Toward a safe, prosperous future.
My life up until this point has been a bit of a journey, but I think that explaining that journey is important. Without it how do you really know what you're donating to? I can honestly say that I'm not particularly good at being concise, but I will try my best.
When I was in college I managed to meet the person who would be the love of my life, my now wife, and it was perhaps the best thing that came out of the whole experience. Unfortunately I had two seizures in college, and due to temporary memory loss and the demands of my major, I ultimately had to make the decision to drop out my junior year. That was the beginning of my epilepsy, and a slew of additional conditions that have arisen as time has progressed. As a result at the age of twenty nine I am disabled, but thankfully a little miracle came into my life.
My wife and I found out that we were pregnant fifteen months ago, and having always wanted a child of my own since my own father left me, we did what we thought was best. We knew that it takes a village to raise a child in the best of circumstances, but with a disabled father it would definitely require it. We moved from a state where I had had access to the Medicaid expansion, all the way to North Carolina where we could be near my family and do best by our child. At the time I was alright with not having insurance, with mounting debt, but as problems kept rising like blood clots, hospitalizations, and expensive tests and procedures, not to mention the compounding costs of medications, we found ourselves credit card poor in less than a year. Our son who is now nine-months-old was born with a congenital heart defect, something that was thankfully covered by CHIP, but the cost of traveling to specialists and surgeons has been difficult to consume and has only contributed to our overall debt.
Ultimately my mother, step-father, wife, and myself decided it would be best to move in together, and to move together to a state that took the Medicaid expansion. We came to Kentucky with high hopes for a prosperous future, traded in our car for a more affordable one, cut out every unnecessary expense we had, and managed to find a cheap place to live. As a result we thought everything would be alright, but sadly, as the adage goes, you get what you pay for.
The neighborhood that we live in has the highest crime rate in the area. It's not an unusual occurence daily to see cops come flying down the street with sirens blaring, to hear of robberies and home break ins, to listen to people yelling obscenities and racial epithets late at night, to hear sounds in the distance that are likely gun shots, and to be warned by neighbors of armed break ins. To say that I'm not worried about my own safety would be a lie, but I'm moreso worried about the safety of my child (foremost), my wife, and my mother who is also disabled.
So you may be wondering why it is we're asking for this amount of money. The amount that we are asking for is the total of our credit card debt. The minimum payments per month on all of that debt come out to $356. This debt has crippled us, and we have roughly $20 of extra money every month when all is said and done. If we could manage to eradicate this debt, then we could afford to move to a safer neighborhood. The cost of living in Kentucky isn't expensive, so even having a hundred more a month to put toward a better place to rent could make all the difference in the world.
We are thankful to finally have access to health care, to the assistance we need, and a much cheaper cost of living, and while beggars can't be choosers I would love more than anything to have peace of mind when I lay my head down to sleep every night knowing that my son and wife are safe. If you can help, even just a little, it would be greatly appreciated. If you can't, but you could spread the word, that would be appreciated too. Thank you so much for reading my story, and even if we never reach our goal, I ultimately hope that something good can come from this.
Thanks,
Jonathan
When I was in college I managed to meet the person who would be the love of my life, my now wife, and it was perhaps the best thing that came out of the whole experience. Unfortunately I had two seizures in college, and due to temporary memory loss and the demands of my major, I ultimately had to make the decision to drop out my junior year. That was the beginning of my epilepsy, and a slew of additional conditions that have arisen as time has progressed. As a result at the age of twenty nine I am disabled, but thankfully a little miracle came into my life.
My wife and I found out that we were pregnant fifteen months ago, and having always wanted a child of my own since my own father left me, we did what we thought was best. We knew that it takes a village to raise a child in the best of circumstances, but with a disabled father it would definitely require it. We moved from a state where I had had access to the Medicaid expansion, all the way to North Carolina where we could be near my family and do best by our child. At the time I was alright with not having insurance, with mounting debt, but as problems kept rising like blood clots, hospitalizations, and expensive tests and procedures, not to mention the compounding costs of medications, we found ourselves credit card poor in less than a year. Our son who is now nine-months-old was born with a congenital heart defect, something that was thankfully covered by CHIP, but the cost of traveling to specialists and surgeons has been difficult to consume and has only contributed to our overall debt.
Ultimately my mother, step-father, wife, and myself decided it would be best to move in together, and to move together to a state that took the Medicaid expansion. We came to Kentucky with high hopes for a prosperous future, traded in our car for a more affordable one, cut out every unnecessary expense we had, and managed to find a cheap place to live. As a result we thought everything would be alright, but sadly, as the adage goes, you get what you pay for.
The neighborhood that we live in has the highest crime rate in the area. It's not an unusual occurence daily to see cops come flying down the street with sirens blaring, to hear of robberies and home break ins, to listen to people yelling obscenities and racial epithets late at night, to hear sounds in the distance that are likely gun shots, and to be warned by neighbors of armed break ins. To say that I'm not worried about my own safety would be a lie, but I'm moreso worried about the safety of my child (foremost), my wife, and my mother who is also disabled.
So you may be wondering why it is we're asking for this amount of money. The amount that we are asking for is the total of our credit card debt. The minimum payments per month on all of that debt come out to $356. This debt has crippled us, and we have roughly $20 of extra money every month when all is said and done. If we could manage to eradicate this debt, then we could afford to move to a safer neighborhood. The cost of living in Kentucky isn't expensive, so even having a hundred more a month to put toward a better place to rent could make all the difference in the world.
We are thankful to finally have access to health care, to the assistance we need, and a much cheaper cost of living, and while beggars can't be choosers I would love more than anything to have peace of mind when I lay my head down to sleep every night knowing that my son and wife are safe. If you can help, even just a little, it would be greatly appreciated. If you can't, but you could spread the word, that would be appreciated too. Thank you so much for reading my story, and even if we never reach our goal, I ultimately hope that something good can come from this.
Thanks,
Jonathan
Organizer
Jonathan Matthews
Organizer
Richmond, KY