Joe and Kim Woods Need Your Support and Prayers

Hello, from Joe and Kim Woods. We are desperately needing assistance with daily living expenses, bills, food, etc.

2024 was an unbelievably rough year for us.

On Jan 31st, Joe had his foot crushed at his full-time job. Over a year later, he still experiences pain, numbness, spasms, swelling, and more. We are still going through the Worker's Comp process, and it looks like a settlement won't happen for months.

On Feb 25th, 2024, we celebrated my mom's 90th birthday. A few days later, she passed.

After mom's passing we could no longer live in the house we'd been in for 11 years as it was in mom's trust. We had to figure out how to move somewhere with Joe unable to bear weight on his right foot.

On May 8th, I had a heart attack. It was a widowmaker. We are so VERY thankful we were right down the street from a hospital or, according to the ER staff, I wouldn't have made it.

Come the end of June, we had to move. With both of us having physical issues, we got help to throw things in a rental truck and shoved everything we owned, save for a few items we needed to "camp" with, into storage. Storage is our most expensive bill, and now that the weather is nice, we hope to sell/give most things away to eliminate the over $400/mo in payments.

We had been trying to find a place to rent, but with no income (Joe off work with his injury, me providing full-time care for him), we had no income to get approved for a lease. On top of that, we found out we had no credit score. Yep! None. Craziest thing. We hired a credit repair company to look into it. Apparently, my info had been sold on the dark web over and over. Joe's seemed clear, but all 3 reports said "cannot calculate." They were helping us try to get it figured out, but we had to stop paying. We just didn't have the funds.

We ended up finding a lot in rural SE Kansas that would work for us, listed by a local realtor. No electricity, gas, or water. We pitched a tent at first until it was destroyed in a storm with us in it.

A friend sent down a pop-up camper, which gave us more shelter. Our generator was able to run fans inside to keep it fairly cool at night. The days were terribly hot! We had 100+ degree weather for weeks. We tried to stay in the car, in the shade, with the AC going during the hottest part of the day. Then, the car began to not cool or run well. Money went to 3 repairs in a month's time.

So, the lot we bought from the realtor...ended up not being our lot! Her sign was on it, and she drove us to look at it. When we tried to get it surveyed, the survey company said it had already been done. Come to find out, the real lot was 1/4 mile down the road and not one we would have picked. It was completely cleared. Not one tree. The lot she initially "sold" us had trees surrounding it. It was a nightmare.

So, we found a lot with a 24-year-old RV on it. Electric and septic holding tank in place. It took a huge chunk of the money we had left, yet we had better shelter, heat, AC, a kitchen, a shower. It was a Godsend!

During all this, we were making 1-3 trips a week, about 1 hour 30 mins each way, each time, for Joe's appointments with his orthopedic surgeon, wound care, and rehab. Lots of gasoline.

So, here we are. Workers Comp payments ended last July along with insurance coverage. Paying for both of our medications is expensive. We've done pretty well paying bills until recently. We have exhausted all local resources to get medications, propane, gasoline, and food. We've borrowed all we can. Now we are at risk of losing everything out of the storage units due to not paying March yet, and April is due the 1st.

It's very, very hard to write this and to relive what we've gone through. Never in a million years did we think we would be in this position. We were always on the helping and giving end. Now we are needing serious help.

Thank you for reading about our situation. I know not all can give, and we completely understand. Prayers are greatly appreciated!!

Joe and Kim Woods