David & Alexia Blackwell & family

Hi, my name is Rebecca and I'm fundraising for my friends David and Alexia and their family. I run a yarn shop named Sun Dragon Art & Fiber, and they are loved members of our "Viking" Sun Dragon community. They have been on a nightmare of a roller coaster medical journey since the middle of last year when David had to stop working, and they are still looking for answers and help from experts. I'll include his story below in his own words, but one way we can all help is with day-to-day expenses: one salary for a family of four while they work to figure out what is possible through disability and more is challenging. They may also need to seek out specialists for more help, and none of that is guaranteed to be covered by insurance. Please consider donating to this wonderful family.

David's post on Facebook in December:

Dear friends and family,

I’m posting this to ask for your help. Some of you know that I have been out of work since July due to a shoulder/neck injury. I was able to use short term disability for a time but that has expired. Long term disability benefits are not going to start for at least another month and will not be enough to get caught up or sustain us, especially with me continually having doctors appointments every where.

I had surgery on my neck Nov 14 in an attempt to help fix the injury. I was told to expect 3-4 days of recovery in the hospital before going home. Instead I spent 2 weeks laying in bed at Mission because after my surgery I have not been able to use or feel my legs. I am currently admitted into a rehabilitation facility doing physical therapy in an attempt to regain what I have lost. I am having to learn to stand and how to walk again. The surgery has affected my arms as well and I am also going through occupational therapy to relearn how to feed myself and how to do all the little things we do in our daily lives. It’s amazing how much we all take our bodies for granted until the time comes that we can no longer use them.

When the doctors took me out of work in July, my wife began working as much overtime as possible. She worked most weekends and sometimes morning and evening jobs outside her regular full-time job. Our son has been paying us regularly to help cover bills. It appeared as though we were on track. She cannot work overtime while I’m at that rehabilitation facility.

In 2020 we refinanced our home for the great interest rate and used equity to do repairs on our home including replacing our roof. The first roofer took our deposit and never started the work. While we are still working through the court system to try and get some of that back, the actual roof from a stellar local contractor wiped out the rest of our savings and we now have two loan payments from the roof. We live within the means of a two income household, but all of these unforeseen circumstances make a single income impossible.

I’m asking for your help. I am unable to work and provide for my family at this time and my wife is only one person and cannot carry us on her own. It hurts me to have to ask for this help but we’ve quickly run out of options. Thank you for reading this and thank you if you are able to help us in any way.

Sincerely,

David

About us: We are a family of four with a 20 year old son and 6 year old daughter.

We live in a beautiful 1960’s stick built house that we have put a lot of love and work into maintaining. We love nature. We plant flowers and veggies every spring to share with our friends and neighbors. We feed the white squirrels, deer, turkeys, etc that wander through our yard. We make digital albums of the bird nests and the black snake that lives in our chestnut tree.