothing but their clothes and their three kids. They left their home, furniture, family car, and even waived away alimony to simply get away and be safe and free. By 2022, it became necessary to file a restraining order against their ex (which was granted and finalized) and it has been one never-ending nightmare after another since then. As a family and with the help of our community we have put up nearly $30,000 in legal fees over the past year to continue fighting to keep these three beautiful children safe in our home. This legal battle has caused Cam to have to recount numerous times to complete strangers the entirety of their history of abuse, triggering severe PTSD. Hours upon hours every week are dedicated to getting the children in therapy appointments, getting ourselves in therapy appointments (then processing after the therapy appointments). Countless days have had to be taken off of work by Chace for court dates, social worker interviews, therapy, and simply children living with trauma who need above and beyond support to get through normal school experiences. All of this is intrinsically complicated as an LGBTQ+ family raising a transgender child. Chace has already undergone one gender-affirming and life-saving surgery in July of 2022 and his next surgery is dated for May. We officially don't know how to keep our family afloat until our final legal hearing to end all of this occurs in July, 2023.

We have sold everything of value that either of us have (including wedding rings). We've held fundraisers. We both work. We've emptied our savings and taken loans against Chace's retirement funds. We've taken out loans from friends and family. We've both taken on extra work and freelance jobs whenever possible. And we are officially running on empty. Cam's bank is currently $400+ overdrawn and Chace has $65 left until payday as of this writing. We do *not* qualify for any current state-offered or federal programs that would supply aid such as food stamps.

Cam's car needs $1200 to avoid repossession.

The family van payment is about to be missed this month.

We cannot pay April rent.

We cannot pay for the daycare our 5-year-old needs so we can keep working.

We can't buy groceries.

The ceiling of our home living room is *actively* raining from water damage that occurred last week and we need to get it repaired immediately for health and safety.

Chace needs to be able to take actual time off work for surgery recovery in May.

Our legal team's retainer is emptied and we are at great risk of losing our ESSENTIAL legal representation.

Every single dollar raised will quite literally be going to make sure that an LGBTQ family can survive, keep their kids in a loving, safe, identity-affirming home, continue retaining their legal team, and finally put an end to the cycle of DV in Cam's life that has gone on their entire life.