Save the Warners' Home
*** This campaign is now over, but I'm leaving it up to redirect people to our new one. We got the extra year that we asked for, so that I could continue to look for work. Thank you all so much. Unfortunately, after 68 job interviews, I've still had no offers. We've started a new, more aggressive campaign on PlumFund here: https://www.plumfund.com/financial-hardship/the-last-chance-for-our-home
I'm also working on a blog at https://saveourhome.blog that will lay out the story and track our daily progress much better than PlumFund can. We chose PlumFund because there are no fees for receiving donations as there are here on GoFundMe. Thank you to all for all of your support. ***
I'm at a loss.
It's so hard to put this all into words, briefly enough to get it all across without writing something so long that no one will read it. We need your help.
My wife, a registered nurse, is at work today on Thanksgiving. My two daughters are watching the parade.
My wife and I are introverts. We haven't got many friends. We're not involved in a church community. I'm estranged from most of my family, and hers can only help so much. We have no support network that can help us with a problem this big. We need people we can reach online, who don't know us, but care enough to help us anyway. Are you one?
This all started with medical expenses, years ago. Insurance deductibles, medications, lost time at work, unforeseen logistical nightmares. So many people have these problems in the US right now.
Luckily for us:
* Our oldest survived many prolonged hospital stays, with Crohns & ITP (a blood clotting disorder) and is now in college (she's going for social work)
* Our youngest, a NICU baby, came home
* I, their dad, have survived multiple cardiac arrests and grand mal seizures since 2014
Unfortunately:
* our health plans only covered so much, we became deeply in debt
* we've crowdfunded before, but never hit our goals, so credit made up the difference
* my seizures, combined with Crohns Disease, damaged my spine and my epilepsy now affects my concentration and memory
* I've been unemployed for a year and a half despite being on 40 job interviews since May 2016
* We're about to lose our home and we won't be able to afford a rent, either
We've already been foreclosed once. At the expense of two month's worth of mortgage, we hired a lawyer. We received a modification almost immediately which reduced our mortgage payments by 20% (while increasing our principle by nearly $20,000.) It was early days and we looked forward to me finding work soon and resuming our new, lower payments that would have taken a great deal of strain off of our family.
Unfortunately, I never found work. In 18 months I've applied to over 2,800 jobs (you read that right, it's around 5 job applications per day on average.) I've been on interviews for over 40 of them.
Above is the ambulatory EEG device I wore for 24 hours in October 2014 to monitor my seizure activity after a hospitalization. I didn't have any seizures during those 24 hours, so my partial/petit mal seizures have yet to be measured, which complicates a disability claim I think. Although a year before in 2013, doctors in the ER told me that petit mal seizures were causing the cardiac arrests that had brought me there (9 in one day, then none.)
I've done video interviews where I record myself talking to a web app. I've taken intelligence tests, personality tests, and skill tests (I'm a programmer and database guy). I've spoken with HR screeners, hiring managers, vice presidents of departments. I bought two new sets of interview clothes that we couldn't spare the money for just to look a little sharper and increase my chances.
Despite 15 years of experience in my field and a year and a half of trying, I've been unable to find employment. I'm competing with younger workers. I'm competing with workers on H1-B Visas who employers tend to prefer for lower wages and frankly, who they can take more advantage of. I'm competing against my reduced memory and concentration abilities since my seizures.
Today, we're two months behind on our mortgage. I've got a notice on my desk of a certified letter waiting for us from Wells Fargo. It arrived last night as we were making Thanksgiving preparations.
We know what it is. We know we won't be able to meet the new demands. Our modification will be modified again, perhaps, but with a higher payment this time. (HAMP allows the payment to be 31% of your gross income, which means it's half of my wife's take home pay right now. We can't meet that obligation and pay our grocery, utility, medical, and other expenses. It's impossible.)
Or they'll deny a second modification outright, and we'll be evicted. It's a terrible thing to contemplate at any time, let alone during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I've applied (and been denied) for disability. Bankruptcy will stop some phone calls and lawsuits from our creditors, but won't save our house. Help from you is all that's going to save this situation.
My wife, our two daughters, and I live in this house. A two bedroom rent in our area is the same as our mortgage, so we're not going to have anywhere to go.
We have two elderly dogs who are far too old to adopt out, who we rescued when times were better. Our Bernese Mountain Dog needed extensive medical treatment as a puppy, herself. 
Our home is a de facto stray cat rescue. We manage a colony of around 14 strays. We have four in the house. We live next to a preserved wildlife area, and it seems as though the "wildlife preserve" sign along the road near our house inspires people to abandon their pets there. They typically end up at our house, where we have warm cat shelters, food, and care waiting for them. My father started caring for them when he built this house in 1979 and we're still managing them now. Although we spay and neuter, there are always newly abandoned cats and kittens who find their way here.
If we're evicted, the colony won't have anywhere to go, either.
$3500 will get us out of arrears with our mortgage, if we can reach that goal soon enough. Unfortunately, it's very unlikely I'll be hired over the holidays as employers all but stop interviewing from now until the new year. We'll quickly go back into arrears again.
My current goal of $19,800 will give us another year in our home (less our arrears and GoFundMe fees). I'll continue to look for work, but my optimistim is fading. When I'm not doing corporate database work, I'm also an artist, a costumer and prop maker. I'm working on starting a small business, but with no seed money it's all uphill. I continue to hope that my low budget efforts will start a chain of successes.
If by some miracle we can raise $203,000, my family will never have to worry about their home again. The stress is affecting us physically. My seizures continue even on medication, although they're partial or petit mal seizures, not grand mals like the ones that left me permanently disabled. So far. My wife has developed fibromyalgia. When she returns at night from her nursing shifts, it's with a pronounced limp. She's beginning to lose the use of her hands because of severe arthritis-like pain with no apparent cause. Hope is running out for us.
If I have another batch of grand mal seizures like I did in October 2014, it's very likely I won't survive them. The last ones broke my spine and filled my lungs with blood. I was in the ICU for two days. Luckily, I came home to my family that time. If my girls are left without me, I don't know what they'll do. Right now, I'm our childcare while my wife works nights.
Your donations will go ONLY to our mortgage. Funds will not be used for my business. I'm raising those funds incrementally through sales of my work. Or at least, that's the plan.
I have a Twitch channel, where I have just begun livestreaming some of my work. You can check it out here: https://www.twitch.tv/mark_from_cadenceterminus/videos/all (Cadence Terminus is the name of my fledgling studio.)
If you're reading this, you probably don't know us, because not many people do. Please, please consider helping our family anyway.
