Ask Matt!

Hello Matt, wonderful platform you have here! Im Terry Alexander, a lesbian, mother and granmother living in Huntersville NC. I applied for help on your request form for financial assistance. I also included a link in the request showing how Im reaching out and tryin to gain some ground. My deepest need for my life Matt is to reach a place where I can market my story which comes from the deep plumage of the bible-belt, fire-brimstone and damnation church experience.Matt here not to long ago I suffered a hard blow to my journey. It wasnt by far the worst, coming from the hate mentality, however it was probably the worst in consideration of timing. I had worked on a book for 4 years as I could manage and was tryin to save up the money for 2 full content edits to get marketing underway. The hate crime took everything. Now, Im tryin to find a way back up just to get started again. My wish is to become a voice for our LGBT youth, by taking on the religious impasse arena.
My question to you is: Is it ok if I post my link with story on your forum and do you have any advice for me.Thank you, deep regards, Terry Alexander.

Please reply Matt. We are still holding onto hope.

Hello, my name is Jennifer Mueller. I am writing on behalf of myself, my partner Jessica and our 3 children. We have found ourselves in a rather difficult situation. Better times are on the horizon but unfortunately, they are of no help to us now.

Jessica and I met and very quickly fell in love two and a half years ago. At the time I was rebuilding myself and my life after an emotionally and physically abusive 10 year marriage. My children and I were thrown out of our home by the monster that I had married and we were temporarily living with my mother.

At the same time, Jessica was also rebuilding herself after a long unhealthy relationship and had temporarily moved back home.

We met each other through an online dating site and text back and forth nearly nonstop for 5 days before meeting face to face. We both knew, although we hadn't said it to each other, that we'd found in each other everything we had ever wanted or needed.

When we finally met, everything we both felt was confirmed. She was my missing piece and I was hers.

Over the next few weeks we spent every moment that we could together and when we had to be apart we were texting. I'd stop and see her during work, she worked nights so I'd go there after the kids were asleep. Whatever it took to be together we would do.

Everything was so perfect, except for the reactions of our families when we told them. Jess’ mom listened and took it all in seemingly accepting our relationship initially, however, that was not really the case. Whether she stated it or not she dispproved and made that clear by not allowing me into her home. My mother, on the other hand, was outright mean and nasty. She didn’t care that I was happy, she didn’t want to hear it. To her I was a disgusting person and she wanted nothing else to do with me. This, of course, made both of our living arrangements less than ideal.

Jess and the kids, who were 3, 7,and 9 at the time, had spent time together and had quickly developed a very strong bond and deep respect for each other. The kids were happy and loved spending time together, just the 5 of us, even though at home everyday they would have to listen to their grandmom putting me down, calling me names, and telling them how wrong and disgusting I was.

After a few months, we realized that saving for our own place was going to take far to long and we began staying in hotels so that we could all be together. This of course made saving difficult but we were determined.

One day, while working, I ran into an old friend that I hadn’t seen in years. She herself is a lesbian and was very sympathetic to what we were going through. Without hesitation, she invited us to come and stay with her until we were able to save enough for our own place. This was a tremendous help and 3 months later we moved into our new home.

We found a nice townhome, in a wonderful school district and signed a one year lease in April 2015.

Since then, the children have flourished. They’ve embraced the changes in their life and made the best of it. I’ve never seen them all so happy and comfortable with who they are and what their family means to them. So much so that after nearly 4 years of absolutely no contact, they reached out to their father and asked him to allow Jessica to adopt them. He agreed and that is something that we are actively looking into pursuing.

Now, for the difficult situation, our lease was up in April of this year and everything had been going well. We were secure. Emotionally, physically, and financially. We decided to move to a bigger home, within the same school district, where the kids would have more space and still be close to the new friends they’d made. Due to mistakes we had both made in the past, our credit was not good enough obuy a home but we were fortunate enough to find a beautiful house in a wonderful neighborhood that was available to rent.

In April, we moved into our new home and just a week later, I lost my job. I am a Registered Nurse in Pa and work in home care. On a routine scheduled visit, a patient of mine, who had been shot 5 times, demanded that I remove a bullet from his foot. This is not something that I am licensed to do, however, the patient refused to let me leave the home until it was done. I removed the bullet and was subsequently let go from my position for exceeding my medical authority. I filed for unemployment immediately and was granted payment due to the circumstances that led to my termination.

