Help Colette Heal From Mold Exposure

We are Dan and Brooke Delaney, parents of Colette and Joia.

We finally bought our first home in the summer of 2021. Colette was 8 years old. A few months after moving in, she began displaying some strange behaviors; one of these was constant throat clearing. We thought it was because of the smoke from nearby fires and didn't think too much of it.

Strange.

But then the strange behaviors quite suddenly snowballed: tapping her forehead on every available surface resulting in bruises, repeated flicking of her tongue, tapping her elbows repeatedly on the table during meals, running hands along the banister in just the perfect way which meant it took ten minutes to go up or down the stairs, and slamming her arms against her body resulting in bruising along her sides.

She was trapped in these rituals - consumed by them. Just a few months after moving in, it was as if we had lost our daughter.

Colette.

Some of you know Colette, who is beautiful, full of life, kindhearted, incredibly imaginative, accepting of all kinds of different people, and who is an amazing big sister. Colette has always been her own person and we were grieved to see these elements disappear.

She eventually lost her ability to read, write, sleep, or control her bladder. This sudden onset of OCD pointed us to Pandas Sydrome, an autio-immune disease connected to the strep infection where the bacteria hides in the brain, then tricks the immune system into attacking the brain itself, resulting in brain inflammation, emotional/developmental regression, oppositional defiance, and OCD.

Mold.

We began treatment but soon discovered that mold is a known trigger for PANDAS; continued exposure would make healing impossible. So we had Colette tested.

She was full of mold.

The house and the cost.

For most of our marriage we have focused on paying down school debt, so we were 40 before we could afford a downpayment on our first home. We bought our house "off-market" during the Covid housing boom and were told that they were willing to sell but that the house "had some needed projects." One of these projects was a leaky shower that meant the master bathroom had gone unused for some time.

So we knew the house could be the culprit...

We had the house tested and mold was found in our crawl space, that upper bathroom, possibly a little in another bathroom, and one wall of the kitchen. So we booked the mold remediation company. Our house would be free of mold and we could finally help our daughter heal!

But, as happens with mold behind walls, it was more than we thought.

Once they got started, mold was found everywhere. Two bathrooms were gutted, as well as most of the kitchen (including ceiling and floors), and half the dining room. We were left with a shell of a house, no kitchen, no shower.

The mold remediation ended up costing $35,000.

That does not include building back.

We had not planned for this happening to our house. Our savings and borrowing power were not up to the challenge, especially so soon after buying the house, moving, and Colette's medical expenses.

Would you consider helping us cover the cost of this remediation?

the kitchen

the bathroom

the dining room

Good work.

We do trust the mold remediation company; they specifically work on mold remediation for medically compromised families, and their communication and documentation throughout the process were incredible. They partitioned off each area affected and after each cleaning of the room, had another company retest the area for mold (surfaces and air). One of the rooms was actually found to still contain mold and they returned to reclean the room, determined to leave each room without mold, and at zero extra cost to us.

Insurance haha.

None of this is covered by insurance, as our housing insurance literally says it does not cover mold. We considered approaching insurance from the angle of water damage, but since the damage was done by prior owners and not by a natural disaster, insurance wouldn't cover it.

Our people!

So it was then that we realized that we needed help from our community. Brooke has taken on extra remote work to help defray the cost, but is still needed at home to take care of 17-month-old Joia. Dan is self-employed, working most waking hours, and working for the church as well. We are stretched pretty thin.

Would you help us cover the cost of this remediation?

Blessed and grateful.

We have been incredibly blessed by those who have offered for us to stay in their homes during the two month cleaning process. Others have brought us meals, offered their homes for showers, and have prayed for us through this time. Thank you to each one of you!!

We have also been blessed by leaders in our church who have walked alongside us through this process, have given us financial advice, and even help for some of the upfront costs. But as more and more mold was found, this help hasn't been enough to cover all the remediation.

Building back.

Separate from the mold remediation, we now need to rebuild our kitchen and two bathrooms. Any help with the mold remediation would be immensely helpful and we would be so grateful. Thank you for reading our story.

Would you consider helping us?

Dan and Brooke

P.S. Colette is doing pretty well right now. But healing is not linear and there's a lot of work to do for her still. Immune rehabilitation is a long game. But we're grateful to move forward with a home that is safe for her. Thanks again for considering helping us put our life back together.