A good friend of ours has been dealing with quite a lot over the past few years, and recent events have made things extremely difficult both financially and emotionally. If you know Jessica, you know that she is just the sweetest soul who will always make you smile. She’s a great mom who is trying so hard to be strong for her children. Right now, her plate is overflowing, and she is under enormous stress, which is why we thought we would start a GoFundMe in hopes to help alleviate some of that. A little bit goes a long way to helping with food, everyday bills, medical costs, and legal costs. Jessica has written her and her family's story, which is below. We know times are tough for most of us, especially around the holidays, but again, every little bit helps. Even if you aren’t in a place to donate, sharing her story would go a long way, and we would be so grateful. Thank you for reading, sharing, and donating!

I am a mom of 3 neurodivergent kids, 17, 13, and 11. I have been married for 12 years. My husband made a mistake 35 years ago with the law and has not committed any offense since. He did have to register as a felon. We met in Washington State, and since his case was so old and had no other offenses, he no longer had to register. We decided to move to Florida and did not check the state law before moving here and forgot about it. Our youngest daughter embellished a story at school, and so the Department of Children and Families was called. When records were checked, my husband's offense was found, and he had to register. In Florida, you have to register twice a year, and he did not register the second time as he thought it was just once a year like all other states.

So a court case began that lasted almost 2 years, and the stress and anxiety tore our family up. My husband tried to commit suicide twice as he didn't want to put us through any more stress and pain. My children began to develop behavioral issues due to the stress of the never-ending court case on our family. All due to a piece of paper not being signed, he was given 18 months house arrest and 3 years probation. I am the breadwinner, and he was the caregiver in our family. He could no longer take family trips and outings or even take the kids to school or appointments without prior written authorization. He also had to wear a monitor as part of his house arrest, one on his ankle and one like a phone that has to be within 5 feet of his ankle monitor at all times. The change to his freedom affected his mental health immediately, and he began to push us away. This affected our youngest daughter the most, who started acting out and was only happy if she could be on her dad's phone playing games or watching YouTube. If the phone was taken away, she began massive meltdowns and started to get violent. My husband kept forgetting his monitor, so he was arrested in July on violation. He was in jail for about 26 days, and I had to work and take care of all the kids' needs, including getting registered for school, getting them to school, and getting them help with their mental health. He came home in August, and just as we were all getting used to having him home, he forgot his monitor at home when taking our oldest to school, so he was arrested again, and this time was in for 66 days.

During this time, our youngest daughter's behavior declined so badly she was violent and would beat me and my oldest up when angry, and she was uncontrollable at times as she missed her dad so much she didn't know how to deal with her anger. She had to be Baker Acted 3 times and hospitalized for her safety and ours. She is struggling with therapy as she doesn't want to talk and deal with her pain.

My husband finally came home in early November, and as we were getting used to him being back and getting our youngest on track, Probation came to the house and checked my husband's phone and found TikTok and YouTube on it, as well as some inappropriate selfies my daughter had taken unbeknownst to us. He is now back in jail, and being his 3rd violation, he is looking at a few years of prison time. Since he is in jail, Social Security is not making his monthly payments. The jail he is in requires a daily fee to be paid plus a booking fee, and those fees have to be paid before any funds can actually go to him to get basic necessities like toiletries. Plus, it costs $4 for a phone call for 15 mins just so he can check in on us and make sure we are okay during all this stress. Since this involves my daughter's choices on his phone, I expect her behavior to get worse as the guilt of her dad being sent away will hit her hard.

Our van's transmission died the day before his arrest, and I had to get a new car, so I have 2 car payments and will need to voluntarily surrender the van as I need to keep the income.

The hardship of working and caring for my kids with no familial support and the financial hardship of no Social Security income has taken a toll on me mentally and physically.

I would like to get a good lawyer to help get him out of all this, but we can only use the public defender. I need help financially to keep up with all the therapy and medication costs, not to mention my oldest will be graduating this spring, and her child support will end. The overwhelming stress and emotional pain has taken such a toll on all of us, and being able to have a cushion would be of immense help.