Laid off and in debt

Update 3: We have hit and exceed our goal and we can't thank you all enough for all the help with donations, spreading the word, and just the overall kindness we have we received. You all have pulled us out of a bottomless pit and changed our lives forever. Thank you.

Update 2: Darla wanted to share a few words to everyone who has helped us out. 

"All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you. The generosity from all of you is so amazing and honestly all I can do is cry. I feel like the stress I’ve been having and the anxiety of hoping to sell our possession to afford things like diapers has been lifted and I can breathe a little easier now. I’ve been so afraid to ask for help, feeling like I had failed at being a parent and a partner. So thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to breathe and look forward to the future."

UPDATE: I want to say thank you to everyone who's donated so far, and will in the future. This is my first experience with GoFundMe and people have reached out to let me know that I need to update my goal and tell you what's going on. The original 5,000 was taken care of in a matter of hours, that's just how amazing the community is. That money is was going to go to paying bills, settling medical debt, and maybe even fixing my wife's truck. Receiving enough money to finding a different place to live would be asking too much, but as some folks have pointed out maybe raising it to clear my credit card debt would be a good course of action. So I'm going to do that, and I hope that you all understand why. 

I do have some good news! A friend from high school has reached out about possibly fostering my dog Jack while he can't be with us. We have a playdate between their dogs and my dog set up for this coming Sunday and I am just really hoping for the best. I will update you all as soon as I get any more news. Thank you all again, I can't tell you how much this all means to me and my family.

Just a heads up, this is going to be a bummer.

Hi all, my name is Drew Davenport. I was laid off two months ago. I had that job for about a year and a half, it was a big gamble leaving my previous position for it but there was a promise of a better life. Two months ago they laid off my team, and my family was without income. Darla, my wife, is a stay-at-home mom, looking after our daughter Victory. We had decided after she was born that Darla would prefer to be a stay-at-home mom as child care can be very expensive and she wanted to be there for Victory.

Things were tough even before I lost my job, I have not been making ends meet for some time and as such we were relying on credit cards to get by. We've racked up an unbelievable amount of credit card debt together, it took over a decade of paying off some and then an emergency or car repairs to get us where we are at. So with our debt as a constant, we knew after I lost my job we would have to find a new place to live. Losing our apartment also mean our roommate Tyler losing his apartment. Losing our apartment means losing the home we brought our daughter to. Sorry to get bleak, but it's just where I've been lately.

As for the apartment, I do not see a way back. I have spoken to the landlord and after we leave the rent will probably be raised around $800 more. We were given a pretty substantial deal as we know the landlord, but that's over now. We were told even if we weren't moving out the prices would raise after December. We are lucky in the fact that we do have somewhere to fall back on now, my parents home.

Moving back in with my parents would be difficult for me but it would work except for one thing. They would not want us to bring Jack, our dog. The reasoning being that a week ago I was dog sitting for my parents with my dog Jack there. He had been there before many times, and always got along with the other dogs. While I was out of the house for a few hours one of their dogs was attacked. There's no way of knowing what happened, but they feel that Jack is the culprit and do not feel safe with him in the house anymore.

So the situation we find ourselves in is that we would have to give up our dog to move back into my parents. I do not see a situation where it can be remedied and the same time, we are also losing this apartment and there's no changing that.

The one good thing that's happened recently is I found a new job, it is however the most physically demanding job I've ever had. It doesn't pay well, not nearly enough to get by, but it's a start.

The dream scenario would be to get enough money to get out of debt, repair my wife's car, and find a new place to live where we can live with Jack. He's only ever had a concrete square as a backyard, and I always promised him that would next place we live would have grass for him. I don't think I'll be able to keep that promise but I don't know anymore. Maybe if I can find somewhere that will board him long-term that could work, but I haven't found anything yet, if you have any ideas please send them my way.

Any amount of money would help us figure out our next step, it has been one disaster after another and I cannot pull myself out. We have had multiple garage sales and we are selling our things online, but it's not making ends meet.

And if you do donate, I just want to say thank you. I hope I've done something to deserve that kindness.

Thank you,

Drew, Darla, Victory, & Jack.