Let’s help the Barrera family

Today I'm asking for our communities help to ease the financial burdens of my sister and brother-in-law as they face this unexpected chapter in their lives. My brother-in-law has faced a very difficult health journey in these past few years and with a new baby coming next month, medical expenses adding up, and him not knowing when he will return back to work a donation of any kind will be a great help. I've ask my sister to please tell their story and how your donations will help them during this time in their lives.

Thank you all,

Mandy

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Thank you all so much for taking the time to read our story. The funds that we

raise will help cover medical expenses, therapy sessions, insurance premiums to keep our health insurance live, and some basic living expenses. Currently, Alex has been out of work for almost 3 months. He is working with his job and his doctors to find a position he will be able to physically do within his company. A few months ago, he was faced with the difficult decision to stop working because his body couldn't physically keep up.

As some of you may know, my husband Alex has faced a very difficult health journey during the past 3-4 years. His mobility had drastically declined within the year leaving it extremely difficult for him to do normal everyday tasks on his own. Things that we find easy and mindless each day are like climbing Mount Everest for him.

He has undergone many tests that confusingly enough have come back negative. Although we are grateful for negative results we are still baffled because of his inability to do normal life tasks. He's been tested for Lyme disease, MS, Parkinsons, and Stiff Person Syndrome just to name a few. And he's waiting on an appointment to meet with yet another Neurologist, who specializes in mobility disorders, later this month.

After years of no answers, we have found in the recent months that Alex has a

compression on his spinal cord and it's coming from his C6 disc in his neck. Because of this, he has lost mobility with his upper body and a bad case of carpal tunnel in both wrists preventing him to do the simplest tasks. He has torn tendons in his shoulders and his lower body has suffered in a way that has made his walking extremely difficult to perform. This past summer he's had no choice but to use a mobility scooter if he wanted to go places. Even at that, the mobility scooter was difficult for him at times to maneuver with no feeling in his hands and such stiffness in his shoulders. He's had to stop driving because it was too dangerous. Throughout this difficult journey, we have been super blessed by our parents who have helped getting him to and from his doctor and therapy appointments.

A month ago Alex had received injections in both wrist, shoulders, back, and neck.

And those have really helped to bring feeling back into his hands, ability to stand more erect, and not be in so much pain. But this is only temporary relief until he rehabs his body to normal function. He is currently about to enter week 5 of physical therapy and although it may not look or seem at times that he is progressing; he is showing progression. We give praise to God for the baby steps because it's more than we've seen in the passed years. He has his good and bad days, but he's recently been able to start

walking with a cane rather than using the mobility scooter. He's able to dress himself a little better on his own and pick up food a little better than before. These little improvements are huge wins that we celebrate.

He still has a long journey ahead with relearning how to use his fine motor skills and to properly walk again, but his doctors are hopeful his therapy will help in time. We aren't sure what that time frame is of him regaining functionality back, but we are trusting the process. Your donations will greatly help in aiding the weekly expense of his physical therapy sessions.

At first, I wrote our story with hesitation, but after seeking the Lord he made it clear to us that it’s okay to ask for help from our community. We wondered if creating a GoFundMe page would pass judgement on us, but we have come to a chapter in our life where we could use any help to get us past this hurdle in life. If we could avoid placing our family in heavy debt or even just minimize the debt we would be extremely grateful.

I've always been a huge supporter of the community and believe the Lord intends

for us to have it to help others. I've just never thought we would be on the receiving end of that help. We are trying to humble ourselves and remove pride and trust the Lord to provide for us in this chapter. With a new baby coming next month and Alex not sure when he will be back to work we were at a loss for how we would make things work. We never imagined us both out of work so close to each other or in this situation of asking our community for financial help.

We also realize that "we" are not intended to do this life alone. Our Lord has

always been so gracious to us and surprises us in ways our human eyes just can't believe. We are believing without a shadow of a doubt that he is working all of this for good. One day we'll look back with a sparkle in our eyes on how merciful our lord was and truly is. How it seemed impossible in our eyes, but through him all was possible.

We know some may not be in a situation to give and we completely understand and respect that. We certainly do not expect everyone to be able to give. But if you would be so kind to share our story with your friends and put us on your prayer list that would be just as good as a monetary donation to us. Anything our Heavenly Father blesses us with we will be forever grateful. And no matter the donation size, any amount will be a huge help!

Alex and I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read our story. It

sure is hard to place such personal things out for all to read, but we are trusting in the lord and truly believe that placing Him first in all that we do will be blessed.

We hope that one day we could pay it forward to others in the same way.

Thank you and God bless,

The Barrera Family

Alex and Leilani