Saving Griffin's Home

Nine and a half years ago, my wife gave birth to our second son, Griffin Anthony Zugel. Perfectly healthy, beautiful and as sweet and loving as you could pray for.

At the age of only six months, an un-known person spread the herpes virus to Griffin (herpes simplex 1, of the mouth). The virus went straight  to Griffins brain, causing massive brian damage (over half of his brain was destroyed) and leaving him partially paralysed, with intractable epilepsy, cerebral palsy and global learning delays.

We spent the better part of that summer in the NICU, with Griffin on the verge of death. I can't summon the words to describe this adequately, the emotion, but I can say that the lowest point of my life was standing by Griffins bedside and having the doctor walk over to me and put his hand on my shoulder, not saying a word; just the  silen resignation that his fate was in Gods hands alone.  Nobody expected him to survive. But he did. Miraculously, he made it through.

While this was an immense relief and we were filled with hope that our baby had beaten the odds, that was the beginning of our family's financial demise.  In the blink of an eye, our savings was wiped-out covering medical costs. Griffin's recovery is a lifelong process.  He will never not need extensive medical and therapeutic 
support. After much effort, we were finally able to get some support through the state to help with his treatments and expenses. But they don't cover everything. Not by a long shot.

We've now spent nearly a decade with Griffin in and out of the hospital, being on the verge of death multiple times. My wife and I both work full-time to support our family, but it's not enough.  We have piled up a decade of medical costs, time lost from work for hospitalizations, sickness and countless medical appointments (he is regularly see by: his neurologist, primary physician, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist and behavioral therapists (the nature of his neurological impairment has caused him to be diagnosed as Autistic as well). It has been an relentless stream of treatment, with no end in sight. This is a weight which we, my wife and I as well as our older son, will carry to our graves.

Through all of this, we have gone from being reasonably secure to living paycheck to paycheck, and still not having enough to keep up. We've given up everything we could to make it through; no family vacations for years now, sold off extraneous items to catch up on mortgage payments; you name it, we've done it.  Our circumstances led us to juggling our financial demise from one hand to the other and doing everything possible to stay afloat in a growing sea of debt. 

We've now reached the end of our rope. Our home, the only security we have left, is about to go up for auction...we're being foreclosed on. Our credit, which was once very good, has been destroyed. If we lose our house, we have absolutely nothing. If it were just my wife and I, we'd find a way to get through losing the house. But it's not just us. This is the only thing we have to keep Griffin rooted and stable. And he loves his house, regardless of how old and beat-up it is.  We know that when we have passed on, the responsibility of caring for Griffin will fall to his brother. We had hoped and planned that we would at least be able to leave them a home, so that the financial burden we've borne would not also become his brother's legacy.

So this is it; The last chance stand to keep the very little we still have.

For the sake of Griffin and his well-being, I am reaching out to you.

Please help in any way you can afford; no amount is too small and everything helps. And please share this with everyone you can; the more people this reaches, the better our chances of saving our home are.

I can live with not expecting anyting of the world, but I desperately want a better future for Griffin. His life has been dominated by loss and difficulty and he still has so far to go. It is my singular wish to be able to leave our home to our sons once my wife and I pass on. The alternative is unthinkable.  

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I wish nothing but the best for everybody in this world, this life. Hopefully tomorrow will bring peace, security and happiness