Rianne/Lexa broke her wrist!
When Rianne and I moved to Austin four years ago to follow our dreams and open a tattoo shop in a city that we would be happy to raise our kids in, we knew we would be taking a huge financial hit for the first few years. Throughout that time, we have managed to make ends meet, albeit by the skin of our teeth and by living extremely paycheck to paycheck.
2018, has started out extremely poorly. Aside from the usual illness that everyone suffered, we also had to put our beloved dog of 11 years down. Then last week, Rianne made a slight miscalculation when hastily crossing the street to get into the warmth of our car. That slight miscalculation ended up with her breaking her wrist. Even with insurance, the medical cost from that have already reached several hundred dollars.
That much, we were prepared to handle. What we were not prepared to handle is the minimum six weeks of work she is forced to miss. Since moving here, Rianne has been the primary bread earner of our family and for her to be out of work for so long already has us both stressed out well beyond our capacity.
Rianne's spirits are crushed. Not only does she feel useless in the fact she can not do her part to support our family she is also unable to do the one activity she would normally use as an outlet to deal with the stress from that, her rope work.
We were just coming out of the slow season when this tragedy hit. So bills were behind already, although, if she were working we would have been in a great position to get back on top of things as business is booming once more. Unfortunately, this puts us in a real bad position where car repossession and bankruptcy filing become real possibilities.
All I want in life right now is a way to allleviate her stress. I want to look her in the eyes and say "It will be ok, baby. We will get through this just fine, you just focus on healing and I will handle the rest." Unfortunately, I am not capable of handling this on my own.
I am a stubborn son of a bitch, and not one to reach out and ask for help. That being said, a wise person last weekend sat down with me suggested we do a gofundme. When I politely declined and said "we would be able to handle it" he then told me I was "letting my ego fuck with me". He said I was being far more selfish hiding behind my pride and allowing my family to suffer because I didn't want to ask for help. That speech reminded me of another wise person's lesson to me where they told me "sometimes the greatest gift you can give is graciously accepting someone else's gift and/or help".
So if you WANT to help and are able to without straining your own finances, please do. Even a few dollars would be more appreciated than you can imagine. If you want to help and are unable to do so, you can share this and perhaps someone else is in a better position to do so.
Other ways to help:
-Visiting Rianne and helping to keep her spirits up.
-Booking tattoo appoints with her for when she is back to work.
-Help us find a new tattoo artist to hire (not to replace her, obviously. We needed another artist before this, but this really makes the need more crucial.)
