UPDATE:

I want to give a huge thank you to those that have donated so far. My children and I truly appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. It has been brought up from a few people that they prefer to donate through other sources so Ill attach my venmo and cashapp if you would like to donate but not through gofundme. Cashapp: $Katiekatpattywk Venmo: @Katie-Koch-10

Again thank you so much for everything everyone is doing to help us out.

This is extremely embarrassing, but it's worth a try. My name is Katie. I'm a single mom to 5 children. In May of 2022, our lives were blown apart due to some extremely terrible and unforeseen circumstances that were out of my control. Prior to that, I was attending school to become a CMA. After that, school was no longer an option. I had to find a job to try and keep a roof over our heads, pay bills, and put food on the table. Each month, while I was waiting for a better job opportunity, monthly bills like rent and car insurance ate away my savings. After my savings were gone, I started having to use credit cards to pay bills so that any money I got paid could go to rent so I could keep a roof over our heads. I wasn't supposed to have to stress like this. Begging others for money wasn't supposed to be something I would need to do to make it so that I can pay bills and keep us warm during the winter in a home we've been in for 5 years now. I was told several times during the process of the stuff that happened to cause us to struggle, by several different people, that we would receive the TCP from the army. Getting the ball rolling on that took so long that once my ex rushed to separate from the army, we were immediately denied. The army completely turned its back on my kids and me. I've tried many different resources to try and figure this all out, all of which I make slightly too much to qualify for but not enough to survive on. At the beginning of November, during the government shutdown, things were a bit tight, but we were managing. Then some extreme financial burdens came up. My car broke down, meaning now I had to pay someone to fix it as well as pay for a rental so I could take my kids to and from school and daycare and go to work. I was scammed by TWO people who came out and charged me for a "diagnostic" that took 10-15 minutes. Not only did they take money we really needed to survive, but they also wasted my time acting like they were going to fix my car and then telling me at the very last minute after we already scheduled something that they couldn't do the job, or by completely ghosting me. On top of that, I also had to miss over a week of work because my kids got sick with HFM Disease, and since it's just me here with them, there's no one else to watch them while they're sick so that I can still go to work. I know I'm not at my lowest point yet, but I don't know what else to do or where else to go to get help. Having a Christmas is the least of my worries; I just want to keep a roof over our heads.