Hi people,

My name is Wanda and i am a single mother of two. My oldest is my son Casey who is 22, my youngest is my daughter Sarah and she is 11. For the longest time i would sit around and watch the children in the apartment complex where we live just wander around at all hours of the day and night during summer time and even during the school year. For awhile i watched with such a tug on my heart to do something to stop the fighting amongst the children and to somehow touch their lives so they could see that someone really cared and loved them. So i started "littlest lamb ministries". What we do is during the summer months we get together in the complex with the kids and we do arts and crafts and have fun days and picnics and just fun activities that bring the different children that just happen to live all in the same complex together. We cross over race, age and poverty levels to try and touch the hearts of these kids. But it is always such a hard task getting people in the area to donate arts and crafts products or money or food or anything for that fact. So i'm reaching out through the use of my computer hoping to touch others who have a heart for the children BUT don't necessarily have the time to make a difference but maybe do have funds that they could sow into this ministry which in turn sows into each child. So God is giving you a chance to make a difference in one way or another..If you can donate arts and crafts items that would be great..money can always be used and know that you will be helping to show a child someone really does care.

I am a mother of three.  I have a fifteen year old, a four year old and a two year old.  My husband left last month and took all the money and our only running vehicle.  I was trying to do an online business to try and make a little extra money to help out, but that didn't work out very well.  I no longer have the money to make products to sell.  I haven't been able to find work or help with grants around this small town.  They are shutting off our electric today and I'll have an eviction notice tommorrow.  I'm not sure what to do.  I will be having a yard sell this weekend to try and make a little extra money, other than that, I'm lost.  I've already applied for work at all the places in town even places I know I don't qualify for.  Without electric, I can't hope to get a call for work and without a home, my children will have to go to foster care.  If you know of any way to help, please let me know.

*UPDATE*   OUR FAMILY IS FINALLY ON OUR WAY OUT OF THE WHOLE WE HAVE BEEN IN FOR SO VERY LONG. PLEASE CONTINUE TO BE IN PRAYER FOR US, THAT GOD WILL CONTINUE TO BLESS US AS HE HAS DONE THE LAST THREE MONTHS.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!!!!

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our family is living on "A Wing and a Prayer" right now and our Prayer is that the items we list on our web sites and on Ebay will answer our Prayers. Our story is below...

We are Dan and Carmella Dunkin, we have 8 children (3 still at home) one of which is disabled, (Autism), and we are both partially disabled. We work many different venues to create an income to support our family, and have decided to try selling on Ebay once again and on our web sites to help make ends meet.

We sold antiques and collectibles on Ebay years ago until Dan injured his back and could no longer do all the driving to sales and auctions and the packing involved. We are now going to be selling items that we create ourselves. Gourd art, air brush art, Sterling Silver and 14K gold fill jewelry, awareness ribbons, sewn items, and anything else we think of to make.

Dan creates some really awesome Gourd Art and air brush paintings. You can look at his work here, http://www.thegourdreserve.com/galleries/sale/gourdart4sale.shtml. Dan also searches out quality computer equipment, monitors and TV’s and list those deals here, http://www.dailysalesonline.com. I design gold and silver jewelry, and awareness ribbons, and craft gourds, you can see some of my creations here, http://www.carmellamaeoriginals.thegourdreserve.com/.

Dan has been diagnosed with emphysema, osteoarthritist, and severe degenerative disk disease. I have been diagnosed with asthma, Osgood-Schlatter disease, and Chondromalacia in my knees. We also believe that I have fibromyalgia, but cannot afford the test and doctors to find out for sure. I have lived with severe pain throughout my body daily for the past 4 years, sometimes with the pain so bad it is crippling and I cannot function at all, other times I can just barely bear it. On top of that I have bi-polar disorder.  Our entire family is also recovering from a 5 year exposure to toxic mold which has amplified our health problems severely. You can read our mold story here, http://www.carmellasplace.thegourdreserve.com/mold.html  We are now living in a house with ventalation problems which the owner refuses to fix and we cannot run the air or the furnance without repairs to the system. Unfortunatly Indiana has no rules or laws about having any working air or heat in a rental, at least that is what our County building inspector and the health department is telling us. All these problems are costing us money we do not have and lots of heartache.

