daniela

Now It's Home

It's been several months since we've done an update on Daniela and her family. They are doing well—have settled into their new apartment, school ect. and taking life as it comes. Evelyn who has Downs Syndrome has been making tons of progress on her language, Brandon is excelling at Mario Brothers and little Daniela is always making some kind of cool crafts in Sunday school.

We've had some reason to celebrate recently as Leslie Carothers made good on her promise to help the family get some much needed furniture. The kids have been sleeping on blow up mattresses since they moved into the apartment several months ago and Leslie hit her network and coordinated not only getting beds, but also getting new kitchen and dining room tables and bedroom furniture. Leslie worked tirelessly to make this come together as you can see by the number of folks who made this all come together. From the Furniture Today site:

"Let me introduce the new characters to you, please. The ones who, while facing incredible business, time and personal constraints themselves (in the case of the retailers) decided to come forward and help this Mom whom they had never met.

Vicki Semke, owner of www.migandtig.com. A well respected independent retailer in Chicago.

Jerod Lazan, owner of www.mortisetenon.com A well respected independent retailer in Los Angeles.

Together, Jerod and Vicki own a new site called www.furniturelink.com
Vicki and Jerod do not sell furniture online. They do help retailers, consumers, and manufacturers connect with each other so everyone wins-their site is a “must” site for our industry to know about.

Happily, Ray Allegrezza has also recognized Vicki’s talent as a retail visionary and she is now writing her own column on www.furnituretoday.com. Please make sure to read it if you are a retailer. She and Jerod are going to change our industry."

I just wanted to take a moment to formerly thank Leslie, Vicki, Jerod, and Ray for taking action and helping out in this way. I especially also want to thank Albert Maruggi-President of www.providentpartners.net. It was his social media client, Linda of www.manna.com that actually donated the delivery. I hope I'm not forgetting anyone here, as you can see—this simple act of kindness was not so simple to orchestrate, but we are so glad it came together. Thank you again.  Below are a few pics from the day the furniture arrived. So many of you have helped this family in ways that spanned simply getting the word out to providing some kind of support. They are all now family to us all. Again, thank you for anything you've done to help.

 
The furniture arrives!


Hauling it in (3 flights of stairs no less—thank you movers.)


A tight fit


Dining room set.


Evelyn checks out the new bed and shelves


A kitchen table


Testing out the new dining room.

Again, thanks for being a part of this unexpected adventure that came out of nowhere for us. Daniela invited our family over for dinner tomorrow, so I'll get to check out the goods first hand. :-)

After The Cheers

It's been just over a month since Daniela and our family entered our lives. It came at us unexpected and with intensity. The support which we received was also unexpected and even more intense. The euphoria we all experienced together was a phenomenon. But we knew that it's the slow burn that really matters in the end. Daniela and her family have now settled into their 2 bedroom apartment and are beginning a new chapter in their lives. They now have a huge advantage as we're taking care of the rent with the funds you donated.

The realities of being a single mother with limited means are what they are (a challenge). We've gotten a bit more of an intimate look at this and it's hard work to say the least. We continue to help where we can. Since Belinda stays home, she's been regularly babysitting Evelyn a couple of times a week. We recently had Brandon stay overnight (Max and Mason love playing with him) and after we took the above picture on a Sunday morning, we all went to see Coroline together. So while Belinda and our family have our house back, we've come to realize that something like this is a longer term play—not something you really walk away from. Once the cheers fade, the quiet work takes over and it becomes day to day.

But most importantly, things are stabilizing. Belinda has been helping Daniela with the change in schools as she's a pro when it comes to the paperwork and there have not been issues on that front. Daniela continues to be on her own—the children see their father but he's not in the picture as far as we know. Evelyn requires some special care and we're helping figure things out on that front with the school district. On the work front, Daniela still has the same cleaning job, but is waiting for an opportunity that will offer better pay and hours. Though for now, things are working out. Thank you again for all the support, we'll try to keep updating as we can.

A Fresh Start

A good portion of this weekend was spent moving Daniela's stuff from our house (and garage) to her new apartment. Though she and the family are still sleeping at our place, we have most of their possessions outside the house. One thought that I had as I was helping Daniela move boxes and furniture up the stairs into the apartment was how alone people in her situation really are. She was doing a lot of the heavy lifting herself while Belinda was watching our kids and hers.

On Sunday I recruited a helper for the furniture and we finally got everything in the place. Daniela's new home is a modest 2 bedroom with one bath. But she's pretty excited about the fresh start she can look forward to. After talking with her one evening—she was searching for a word (her native language is Romanian) to describe what she felt while living in her house. I told her "anxiety"—and described what the word meant. I think she's going to have less of that, despite giving up some square footage in her past life.

 

While the apartment is looking fairly sparse right now, we've been told that folks from Mig & Tig and Mortise and Tenon are going to donate some furnishings. (also thanks to yourfurniturelink and Ceva for free shipping) All, very cool. If you are involved with either company, I've drafted up a crude floorplan here.

