Ashley

Hello, my name is Ashley. My husband is Michael and together we have five children. In July, unbeknownst to us, the house we were renting was sold. In August, we received notice that the new property owner was not going to renew our lease and we had 30 days to vacate. We were not financially prepared to find a new house.

We moved to Greenfield and stayed with my dad for a while. My husband got a new job. We were only able to stay at my dad’s for a few weeks and we after that we stayed at the Country Inn. My dad’s place was too small and he worked weekends so we had to leave on the weekends so he could sleep. After a period, we had to leave my dad’s and come to the Hope House. During this time, our van has had multiple issues forcing my husband to take days off work to fix it.

Eventually, the motor seized as Michael was driving back from work. He ended up taking the next 3 days to 1.) Figure out the problem and 2.) Try to figure out an alternate vehicle. He lost his job. It was too far to walk as he has a muscular disease called CMT1-A, which primarily affects his feet. Luckily, he was able to secure a new job through Elwood Staffing.

The problem in not having a vehicle is that my two oldest daughter live 2 hours away. Their dad refuses to bring them here. It is incredible difficult and expensive to procure a ride. We would go months without being able to see them. Losing our van has set us back considerably! Michael took a pay cut with his new job. In addition, I am unable to seek and gain employment to help. There is also the issue of not being able to see our other two girls.

Ashley