Dan tried to get disability through social security, but it seems their only concern was how much money they were going to have to pay out to our family because of how much money Dan had made all his life. Dan worked long hard houses doing back breaking warehouse work. He paid over a half a million dollars into the social security system over a 40 year period and when the time came that his back broke for good, the "security system" that he paid so much into not only denied him his benefits, they also changed his work history from a warehouse man to a plant manager and said he could do that work with no problem! I cannot believe that the social security system can do such things, but they sure did, and not only did they do it once, but his second denial was word for word the same as the first!!! We never have figured that one out.

With the problems we both have, living in the Midwest is NOT a good thing, so we are now working on raising money to buy an RV, (if someone wants to donate an RV we will not turn it down, but we would prefere to buy one hopefully on an owner financing type deal.), so we can travel the country and be able to live in cooler, (not freezing), dryer climates no matter what time of year it is. We cannot afford to have multiple houses in different states, but if we had an RV we could live in it and when it was time to head South, North, East, or West, we could just pull out of our RV spot in whatever camp ground we were in, and head for the next state we need to be in. It's been our dream for many years to travel the country in an RV full time, now it is a necessity that we do this, and the sooner the better, because the Midwest is killing Dan fast. Most nights he can just breath without too much trouble, other nights he scares me by telling me that it is so hard to breath that he don't think he will last through the night. I know he must be having a horrible time, as I know how hard it is on my asthma, which is nothing compared to emphysema. It's not so bad when everything is cool and dry, but when the humidity is up, like it usually is in the Midwest the air is a killer for those with emphysema and asthma.

With all that said, I just want to say, that we are not asking for a hand out, we are only asking for a little help and you can help us very easily just by shopping through one of our sites. Even if we do not have anything that we made that you would like to have, we still have a lot of affiliate sites you can shop with. Also if you do buy one of our creations, you can know that not only are you buying a hand crafted item made by a disabled American, you are helping that American to help themselves and their family, and for that we THANK YOU GREATLY!!! If you feel that all you can do is make a small donation to help us out, then we will not turn it down, but please see if there is something on one of our sites that you would like first.

Thank you and God Bless!

Dan and Carmella Dunkin and family

Please e-mail us with any questions

Hi I am a single mom to a 10 month old son. I started up a business painting childrens decor and home decor at the beginning of 2007. You can see what I am doing at my website: Website: Imagine Creations. I am making just enough to scrape by right now, but my living situation is on the verge of changing and my rent will be increasing by several hundred dollars a month. I am in need of a loan or a grant that will help me to purchase a few items to help to supplement my current sales, such as a color laser printer so that I can start selling prints which are much more profitable and much less time consuming than all of the hand painted items. I am an intelligent person but I am so confused in searching for grants and scholorship opportunities, one link just seems to lead to another with actual grant applications in sight?! And the government lists are even worse.. Can anyone either point me in the right direction or at least help me understand how to decipher the language of looking for and applying for grants?!?! Thank you so much in advance!
Kalee

I have started a website that sells handcrafted items, especially journals and mixes in a jar.A percentage of the profits go toward the pay it forward grants that I offer.  I also take donations for pay it forward, but I can only give out grants that equal the amount that is in the grants account.  If I only have $50.00 I can only give $50.00.  Grants do not exceed $500.00, so if I have $2000,000 dollars in the grant account then I will award 4 grants for that month.

I am asking for donations for the pay it forward grants and or the purchase of products to aid in the pay it forward account.  Thank you and if you have any questions just email me or visit the web-site listed here.

