Please Help Us Recover From Some Troublesome Months

Last summer, my husband and I moved into a larger house with a better backyard for our three dogs, but that meant that our rent was much higher than it had been before. My husband was on medical leave at the time, but since I was still working and he had some long-term disability payments from his job, we managed to pay it for the first few months.

Then, in November, my husband had to have emergency heart surgery, which caused me to miss some work. We started to fall behind, but figured that we would be able to catch up again once he recovered and could go back to work.

When he was finally cleared to return to work in January, he called his employer to be put back on the schedule. Unfortunately, because of his extended medical leave, they terminated him, which apparently can be done when someone has a leave of absence of more than six months. That meant he had to look for a new job.

After a few weeks, he found one that was very part-time. It wasn't much, but we figured it would help until he could find something more permanent. Then, he overexerted himself one night, and even though the company had some less strenuous positions he could have worked, they stopped scheduling him.

He finally found a full-time position, and he started training for it. Then, he got sick on the Tuesday of what was to be his first full week. He went to the doctor that day, and the doctor advised him to take Wednesday off as well. He headed back to work Thursday morning, only to get a call halfway there that they didn't want him to come in. When he went to pick up his check that Friday, they told him not to turn in his uniform because they might have a part-time position for him, but he never heard back from them.

He now has a part-time position doing something he enjoys, and things are starting to look up. However, after almost six months, our landlord has decided that she doesn't want to work with us anymore. We have been honest with her throughout this whole ordeal, and we have paid her what we could when we could, but that's no longer enough for her. She wants everything we owe her right away, or she wants us gone.

To make matters worse, I was involved in a car accident in April, and my SUV was totaled. Fortunately, I wasn't injured, but now we have the added burden of me not having my own vehicle. My dad has been gracious enough to let me borrow his pickup, which helps, although it leaves my parents with only one vehicle. In addition, the pickup can be temperamental and sometimes refuses to start when it's raining, which happened recently as I was leaving for work.

I know the amount I'm asking for seems like a lot, but I'm hopeful that we will be able to get it. Reaching this goal would not only give us enough to satisfy our landlord, but also would provide a good down payment so I could get myself another vehicle.