Thanks again for the support. Updates will continue to be found here as well as the timeline on Twitter.

329 Percent

Update:
Just got word from Daniela that she signed the lease!

As I write this, Daniela is out putting a deposit down on her new apartment. It's a fresh start for her family and we will get into that more later. For now, I want to briefly acknowledge a few numbers. You've given the family a total if $16,480.60 in just over a week with most of the donations coming in in the first 24 hours. There were 531 of you who contributed funds (and many more who contributed in other ways from raising awareness to providing support). In short, you decided to give this initiative not 100% but 329%.

Belinda and I are acting as stewards over the funds. We've tapped the PayPal account for the deposit (a 1.5 month advance and security). The rent is around $950.00 a month and includes all utilities except electric. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bath. It will suffice for a family of 4.

Fingers crossed that all goes well today. And thank you again for all of your support in so many ways. Thank you for giving this family 329 percent of your efforts and a shot at a fresh start.

Support

Support comes in all forms. Initially we've all been focusing on the number. Yes, over 16k was raised for Daniela and her family in less than a week. We are elated to have some breathing room. Now we can focus on other things. People have been giving of their time and resources. From Lisa spending countless hours scouring Craisglist for suitable apartments, to Leslie offering to help with furnishing (what's in our garage is pretty much it for the family) to those who have sent clothing (pics to come later) to the hundreds of you who sent encouraging words not just for Daniela's family but for ours.

Support comes in all shapes and sizes. It's not just the material. It's also the time, the words, the actions and the attitude that comes with all these things. Thank you for all forms of support you've shown, we hope to highlight as much as we can over time. It's ALL appreciated. All of it.  As of this moment we are bracing for yet more snow (a blizzard actually) in the Chicago area and we are waiting for word on Apartment options as well. Daniela is wisely looking at one where the rent is under 1k. It's a 2 bedroom. Once we get more information, we will consult with our friend Lisa and take it from there. But nothing is set in stone. For now, just know that your support is appreciated beyond blog, twitter and e-mail updates.

Why Neighbors?

The day after we had witnessed the power of the collective going to work to raise literally thousands of dollars in a single evening, it dawned upon me that the positive potential of digital is to help re-build the sense of neighborhoods many of us knew in our childhoods.

The idea of community is not a new one, we all know it when we see it. We chose to call you neighbors because you made the choice to act like really good ones. Helping someone who needed help.

We hope you will continue to think of us as your neighbors in this ever expanding digital neighborhood. This site is place where we will keep up Daniela's virtual home as best as we can. Thank you for being wonderful neighbors who wanted to make a small difference.

Snow Angel

Yesterday the northern part of Chicago got slammed with snow pretty much all day. When it lifted, we decided to take all of the kids out for a break. Belinda was in Michigan and the natives were getting restless. While Max, Mason, Brandon and little Daniela hit the hill, I got to stay back with Evelyn and her mom.

When we got home, we had hot coca and Evelyn would not leave my side. She's the most adorable thing I think I've seen. All love, all smiles, all the time. Though she has almost no intelligible language, she speaks with her eyes and infections giggles.

I've never spent quality time with a young child who had Down's Syndrome. Evelyn is about 10 times sweeter than the hot cocoa we enjoyed together. She warmed my heart on a cold winters day.

As the dust starts to settle (it hasn't yet) Belinda and I are going to try to figure out how we can give back personally since we've had so much of the financial burden lifted off us (thanks to you). Initially we thought of groups who help abused women, but I'm also wondering about special needs as well. We'll tap you for help in this area when the time is right since we're in this together. In the meantime, our new found show angel is brought a bit of unexpected joy.

A Birthday For Brandon

It's been nearly a week since Daniela and her family moved into our home temporarily. With 4 additional souls joining our family, the home has become a beehive of activity here. Today, Brandon celebrated his seventh birthday and it seems to have lifted his spirits. We received a care package from Jamie which included a portable Nintendo video game (red). This was Brandon's one gift for the day, though we all know the real gift came from all of you in the overwhelming show of support you chose to show for this family.

Daniela has been looking at apartments and we should hear more within the next day or so. We are focusing our efforts on something that is both appropriate and affordable which can be a real challenge in this part of Chicago's suburbs. We're hopeful we will find something that can keep Daniela and her family close to the connections and relatives she has here. 

In the meantime Evelyn, little Daniela and Brandon (from left to right) are doing well and getting along with Max and Mason. OK, the occasional fight over who sleeps in the tent and who plays the Nintendo Wii does break out. I won't lie to you, but our little extended family is doing well.

This is the first post on this VERY new blog. I will continue to work on it providing additional sections and using this to manage any and all updates to our situation. We know there is more to come including finding more work for Daniela and also figuring out a way to give something back somehow. All in good time. In the meantime, feel free to subscribe or bookmark this blog for the place to recieve updates.

Thank you once again for any and all support that you have given in these past days. You've really made a difference in the lives of 4 very special people.