My husband and I are living beyond our means, but our rent is among the lowest in our city and we never buy anything we cant pay for in cash. Half of my husband's paycheck goes to pay child support for his two daughters yet we are considered to have a middle class income. The courts just denied my husband's request to waive the fee it will cost to have his custody re-instated. The ex-wife has done a super job of alienating us from the girls and we just want them back in our lives. She has even gone so far as to keep their baby brother a secret from them, he is now 16 months old and they do not even know he exists. The courts denied the fee waiver ($300+) since our household income exceeds their limits. How laughable! We have two other children in our home to support and they only consider gross income and not take home pay in their guidelines. Currently, our bills exceed our income by about 200-300 dollars a month and this doesnt include birthdays and holidays when I have to get REALLY creative. I sold some of my baby's old clothes yesterday and made $50. This will go towards our (late) rent payment and we are still $300 shy of that goal. What the heck is going on here? I cant get help from any government agency, and not only that but the child support tax laws need to be changed! The imbalance is a catastrophe for non-custodial parents. No tax write offs, then the recipient of the child support never has to claim the money as income?!?!? Come on!

My dream is to be able to work from home with my children and instead I am considering taking on a 3rd job to make ends meet. I am so tired of living day to day and placating myself with the fact that we are alive and fed and have a roof over our heads for TODAY. I cant think about the future or I get so sad. My husband is currently going to school part time to try and make a better life for us. We spent a fortune in books and tuition for this because, again, we do not qualify for any assistance. This has put us even further behind not to mention the raising price of gasoline and electricity. All of our bills are 2 months behind and buying new clothes or shoes for my kids (never for myself!) would feel like a real luxury to us. To top it all off, my ex husband only pays a fraction of what he owes in child support each month and gets away with it working under the table jobs with friends and family. I can only count on the government to report to me each month the dismal truth, which is they cant do a damn thing to help. Big surprise! Maybe I should pop out a few more kids and acquire a crack habit. Will they help me then?

I love to crochet and I make beautiful hats for adults and children. I also love to make baby blankets and purses from recycled materials. If I could craft for a living it would be a dream come true. Unfortunately, I am not too great of a salesperson as my real estate career has shown me.

I'm really looking for some emotional relief and writing this out has been quite theraputic. Any advice or help is very welcome. And if you or someone you know would like to have a beautiful, handmade crochet item let me know!

Hi I am a single mom to a 10 month old son. I started up a business painting childrens decor and home decor at the beginning of 2007. You can see what I am doing at my website: Website: Imagine Creations. I am making just enough to scrape by right now, but my living situation is on the verge of changing and my rent will be increasing by several hundred dollars a month. I am in need of a loan or a grant that will help me to purchase a few items to help to supplement my current sales, such as a color laser printer so that I can start selling prints which are much more profitable and much less time consuming than all of the hand painted items. I am an intelligent person but I am so confused in searching for grants and scholorship opportunities, one link just seems to lead to another with actual grant applications in sight?! And the government lists are even worse.. Can anyone either point me in the right direction or at least help me understand how to decipher the language of looking for and applying for grants?!?! Thank you so much in advance!
Kalee

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Feel free to participate in this public group space.

Two easy ways to do this:

1. Add a comment or a question here - on this page... or on any other page in this space.
   
2. Or, if you want to start a separate thread - make a new page.

Either way is good - the important thing is your participation. On Aidpage, people support each other by speaking out and by paying attention to each other - as simple as that.

Feel free to participate in this public group space.

Two easy ways to do this:

1. Add a comment or a question here - on this page... or on any other page in this space.
   
2. Or, if you want to start a separate thread - make a new page.

Either way is good - the important thing is your participation. On Aidpage, people support each other by speaking out and by paying attention to each other - as simple as that.

Feel free to participate in this public group space.

Two easy ways to do this:

1. Add a comment or a question here - on this page... or on any other page in this space.
   
2. Or, if you want to start a separate thread - make a new page.

Either way is good - the important thing is your participation. On Aidpage, people support each other by speaking out and by paying attention to each other - as simple as that.