Support and Stability for The LeBlanc Family

Hi, my name is Brennan, I’m 14 and my sister is 5. Our family needs help. My mom is simply amazing. She is the best parent I’ve ever met. She is loving and funny. She makes the best food. She’s always making sure I have time with my friends and brings me to new places to skate.

She is a single solo mom of two with very little blood family involved in our lives. Through the pandemic and before she has been able to keep us afloat and comfortable but sometimes at the cost of her well-being.  

She works a lot and super hard and still daily makes time for me and my little sister and our interests, keeps me and Adeline fed, housed and cared for. I know she loves us and always wants to make sure we feel loved. 

My mom is looking into two or three other jobs at the moment while caring for us and I helped create this fundraiser so she can slow down even for a little bit and have some time to focus on her health and ease her stress. 

My mom has been able to get us through many hard times before but this time around her more recent health complications are making it more challenging. That’s why we are asking for outside help. I appreciate your consideration, no amount is too small and everything helps.

Thank you,

Brennan

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Hi, it’s me Kiley, and this is a complicated time for our family. It’s hard to ask for money for us, when there are so many other things I’d much rather help others with. Thanks for taking time to read through this. I was so overwhelmed with mixed emotions after reading what Brennan wrote, and I’m listening to him and feeling thankful for his earnest thoughtfulness. 

Here goes our story …

I’m a creative problem solver, a community builder, a survivor, a sensitive and deep thinker, a handywoman, a DIYer, a flawed, messy human with a big heart. Wired to nurture, give, listen, help, assist, organize, and center connection in everyday life, big and small. 

I’ve worked in customer service, hospitality, property management, interior design, higher education, early childhood development, restaurants, credit unions, cafes, housekeeping, communal houses, mediation, and therapeutic settings. I’ve volunteered at schools, literacy programs, food banks, gardens, neighborhood + athletics programs and farmers markets.

I’ve unexpectedly homeschooled my kids for most of their lives, facilitating their academic activities and passions, fueled by my desire to preserve their love of learning and curiosity as well as growing their bodies, minds and hearts with as much time as possible outside, developing environmental awareness, practical life skills and cultivating both a strong sense of self and community.

Before the pandemic, I felt proud that I had made choices and worked hard toward goals, like therapy, a reliable car,  paths to home ownership, access to good healthcare, and a blossoming hospitality business to support my little family, that seemed possible and doable. 

And, like many folks, we experienced some pretty major setbacks from Covid, and have been steadily making necessary changes to survive the physical, economic, education and emotional impacts.

I used most of our pandemic funds to keep our apartment, and to provide childcare, food and community projects to help mitigate the mental health impacts on the kids and their families in our network. I lost all other savings and managed to put away just enough to cover about a months worth of food for our family. 

I started taking on more house cleaning work, side jobs, gigs, house sitting, babysitting and every opportunity in between. Bringing my kids with me everywhere, we grew in skills, teamwork, respect and love for one another.

Feeling an ongoing shift in my cognition, working memory issues, brain fog, a substantial increase in fatigue last year, an increase in mouth pain and looser teeth, I asked the doctors and dentists at our local health clinic health clinic for help.

It took about 6 months to get an appointment and gratefully, I have since had tooth extractions, extensive cleanings, oral treatments and paid for these out of pocket since I do not have health insurance. I still have major dental work to schedule that cannot be done by the clinic. 

After several months of bloodwork, I received a diagnosis of hyper parathyroidism, high calcium levels caught by my non primary doctor. I am a candidate for a parathyroidectomy (expensive) surgery, which potential side effects could include losing my voice, which scares me to think about not being able to read aloud to my kids or sing or laugh.

I was referred to another medical office to review and create an extensive treatment plan, and when I showed up to that appointment, calling from my car per Covid check in protocol, was spoken to over the phone for about 6 minutes by the doctor on his lunch break, quickly reviewing my info and agreeing to the surgery referral. It was confusing and seemed weird. 

I found out later his office reported to the health clinic where I am an established patient, that I was a “no show.” Lost in a system overwhelmed with demand and woefully underfunded, I experienced delays in further care or follow up. Thankfully, I was finally seen again about six months later to come up with a new plan. Unfortunately, at this point I can’t afford the additional diagnostic referrals + expenses out of pocket anyway, and the programs to subsidize these costs take time and energy to navigate.

