New Job New Life

Hello Everyone,

My name is Lori; I'm a licensed teacher with an MA and a single mom to one amazing 10 year old son. The photo is of my mom and my son in 2010 before I left for my overseas teaching job. It was a great job.

But I left everything behind very suddenly, within 10 hours of the phone call, when I learned that my mother had become very suddenly and severely ill. In fact, I landed in the States exactly one year ago today. It's been a very hard year.

Mom was in a nursing home and had no property of her own. Once I'd run out of money and hospitality near where she lived in TX, I had to move on so that I could try to find a job and support my son. I'm licensed to teach in AR and TX doesn't have teaching license reciprocity with AR. So, I moved to AR and hoped I could return soon to see my mother. It took a long time to find something. During the winter months, my son and I lived in the living room of an old friend. Thank God for old friends! When I finally found a job it was part time"”just 6 hours per week. I found a government program to help pay rent so that we could move out of my friend's house, and we got food stamps.

My mom had recovered, but at this she time became very ill again with the same problem. I had to wait for my first pay check to arrive and use it to rent a car to drive down to TX.

My mom passed away when I'd been driving for about an hour.

I had just enough money to get there and back. No money for a funeral for my mother. I can't tell you the heartache this year has held. I had to move to AR before my mom's birthday last year"”July 16. It would be her last. It's coming up soon and this is all so emotional. I wish I could see her and tell her about my new job in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

I had to borrow a car to drive to St. Louis, MO, to interview, but I got it! It pays well, it provides full health insurance for my son and for myself, it provides for his private school education, and they even pay for our tickets out there and a generous re-location allowance"”once we're there. I just have to pay expenses here until I leave"”Aug 18, and I have to carry enough money with me to hold us over until I'm given the re-location allowance, which should be about a week or week and a half after I land.

School is out now, but I have a new part time job working in a church nursery. I love it, but I earn less than $300 dollars a month with this job; obviously, it's just not enough. This year I've earned less than $5,000. Next year (and it's a three year contract) I'll earn over $72,000--if I can get to my new job and start a new chapter of my life! If I can't get there and if I stay here next year, it's likely that I'll be working full time in a frozen food factory here in town, and trying to substitute teach. Please, help me to provide a better life than that for my son.

I've never tried anything like this before, but if I can find enough generous people to help me through the next 6 weeks, I promise to pay this forward once I'm there by giving to others like me here on this site. Please help me help myself and my son. I will do it again and again for others once I'm able. Thank you and God bless you!"”Lori