Save the Flores Home

In 2005 my father built his first home.  He never planned on living in it.  What he wanted to do was sell it. Well after 4 years of trying to sell this home that he built , he just couldnt sell it.  He couldnt get any one to buy it off of him. I had never seen this home , until 2009. In December of 2009, my father sat me down and asked me personally if I would consider buying the home from him through the bank.  I told him, there is no way the bank would ever allow me to have a home.  I didnt have good credit, so I thought.  Well It turned out I did, and well I ended up moving in on New Years night well technically it was December 31st,  then it was new years that night .  Me and my son spent our first night in our new home on New Years.  We were very shy as we had no furniture and didnt know any of the neighbors here.  Time flew by, by the time we knew it, we were good friends with the whole neighborhood and my son had actual friends.  Good friends too!    I had a good paying job , I was on salary and money wasnt much of an issue at that time.  As a single full time father , I felt so proud of myself and felt some what accomplished.   I never thought much into the future that all of it could be taken away one day.  It never crossed my mind.  Unfortunately I should have done some future planning just in case ,right.   

We never spent much money, never really bought our selves anything luxurious, I didnt have a fancy car or have expensive clothes.  As a matter of a fact, all of the clothes I wear are years old. Even my son mentions it to me now, dad how come you always wear the same clothes.  LOL    Its funny in a way, but it doesnt bother me, as long as I can look a little professional when it comes down to business purposes.  I used to love buying my son toys.  Now its been a long while since I have.    Sighhh..... I can go on and on about how our life was before now.

 

Luckily we havent surpassed this situation yet.... but its coming ... and I promised myself and my son that I would do whatever it takes to save our home.  Yes,   I did have a sit down and I did mention to him what is going on and possibly how we might be able to get some support and help to save our home.  My son is always up for anything, hes a very joyful little boy and very easy to satisfy.  He is the world and much more to me.  Like I said before, I am a single full time father.  I have raised my son since he was born.  Its just been me and him tag teaming everything we do.   Everything I do , he is involved.  The only times we are not together is when he is at school and I am at work.  

So here I go with what happened. Back in April,  my mother became very ill.  She was already diabetic.  She had already had two heart attacks in the past, 1st one when I was 13, the 2nd one I cant recall what year it was, but it happened.  So yeah , she has always been diabetic and well in April she just went into a state of disaster in her health.    In April she called me crying, she tells me that she is so scared because she just came back from a dr appointment she had and her dr told her she was going into surgery in 2 days.  Her Dr.  told her that her kidneys were failing drastically and that they needed to perform some type of dangerous surgury on her stomach.  She was so scared, and well , me and my whole family were so scared too.   Its crazy how she was looking good and walking around and doing fine, up until the visit.  

Well I was put in a situation where I had to choose , my work or my family (mother).  I knew that if I left my work , well I would face financial disaster.  Family comes first!  My mother gave birth to me, I couldnt just be like oh well I cant, I have to be at work.  Thats just not me.  I informed my boss that I needed to leave the company immediately.  The thing is,  I left the company right in the middle of training people and the process of a new location opening.  It wasnt a good time to be leaving, especially when I was in charge of over 28 people.  

I had to leave, my mother needed me, and  at that time it felt like it was going to be the last time Id see my mother.  I had to make this choice!  So I left. I said goodbye to all the employees and said my farewells.  

I was with my mother just how I had planned, right before the surgery and into the next weeks after.  My mother was in and out of the hospital for the next couple of months.  There were 3 situations where my mother was released, and then within hours something bad would happen to her, she wasnt feeling well, her sugar or blood pressure would drop drastically.  It was a crazy roller coaster.  My mother survived those months.  I am extremely proud of her.   

The bad thing is , after her surgery, she was put on dialysis, ever other day.  If she doesnt have her dialysis , she will die!  Yes , its that bad.  One time she skipped her dialysis and her body swelled up badly, it looked like if I poked her with a pin, she would pop.  She isnt overweight, she just looked like that when she skipped her dialysis once.  Oh and she skipped it because she ended up sick and in the emergency room, it wasnt on purpose.    After the surgery, she couldnt walk on her own any more.  She has lost so much pounds in the past months.  She looks slim, but very different.  Her facial bone structures are exposed, you can see them.  She is so fragile and when you touch her hands, they are always ice cold.  

For the past couple of months me and my family have been helping her out in any way we can.  Cleaning the house, cooking her meals for her, healthy ones too. Occassionally we will take her out to eat.  Yes she can still walk a little bit, but only with the assistance of us or her walker.  Overall , she is ok for now , as long as she has us (family) around her, she will have what she needs.  Love and Care!

 

So .  I lost my job. Well technically I abandoned my job to be with my mother.  I needed to be with her. If I didnt get to see her, then I really would have regretted it my whole life.  

