It was the best of times....... Right up until it wasn't. My wife Danica and I moved to the little town of Remington Virginia to be closer to the
school that my young daughter who is on the autism spectrum would attend. The Fauquier county school system is nothing short of amazing. At the same time my older daughter, now 13, started elementary school
right here in town. Based on  my wife's, and to a lesser degree my job as a professional photographer we were able to purchase a nice home, and we settled down to start our life journey into our early middle age. For
three years we tried to lay down roots within the town and, community. We found friends, and a place. 

Fast forward to Halloween 2018

SO, I will start this bit by saying my wife is a Patriot. I mean a true blue,
dyed-in-the-wool red blooded American Woman. For the last twenty
years she has worked for some of the largest contractors for the
Department of Defense. Always on task, and ALWAYS on mission. A
holder of her Nation's trust. With that comes great responsibilities, and of course professional,and personal scrutiny. As it SHOULD be. Indeed, as it
MUST be. Through no fault of her own she was laid off. It happens. We were not immediately concerned because through her list of trusts, and accomplishments we had no doubt she would be picked up by another
contractor before she got her box of stuff in the trunk. Needless to say
that just did not happen. In fact NOTHING happened for almost 7
months. Through interviews, and resume updates there just did not
seem to be a place for her. Throughout all this time our finances
suffered.
A LOT.
Finally wonder of wonders she got a nibble. In fact she was hired.
However, because of the nature of her business, moving into the new
position required more of that scrutiny I was talking about. After the
folks who are in charge of that took a look at our financial situation they decided that she was no longer a safe place to put that trust any longer, and so as is sometimes the case that part of her life came to an end. I
recognize I am being a little vague. Those who live and work in the area of Washington D.C. will get it. Along with losing her job this whole time we also lost our medical benefits. Both of us lost access to our
prescription medications which of course made matters worse. She
finally managed to get a position at the Local Wal-Mart in Warrenton
Virginia. She took right to it, and really thrived. She LOVED it. We got
some medical benefits back which meant prescriptions for which my
body was REALLY grateful. The one thing that we did not get back was
our escrow account, our personal property taxes and our Homeowners
insurance. That is because we were simply not able to pay our
mortgage. For a YEAR. Now our mortgage lender has been absolutely
amazing to us in helping keep us going. Their patience has finally
however given out. In this space of time we have gone upside down on
our mortgage 25000.00  We have also had our vehicles repossessed.
Through the kindness of neighbors we were gifted another car so we
could remain mobile. That brought us back up to two vehicles. My truck
was the first to go. After that, my wife's car went next. Boom! back
down to one vehicle. I was able to purchase a used vehicle with what
little cash and credit I could muster and had just made the second
payment
on that one when I decreased the local deer population by ONE. The
poor thing got the last laugh though as the insurance company totaled
the car. Back down to one car. I was THEN able to find an owner that
trusted me enough to sell me ANOTHER car on payments. So that is at
least, for now ok.

DID I MENTION THE MAMMOGRAM?

Her last mammogram came back with some problems. After some
further tests, and ANOTHER mammogram, and a couple of biopsies she was found to have stage ZERO to some areas perhaps of stage ONE
breast
cancer.  She goes in for a mastectomy, and reconstructive surgery on the 17th of this month. The mortgage company is calling the note on the
house at the 25th of this month. So, as you can see it has been quite a
year. We are up against it, and while I did not want to do something like this....or ASK for something like this. I got no other moves. I am known 
for
being a guy who just can sometimes figure it out. The bag of tricks is
empty. So...I am asking. For her, and our two daughters.

I let a smarter friend of mine (which is the best kind to have actually)
read this for me and tell me if I actually WAS smarter than a fifth grader. He had no response for that, the kind lad, but what he DID say was.
"What about you?" you made this all about her." And I said....well, Yeah.
It's kind of what I do.

Thanks,

Leland