It's been a long weekend, and my traffic on the site has been through the roof today, which I'm guessing is that people are looking for updates. (Normally I get just over 700 hits per day, and today, by 2 pm, I already had 600 visitors!). So I figured that it's time to bring everyone up to speed.
When I first put up the call for help on Saturday evening, I was on the phone with Marcie. Well, I have the PayPal account set up to send me an email notification whenever a donation goes through. In the first half hour or so, she heard my email box go Ding! about five times. Before we hung up the phone, there was about $175 that had come in.
We went out and had dinner together last night, and by the time we met up, there was over $600 in donations. Late that night after the kids had gone to bed, we were on the phone again, and I told her that my goal was to have it hit a thousand before midnight. I don't know if we made it on time, but when I got up this morning at 8:00 am, I checked the account, and there was $1,103.54 in there!
Of course, I called her with the news, and I wish I could've recorded her reaction. Folks, it's a wonderful thing you've done, and she appreciates it more than you know. She even told me that once things settle down and she has a place to live that she'll write up a note for me to post here. Believe me, though, when I say that she is thankful beyond words. And so am I.
So the first thing we did was initiate a transfer, and the money should be here by Friday, in time to use for deposits, moving expenses, and rent. Besides that first $1100 that came in, several people have requested the info to on where to send a check, and those funds will be be used to take care of the kids needs with groceries and whatnot once she gets moved. I've also received offers for a few other things to come her way like Walmart gift cards, gas cards, and even a cash rebate on a big-ticket purchase that'll get signed over to her. If anyone else wants to go the gift card route, by all means, you can do so. Just send me an email and I'll let you know where to send it. So the floodgates have been opened most generously, and I thank you all very much. I am amazed at the response, but not surprised. I always knew there were still lots of good people in the world, and this is just further proof. I thank you, and Marcie thanks you.
Anyhow, after we got off the phone, I headed over to her place to pick her up, and we went searching for apartments and rental houses all day. A lot of our leads turned out to be dry holes, but a few show potential. There's one apartment that we looked at that is affordable and available, but the neighborhood is a little sketchy. There's another place that she really likes, but she can't see it until later this evening. And as I'm typing this, she's heading over to look at a small house in the 'downtown' area of Henderson.
The biggest obstacle in her way, of course, is the broken lease from a year ago. Not only does it show up on her rental history, but it went to collections also, so it has screwed her credit, too. It's just been a complete nightmare finding a decent place that will work with her. But we're working on it. It's just not gonna be easy, that's all. So wish us a little luck as we keep searching.
Once we ran out all of our leads, we came back over here to my place, grabbed a bite for lunch, and looked online for some more stuff. Nothing really looked too promising, but we criss-crossed all over old Henderson looking for 'For Rent' signs--and that actually seemed to work. We found a few more places to look at because of that. And while we were out, we had a nice long talk. It's no secret that I'm very fond of her, and believe me, nobody wants her to stay here and try to make her life work out more I do, but the thought of just packing up and moving back to California has crossed her mind quite a bit lately. Luckily, she doesn't want to take her kids out of school, so picking up and leaving for Cali is off the table for now. I'd hate to see her go.
So that's where things are right now. She hasn't found a new home just yet, but the stress of how she was going to pay for it is off of her shoulders. And we've still got a few days to figure things out, too. And while we were out running around today, another $250 or so in donations came trickling in. All I can say is Wow. Thank you all so very much.
I'll have more later, but until then--thanks again everyone!
Mikey
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