Been a long hard road!

Well as of April 15, 2012 my little family has officially hit the absolute rock bottom and become a family of homeless couch hoppers. Honestly I never thought I would see the day that my family would be living from a storage unit and crashing on empty couches, but it happened! I guess in life all things are possible, and we should truly live our lives expecting the unexpected.

If you would have asked me one year ago if I would have thought that I would travel the road I have walked this last 8 months I would say there was no way. My family has been through a lot and overcome many obstacles. Although I do not like to dwell or live in the past I want to take this time to document the last 8 months.

I feel that by perhaps documenting  the last 8 months of my life, I will see how far we have indeed come, what we have overcome, and perhaps potentially help someone else along the way. Although, I know that it seems extremely negative to list all of the events I truly hope to help someone else see that it is possible to hold on despite any and all circumstances. There is simply never a time when giving up is ok. I hope to help others see that there is always hope, and there is ALWAYS a light at the end of the tunnel.

I have full faith that for my family things are going to turn around and start looking up TODAY! It was a long hard road getting here, but like the saying goes "FALL DOWN SEVEN TIMES... STAND UP EIGHT!"

Our Lives since August 1, 2011

•  August 9, 2011 - my son Dillion (Boogie) passed away very unexpectedly
• August 11, 2001 - my sons best friend Travis (also a disabled child) passed away unexpectedly
• August 13, 2011 - My son's funeral
• August 14, 2011 - My son's best friends funeral
• August 17, 2011 - was forced to withdraw from college classes due to days already missed
• August 20, 2011 - sitting at the gas station getting gas when a woman backed into my car causing extensive damage
• August 24, 2011 - our furniture began being repossessed
• September 1, 2011 - Lost our home, and moved into a home my mother owned. At the time there were 4 adults, and 5 children living in a tiny 2bedroom 1 bath home
• September 15, 2011 - Lost my part time job
• September 15, 2011 - My youngest son (then 1year old) had major eye surgery
• October 1, 2011 - started a new job
• November 20, 2011- lost new job
• November 2011 - February 2012 - Had extremes financial struggles, as well as mental struggles, marriage struggles, etc. Some of these things are extremely personal so I will not post them here, but lets simply say things were BAD!
• January 9, 2012 - began college classes
• February 1, 2012 - found a gorgeous trailer on 10 acers that we were all set to rent to own and make our home.
• March 3, 2012 - Husband seriously injured himself causing him to miss nearly two weeks of work. Also on this day I was stopped while trying to get my husband to the hospital, and got an extremely large ticket/fine
• March 4, 2012 - celebrated Dillion's 10th birthday which was also his first Heavenly birthday.
• February also began 3 months of even more extreme financial struggles in which we began to sale nearly all of our belongings, and do without a lot including basic necessities just to survive
• March 22, 2012 - my car was repossessed
• March 22, 2012 - our house caught fire (small electrical fire) causing massive smoke damage
• March 27 2012 - my youngest son (now 2) had surgery on his ears.
• April 5, 2012 - was forced to drop my college classes for a second time due to the expense of driving and days missed due to son's illnesses.
• April 12, 2012 - We found out that our landlord (person we were renting to own from) had been using the payments we were giving him to do other things and pay other bills (not make payments on the trailer) and the trailer was being foreclosed on almost immediately. This gave us barely over 48 hours to vacate the trailer or loose all of our possessions.
• April 14, 2012 - we moved everything we owned into a storage facility and began our journey as couch hoppers. Fortunately we have a friend (my ex husband) who was kind enough to allow us to stay with them.
• April 17, 2012 - we found out that pretty much all hope we had for getting a house was squashed due to some poor past mistakes and unpaid bills... Therefore we are now in a position of being couch hoppers for at least 2 months (mid June) and saving money to hopefully get a home.

As you can see it has been a long hard road, but it is the past, and today is all about new beginnings. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom in order to have a firm foundation in which to stand... It is time to once again pick ourselves off, dust ourselves off, and begin a brand new life..

I am filled with hope, leaning on faith and know that God is in control. Despite the roads my family may have walked, we will learn to smile at the storm and dance in the rain!

Today is the first day of our new life... Tomorrow is the second, and we will conquer all trails one prayers at a time!!!!!