Asking for help has never been one of my strong points but circumstances have me whirling...

We are a family who has suffered a two year battle to maintain our home from foreclosure. After an agonizing two years of court battles, sheriffs sales, and much of what money we had to lawyers we lost the battle to keep our home of 35 years. This home was my childhood home and I am now raising my two beautiful children and caring for my elderly disabled mother. I would like to explain and share some of the background regarding this situation. I am a recovering alcoholic. I am now sober 23 months. Things were not always great for us, there always was a struggle to make ends meet but together as a family my husband and I knew that as long as the family was together all  would be fine.  

Besides, in the end it’s not how many toys you have but how many lives you have touched. We raised our children that the best gift you could give or receive is friendship and love, not material possessions. Anyway, over the last 5 years my mother has suffered 2 heart attacks, an amputation caused by her diabetes , she has lost her vision and suffers from arthritis.  Needing extra help, her illnesses  started limiting my ability to work any jobs during the day leaving me to only be able to work nights while my husband is home. Through all the months of rehabilitation I had to take much time off. The bills were tight and not getting paid. Being an alcoholic, I pushed things to the side not taking much of it as serious as I should. I lied to my husband, consistently telling him it was being worked out etc...The day after the first sheriffs sale, when the gentleman knocked on my door asking when we would be moving out was the last day I ever took a drink.  

Bankruptcy stopped that sale but the Bank quickly won in court to stop and overturn the bankruptcy and sold the house again. During this period we had loans to refinance the house but the bank refused, stopped and ignore all attempts we made to save it. They were (it seems) willing to let any one else buy the home but us. The second sale stood firm and we entered into many court battles to overturn but never won. We lost everything... the home was all we had.  Our original mortgage was only $250,000.  After we lost the final battle in court the gentleman who owned our home has said I earned his respect for fighting so hard and has put us in a program to buy back our home at double the price. Being that money really has no meaning we decided to take the deal and work solely for our home. 

Our children have been born and raised here just as I myself was raised here. Their friends are here, their schooling, their lives.... My one child is 14 and was aware towards the end of the situation and went into total isolation from his friends thinking we would have to move. My other child, being only 7 had no idea.  When we entered into the agreement to buy back the house we had to put $25,000 down on the house which took all we had, leaving us $1.50 in our bank. Had we had thirty days until the first rent payment we would have been fine but it was due at the closing. We scrambled for 10 days to come up with it leaving all our other bills to wait. 

We can afford the rent but we are constantly behind and if we fall at any time 60 days behind the contract is immediately null and void and we must be out in 10 days. I am now 20 days behind because we can not catch up and they want to start taking court action again to remove us.   I looked into getting a personal loan and was refused due to the foreclosure and bankruptcy on our credit reports. It just kills me that $5,000 would totally catch us up and put us in good standing with a fresh start and we can’t catch up. The stress over the last two years has completely destroyed my health. I am now waitressing 5 to 6 nights a week with arthritis in my knees and my husband is working overtime. 

All we need is the slightest bump to catch up. Once we are caught up I fully intend to pay it forward.

Please help us save our family home of 35 years...


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