So I lost my job.  I had one last paycheck on the way, and I had about $1500 in saving.  Well the around the time I left my job, the mortgage was due.  My mortgage is $877 a month.  My paycheck was $1200.  I paid my mortgage for that month and ended up paying bills with the rest of my check.  The next month came and the mortgage was due again, I used my savings to pay the mortgage and the rest to pay my bills. Leaving me with about $300.  I saved those $300 for gas and whatever I could use it for in future bills. In the mean time while my mother was still sick, I began mowing yards.  I would take my son along with me and he would be my little helper. I began filling out applications in stores and online.  I was getting to the point where my next mortgage payment was coming up. I ended up getting a job at a convenience store by my sons school. I still work there to this day, I still fill out applications to jobs that can possibly match what I was making before.  I still mow lawns every other day.  

July,August,September,October.  Those are the months I havent been able to pay my mortgage!  I have tried to come up with the money, but my bills eat up all of my funds.  I have tried mowing more lawns, but it seems like it just doesnt add up!  School season came and I was barely able to buy my son his uniform clothes. It sucked big time!  To this day, he still only has 3 shirts and two pants and one pair of shoes for school. My son told me about a month ago, that some kid always tells him, ahhhh Branden why do you always wear the same pants?   Sighh...   that made me click, it just shows me what my family has turned into due to the job loss and the choice I made. 

I work more hours than I used to, and make much more less. If I get a second job, I will not be able to be there for my son.  I tried to apply for some government assistance such as foodstamps, well they gave me a total of $30 a month, which helps us out, considering its just me and my son and well we dont each so much.  

Ive been in talks with the mortgage company (bank) and talks havent been good, now that I have money to pay a month and a half, they wont accept it. They will only accept what I am past due, which is $4300 at this moment.  I told them I cant pay that!  Its going to take me forever to save that up. It would probably take me another 2-3 months to even earn that type of money.  I informed them that I can go back to paying the monthly payments of $877  month if they allowed me to.  They told no! As a matter of fact, mortgage loan specialist let me know last week that on November 10th, if full payment of $4300 isnt paid, my home goes into foreclosure.  The foreclosure process begins on that day.  

I dont know what else to do.  I have sold all of property that is valuable to me.  I have reduced my bills by getting rid of cable and internet.  I now use the libraries internet, if not at work when on break.  The only bills I have now is my phone which is $35 a month(I have always had this plan),  electricity( $120 + a month), water ($70 a month), and of course mortgage, which is $877 month.

I have tried my best to save every penny I can save, but when it comes down to it, I waste the $30 of food stamps and Im down to spending another $60 in food for the month.  Gas I spend about $10 every other day.  Every now and then my son has something in school that requires some type of money, its small, but still it requires money.  

This is the first year ever that we wont be able to do anything for Halloween.  We could alway draw on our faces or something .  

 

My mother is doing much better these days.  Shes still in her stable condition and is no longer in/out of the hospital.  She seems to be doing alot better.  I have these wierd dreams from time to time about me and my mother walking in places, and my mother is walking fast like she used to back in the days, shes smiling, talking and shes alive!!!  Then I wake up , only to be filled with sadness of what she used to be like.  I am so grateful that she is still here with us.  

 

This fundraiser idea came across me last week, when I came across a fundraiser where they were asking for $6000 to fund a luxurious vacation just for the heck of it. I thought to my self, who would donate to that cause?  Well to my surprise, the fundraiser was funded the $6000 plus another $5000!!!!!!!  I was surprised!  How the heck did this person get that accomplished????  Then I saw another fundraiser for  a brand new pair of Jordans!  It got funded too plus more!  

 

I thought to my self.  Here I am struggling to save my home, battling with the mortgage company and causing all of this stress and headaches.  I am working a full time job , mowing lawns and selling my person property that has some what value just to try to save my home.  When these people are out here getting funded for these luxurious things.     I thought to my self, if I start a fundraiser for the cause to save our home, what are the possibilities that it would get funded?

 

The possibilities are up to you all who read my story.  I leave the fate of my home in the peoples hands. I will continue to do what I do and that is work, save and be a father.  Thats  almost I can do at this point in my life until I land a better paying job.   I dont want to love my home, our home , me and my sons home.  We live here.  We built our own garden in the front yard.  We never even got to build the wooden fence we wanted to build. We planted a lime tree in the center of our yard, only to not be able to see it grow.  There are alot of things we never got to do to our home. I dont know if we ever will. But point being, this is our home, my father built it, he couldnt sell it so he sold it to me. Me and my son love this home. Its where we spend the last 4 years of our life in. 

 

Is it possible to get support and help on gogetfunding to save our home?  If so, then its a miracle to me and my son!  It would be the best day of our lives to get the support we need in order to pay off what we are behind on our mortgage.  It would be the best day of our lives if we got funded for this cause.  

Me and my son had a discussion about how we can give back to those who donate to us.  It was a some what slightly heated discussion but we came to an agreement.  The agreement is that me and him will record short videos of us thanking the each person who donates to us.  We dont have much to offer as we are on an extremely tight budget at this time. But we will do our very best to give back .  

I want to personally thank you all for taking the time to read my story, I know its long, it took me about 2 hours to type out this non stop but it came directly from the heart.   

Thank you all once again for taking the time to read this , I cannot thank you all enough.  

A million thanks to all!