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Help a burned out single dad make ends meet

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Help a burned out single dad make ends meet
For twelve years I lived abroad as an English teacher for children and young adults in Russia. My job was equipping them with the tools they needed to give them a hope for a better future.
In November of 2018, I could feel a political shift happening and so I moved to the US to start a new life. My wife and son joined me half a year later.
Being gone for so long meant that when I returned I had to build a life from scratch - I no longer had a credit history, credit score, not even a valid driver's license. I worked tirelessly at 2 jobs - going in at 5am to throw freight for a retail company until 2pm, then ran across town to a second job, getting home at 10pm.
Then covid hit and we relied on meager savings and credit cards. It did not take long to get a few thousand dollars in debt.
Then something I did not expect happened - I found myself living as a single parent, in a separated relationship. This had further devastating consequences on my finances as I chose to remain a "standing spouse" and bore the weight of our family debts myself. I even agreed to keep everyone on my insurance and even carried a family auto insurance policy, for a period of time.
2.5 years later, I found myself fighting in court for the three things that mattered most to me
1. equal rights as a father, including being consented before unnecessary medical procedures were performed,
2. a parenting schedule that would keep me employed in a salaried position though I later had to step down from management because the parenting plan wouldn't fit my work schedule,
3. and 50/50 custody - she decided she wanted full control over all things related to our son so as not to be accountable to come to agreements together.
Overall this battle cost me over $7k in attorney, court, and legal fees. There are many other details but that's not for public sharing - those who know me well know what I went through with this.
Other things that happened this past year:
Dental work, treatment for a kidney stone, an attempted theft of the catalytic converter on my car which had to be replaced, even loss of work due to covid. At one point I had my full-time job and used my car to deliver for Amazon and doordash, but the stop-and-go of deliveries trashed my CVT transmission so I had that repaired and stopped doing deliveries. I moved to a smaller apartment to cut costs, but incurred an $1100 move-out fee to replace carpeting that my son was not careful with. I'm still paying down on family debts. Student loan repayments restarted and are income driven, so even if I make more money, I'll have to pay more.
I work as much as I can often into overtime, but my hours to work are limited by being a present and involved father to my son.
At the moment, we are barely making ends meet. I even have a fully paid for (not by me) vacation in January, the first one for me in 7 years, that I'm not sure I can take because I'm not sure if I can take the time off of work - all my paid vacation days were used when my son and I had covid or any day he had to stay home from school and time during his summer break.
All I'm asking for is a little breathing room. We're breaking even now, but it's been years of 60+ hours and I'm beginning to burn out. Any help is appreciated and I'm more than willing to update this with reports of things paid for. You can also follow my life on Facebook as the account is public. Much gratitude in advance to any who can donate!
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $100
    • 9 mos
  • Anonymous
    • $100
    • 10 mos
  • Anonymous
    • $100
    • 11 mos
  • Stacey Whanger
    • $40
    • 1 yr
  • Anonymous
    • $50
    • 1 yr
Illustration of helping hands

Give $100 to help get this fundraiser to its goal

Make a donation
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Organizer

Justin Yeager
Organizer
Lake Oswego, OR

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