The Hardships we have faced.

These past five months have been the worst days of my life as I am sure that they were not the most memorable for you all. In fact, the past year has probably been the hardest. There never ever seemed to be enough money for that special little "treat" at the convenience store. The embarassing fact that for many school trips, the council picked up the cost so that you could all attend.

It all began to fall apart too quickly and I wish that it would never have happened. That our circumstances were different. My biggest pet peeve, was when people would comment "been there" or "i know exactly what you are saying".

I'm sorry, but NO they never had BEEN THERE or know exactly what we were going through. Just how many families can truly say that they are the working homeless? Yes we were evicted from a horrible apartment that was falling apart around us, BUT we had a place of our own. Forced to remove our belongings in 18 hour time frame and losing 70% of what we did own. It was heart wrenching. It still is. I am still remembering certain things that I had to leave behind. Placing what we managed to salvage into a storage unit in the hopes that it would not be long until we found a place of our own. Seeing the end to summer, beginning of an uncertain school year and autumn...trying to make due with what we had on us. Ringing in winter without our winter clothing. How did it ever get this bad? How is it with all the overtime that was done, we still never managed to get into our own place. Because that same landlord, the one who had us evicted because in fact he didn't want to have to find us a new place, or deal with the hassle....who 5 months later STILL has an empty apartment on his hands...the vicious snake that he is; garnished wages and managed to freeze bank accounts for rent that had gone "missing" from his mail box.

I can only hope that this whole situation will have made you stronger. BUT I am near certain that it was just scarring...a bleak dark period in our lives that you will look back on with contempt. I did not seek to stay in the basement...with the constant fighting, and screaming. It is not healthy.

We are in fact a true Salvation Army ad.