I’ve approached this recent health news with a necessary reduction in work load, changes in what I eat, and a pursuit of relaxation and joy through listening to music, joining a womens circle, reconnecting with old friends and throwing myself into rabbit holes of scientific research.

Here in January 2023, I feel physically worse than ever. I’m staring at massive overdue utility bills, waking up with jaws clenched, and trying to figure out how to pivot from a life built on my ability to hustle, grind, juggle, work 4-5 jobs, source food pantries, shop carefully to stretch every EBT dollar, cook most of our meals from scratch to increase stores of bulk pantry supplies, ask for discounts and scholarships on every activity, ask for extensions on every bill, apply for programs of assistance, dream up new side hustle businesses and keep it all going without a rocking credit score, trustworthy childcare, deep pockets, a money tree, child support, grandparents, parents, or a partner.

The truth of it is that I can’t.

My kids need me to be healthy, capable and resourced. We need a chunk of money and we also need non money resources. But we mainly need money. I have to make more changes in our lives to survive and sustainably live together moving forward, and like any big change, we need resources.

We need food.

We need to pay our rent.

We need major repairs on our 17 year old car, and realistically, a replacement with either a two ebikes with cargo storage, or a used reliable minivan or both.

We need to catch up on water, electricity, heat, phone and internet bills.

We need educational materials, experiences and classes.

We need materials to build some garden beds to grow food this year.

We need a few pieces of furniture and cooking equipment to convert our apt kitchen part time to try a family run homemade food business.

We need help finishing some painting, bathroom and carpentry projects.

We need a lawyer to help with filing child support paperwork, and other legal family documents.

We need time to start and finish a database directory of our neighborhood for surveying, specifically for feedback on the needs of our local community, amd hopefully to enhance communication, strengthen relationships and reduce crime.

We want to stay in our home, in our neighborhood and in this community at large.

I don’t want to misrepresent here, we have had many kinds of support all along the way since becoming a single mom in 2009 and unexpectedly again in 2017. 

I am exceedingly grateful for every work and trade opportunity, food drop off, hand me down winter jackets and shoes, conversation, shared yard tools, gifts, free weekend places to stay while we rented out our apt for money, advice, encouragement, introduction, referral, reference, kindness and more.

Motherhood is one of my highest callings, and if it were paid (ha), I’d be an extremely high earner. I deeply value my relationships with my kids and wish to be here as long as possible to care, love and enjoy them growing up and beyond. Of course I wish their familial experience was different, and I hope to introduce them to cousins far and wide in the coming years. I hold out hope for their biological fathers to grow and heal and be involved in healthy ways. I have never stopped longing for my parents to experience the utter joy and magic that is these two hilarious, kind, silly, thoughtful and kiddos and their wonderfully spirited personalities. I am so grateful for the many humans in our circles who know them, love them, believe in them.

I wouldn’t be asking if I hadn’t tried a thousand other ways to recover and make it all work over these last (almost) 3 years. I’ve spent hours on the phone and in emails to countless organizations, trying to make it month to month. 

I even planned out a year long relocation experiment and registered the kids for school in another state, thinking a fresh start in a more rural setting would help us stabilize our family budget and dreams of a homestead based lifestyle. Amazingly, my kids were overwhelmingly supportive.

I changed my mind however when I realized it is our long standing commitment to our community, and to my son and daughter’s sense of safety, familiarity and family, that really fuels our capacity to survive and thrive. That said, I also know nothing is guaranteed and change will always be a part of life. 

After these hurdles and setbacks in the last six months specifically, we need help now to give us options, otherwise I’m frankly unsure how to move forward. 

I have a specific order in which funds will be utilized. Brennan will be managing the payments to rent and utilities, and helping with meal prep and big brother time with Adeline. I will be managing medical appointments, car repairs, resume updates, job applications, interviews, coordinating home repairs, Adeline’s educational + social calendar, and of course, all the regular home stuff. That’s our rough outline of a plan for the next month. That and Adeline says she’s making rainbow sprinkle cupcakes for my 44th birthday.

I truly appreciate your taking the time to read all of this and consider any way to contribute. We hope to update and respond as quickly as possible. Thank you so much. We love you and we look forward to giving back as soon as it’s possible.

Big Hugs from us to you. ❤️❤️❤️