Thank you @IDRILL4GASOIL for the reminder. We have been even more involved in this families lives since you all so generously donated to them for Christmas. We have been looking for new places to live and have discovered how incredibly difficult it is to find housing when you are poor. We found a "perfect" townhouse, however, it is a rent controlled facility so you have to make more than X but less than Y, you guessed it, she made less than X. Even when we agreed to prepay for a year, they would not allow it because of government rules. Ultimately, the Mom decided she wanted the daughter to graduate from high school because she was afraid if they moved she would not be considered homeless and the school would no longer have to provide transportation and the daughter would then have to change schools her senior year. Well, now that Covid-19 has hit, we began trying to find the family a new place...I think I mentioned that the Mom walks to work (Long John Silver's) and she has been laid off...well now that she has no income, 2 things:
1. Apartment qualifying around here requires income
2. Most will not allow a prepay as a substitute
So the hunt for new living quarters continues. However, the Christmas donation that was intended to make their Christmas has instead, made an unbelievable difference in their lives for the year in that they still do have a place to live, their is much less anxiety and the mom has proved to be very frugal and responsible with gift.
There are some tangible outcomes from your gifts that I want to share:
1. Uber gift cards have allowed them to get to places they would have never gotten to
2. One of the gifts was a tablet and they finally have Netflix (any of you with kids will appreciate what this means)
3. The lay off means the Mom can and will finally take driving lessons so we will be getting the car soon (GREAT news!)
4. They were actually here last night for dinner and the Trolls movie (they LOVE movies) and the son (John) said they have never been on a vacation and wanted to know "Mr J. do you make enough money to take us on vacation and buy us plane tickets to get there?" He is on the spectrum and has no filter. We will likely take them somewhere at some point, John's request was Hawaii which means the answer to his question was "no".
On Christmas eve we received the Christmas list and my daughters went out and filled every request, the Mom was incredibly grateful for the gifts and the money and there were lots of tears shed and it was incredibly satisfying.
I apologize for the late update, I actually came down with the flu on Christmas eve and didn't get out of bed until early Jan and then life. But each of your contributions have made such an exponential difference in these 3 lives, I don't know how to put it in words.
1. Apartment qualifying around here requires income
2. Most will not allow a prepay as a substitute
So the hunt for new living quarters continues. However, the Christmas donation that was intended to make their Christmas has instead, made an unbelievable difference in their lives for the year in that they still do have a place to live, their is much less anxiety and the mom has proved to be very frugal and responsible with gift.
There are some tangible outcomes from your gifts that I want to share:
1. Uber gift cards have allowed them to get to places they would have never gotten to
2. One of the gifts was a tablet and they finally have Netflix (any of you with kids will appreciate what this means)
3. The lay off means the Mom can and will finally take driving lessons so we will be getting the car soon (GREAT news!)
4. They were actually here last night for dinner and the Trolls movie (they LOVE movies) and the son (John) said they have never been on a vacation and wanted to know "Mr J. do you make enough money to take us on vacation and buy us plane tickets to get there?" He is on the spectrum and has no filter. We will likely take them somewhere at some point, John's request was Hawaii which means the answer to his question was "no".
On Christmas eve we received the Christmas list and my daughters went out and filled every request, the Mom was incredibly grateful for the gifts and the money and there were lots of tears shed and it was incredibly satisfying.
I apologize for the late update, I actually came down with the flu on Christmas eve and didn't get out of bed until early Jan and then life. But each of your contributions have made such an exponential difference in these 3 lives, I don't know how to put it in words.
