Help Rene And Avi Build Something Special

Year End Update And A New Goal For the Year Ahead

When this fund was first started, the view of a life ahead for Rene and Avi seemed to be one that, while not traveled on a road without challenges, could be attained with some patience and the love of those in his orbit. Through the support and generosity that's been shown, Avi has enjoyed stability at school and at home while also affording Rene some room to maneuver against the parry and jab choreography of our state's family court system.

Perhaps naively, I viewed a more modest goal as being attainably sufficient to give Rene the necessary time and resources that would provide comfort in a resolution to come. Though his optimism remains undeterred, the reality of this process and its requisite pounds of flesh have shined a sobering light on just how much work is left to do.

Yet to be settled remains the state's recognition of Rene as Avi's father through many more billable hours in court and the satisfaction of a costly evidentiary burden. Further, complications regarding access to the schooling that Avi has enjoyed have combined with these mounting legal costs to present Rene with hurdles high enough to cast a shadow over larger buildings. Regrettably, there are also parties committed to elongating these timelines with the goal of taxing Rene's financial wherewithal until its breaking point is reached.

There is simply no way to accurately express the proper amount of gratitude that we all feel for the gifts of love and support that have come forward since this campaign began. While I couldn't ask any more of those that have already been so generous, I would like to encourage everyone reading this to search the outer perimeters of our social spheres for anyone that would feel similarly compelled to help in their journey.

Thank you all for keeping these two in your hearts!

If there's one thing that we all know about Rene Cervantes, its that he's never been afraid to put in the work. In front of him right now is the single greatest and possibly hardest job that he'll ever undertake: Dadding. Avi makes that task seem easy though and if you've been fortunate enough to spend some time around the two of them I'm sure you've seen how they both adore and draw strength from each other. Well, this fund is being started to show Rooster that his base of strength is wider than he may know.

I set a relatively modest goal knowing that no number comes close to encapsulating the needs of raising a child. The support one needs is ever-fluid and dizzyingly complex, seemingly more so by the day. And while a new parent can always dump money into the endless chasms of food and shelter, each of us and our families have at times faced modern challenges that can't be solved with gift cards and secondhand clothes.

Among the challenges that Rene is currently facing and likely will for some time are those specific to the ugly machinery of asserting himself as Avi's legal father. Between the bureaucratic reality of accomplishing anything in Illinois with the state's blessing as well as the more localized and personal conflicts that have arisen, Rene is financially burdened beyond what the inconsistent rhythms of his current compensation allow for. In addition to ensuring that Avi has access to good schooling and is generally well cared for, this fund will help to provide Rene with some of the structural capability that he will need to trudge through the legal marsh and circumnavigate the obstacles he’ll encounter along the way.

In closing, you’re reading this because you mean something to our dear Rooster and you likely know that Avi becoming a part of his life is probably the best thing that’s ever happened to him. If you were to be so generous, in any amount, we can all show him how excited we are to see them team up and tackle this world together!