Unemployment in PA does not give you nearly the same amount as a bi-weekly paycheck. In my situation, my bi-weekly payment was less than half of my normal salary. This was unexpected and really put a strain on us.

I began applying for new employment right away and had many interviews set up. Some of which were very promising. However, I woke up one morning in early May and was unable to stand up due to tremendous back pain. I decided to wait a few days and see if it got better. It did not. I ended up becoming incontinent and in more pain than I can even describe. We went to the Emergency Department and I was admitted right away and underwent emergency spinal surgery a few days later.

The recovery from the surgery was very long and difficult. I am still not 100%. I was unable to drive or work for 6-8 weeks.

During my recovery, Jessica, who is a brittle Type I diabetic, experienced a very high blood sugar that we had a very difficult time correcting.

Jess, in an altered mental state, as a result of her blood sugar, called her employer to request a sick day. She was connected to an answering service where she left a message that she woud not be able to make it in. This was a Wednesday. She was scheduled for a mandatory training on Thursday which she attended. When she reported for work on Friday, she was sent home as a no call no show on Wednesday. This was not the case. We even had the call log on her phone which showed that she called at 6 am and left a 29 second message. After calling her office repeatedly and even going there to talk to someone, after two weeks of no response she received a call that she was being let go for the incident 2 weeks prior.

Jessica has a degree in Psychology and takes her career very seriously. She would never call out under any circumstance except for something as serious and debilitating as an uncontrollable blood sugar.

Since this incident she has also been actively searching for employment.

She has acquired two part time positions. One that begins this week and another that begins on September 6. I have also obtained a position a new position as an RN and I begin orientation on Tuesday. So, things are looking up.

However, the past few months have been so taxing with no income. My unemployment payment was $1054.00 bi-weekly and our rent is $2200.00 per month. We have managed to make our rent payment ach month by selling our belongings online.

Our landlord took us to court to have us evicted in June. Since then, she has agreed to accept 2 payments of $1100.00 per month when I receive my unemployment but she also serves us with a Notice to Quit on the 1st of the month as a safety net for herself. If we do not pay as agreed, we go straight to court and have ten days to pay any monies due plus court costs and legal fees.

On Friday of last week, I was informed that I would no longer be receiving unemployment doe to an appeal filed by the employer. I will be appealing the decision but in the meantime, we do not have anything to give ur landlord on Thursday the 25th which is when she is expecting the additional 1100 for August.

Over the course of the last 4 months, both of our cars have been repossessed. Our electricity has been shut off, our medical insurance cancelled, and although it isn’t a necessity, we haven’t even been able to take the kids anywhere, not even to a movie throughout their summer vacation.

At this point, we have absolutely nothing left. No income and nothing left to sell.

As a diabetic, Jess has an insulin pump that she wears around the clock. She has less than 1 week worth of supplies left and if she runs out of ports and tubing, I don’t know what we will do. We have been purchasing her insulin from another diabetic who is prescribed more than he takes. One vial, which lasts her a week, costs nearly $1000.00 without insurance so this is the only option we have at the time, but I don’t know what to do about the ports or her other prescriptions.

And lastly, as if timing couldn’t be any worse, the kids start school next week and we have no money for supplies. We are actually walking to our daughters orientation tomorrowwhich is over 6 niles because we have no cars and no money but this is something that is important and important to her so we will get there.

I know that this is really long and I apologize. I think it is actually therapeutic to write all of this and get it out. All that we are hoping for is assistance with our $1100.00 rent payment. If we are evicted, we will have nowhere to go. Our families disowned us because of our relationship and their inability to accept it. We have no one else to turn to. We are desperate.

As I had stated, things are looking up, but in the here and now, we are in need of help.

We would love to help out your organization in any way that we can and once we are stable we will donate as much and as often as we can.

Please consider our plea. Also, if you would like verification on anything that I have stated in this letter, I would be happy to send it to you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for all that work that you do to support the members of our community.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Mueller