Help Donkeysaur start a new life in Dallas!

In July, my life fell apart.

I'd been having issues with my spouse for quite awhile, but was doing my best through therapy and hard work to try to make it work. Things were beyond repair. This of course eventually lead to our agreement to divorce, we would stop couples therapy and work on settling everything out before going on our own separate ways.

Unfortunately, this is not what happened. This would be the first year I would be able to get to AC and meet up with friends, something I had wanted to do for years but was never able to as he was often going through years long lapses of employment leaving only my paychecks. While he tried various methods to block my ability to go, I managed to get there anyways, and it was wonderful--

except for what he was doing back home while I was gone.

Instead of evenly splitting our property in mutual agreement he ransacked the house, taking whatever he wanted. He specifically took appliances I needed- the clothes washer and dryer, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, ripping them out and leaving holes. He tried to cut off my cellphone service, but thankfully I was able to get that moved fast enough to another company. I can't drive due to anxiety and other issues, he took these things specifically to harm me as much as he could get away with while I was out, and left a huge mess behind for me to try to manage entirely on my own. Two of my cats were taking away from me without any chance to say farewell, one of them a pet I've had for 10 years now. I'll never get to see him again.

This has caused massive amounts of distress and emotional damage. Luckily I already had been working on myself and have doctors and therapy and the medications I need, but these things all cost money, and every day that I couldn't get to work and had to take FMLA was a day that I wasn't getting paid. Last year all of my savings had to go to repair the roof on the house, and I have not had contact with any of my family in nearly 20 years at this point. There really isn't a safety net for people like me, it's expected that I will go to the family I don't have for help. I did what I could and filled out so much paperwork through every avenue I could find requesting help, trying to get lawyers, trying to get loans, but everything's been denied. It's been... The worst months of my life, there are whole weeks I've lost entirely to darkness.

The bright spot of hope is that I now have a plan.

I'm going to relocate from Oklahoma City to Dallas and move in with Sky as he needs someone to take over for his old roommate. This will be great for me! It's hours away from my malicious ex, in a place that I can better get around and overall will be less expensive than my current situation. I'll be out of this empty house full of terrible memories! And he won't have to move again. No mystery roommates, it's pretty ideal.

The only snag is that my current employers will not allow me to relocate and keep my current job. Which sucks, I have tenure and have risen in the ranks and gotten quite a few raises. It's gonna mean I'll have to take something that pays less, but I am still optimistic as it will be absolutely worth it, and with my resume I'm sure I'll be able to get something fairly quickly.

What I need right now, and what I'm really hoping to get help with, is to pay the movers to get my stuff down there. The estimates have been roughly three thousand dollars to get it accomplished, I've already got things boxed and ready and a storage unit reserved for things that won't be going into the apartment with me. I'm working on figuring out how to get myself and the cats I still have down there as I can't drive, and that's going to cost money too, even if someone local can help, I would still want to be able to pay them gas, and I'll need another carrier for the cats themselves. Any extra help would be an immense relief from the pressures of time and stress and let me breathe a little while I find new employment, being able to cover my half of the rent for a month or two without worry while I settle in a new city and a new job would be incredible. At this point I do not think I will be able to get any of the proceeds from selling the house out of my ex's clutches even though I've been the one paying the mortgage all these years. I just cannot afford to live AND to pay a lawyer with the weight of all the bills still on my shoulders alone while he has been able to do whatever he wants. Even if I do get any of the proceeds I'm going to have to fight, and I absolutely cannot depend on it happening soon. Attempting to have any sort of civil conversation with him even just via email has been answered with dramatic aggression and threats, and a spike in harassment from him.

I really really want to get back to creating art and doing VR again and enjoying life with my friends and the people who really do matter in my life. I'm so close to getting there and waking up from this awful nightmare. There are so many things I haven't been able to work on or share while this is all going on, and with the end so close I am so excited to get back to living.

The future is finally bright and shiny again and I want to see you all soon! I just need a little help to get there, and I would be beyond forever thankful for it. Asking for help like this has been incredibly hard, I'm a pretty self-reliant person and have never really... needed it quite like this. My life is absolutely smashed to pieces, but if I can get a little help I know I can build a new one that's better than it's ever been. There's so many years ahead of me, and I know I can make them amazing.