By Jessica Hopper, Tim Sandler and Cristina Boado
Rock Center
Before the sun rises, Cindy and Patrick Kennard wake their three daughters, fold their cots in a Sunday school classroom and pack their lives into suitcases.
“This is an every Sunday ritual,” said Cindy Kennard. “It’s something that we do every week and so it just becomes natural. We know the best thing is to get up and keep moving.”
The Kennard family of five from Johnson City, Tenn., is homeless. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Kennards is that despite their homelessness, they are still a working family. For the last seven years, Patrick Kennard has worked a full-time job with benefits at a bank call center and until recently, Cindy Kennard worked as a director of a daycare facility.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Cindy and Patrick Kennard
“When we fell, we fell hard and we fell fast,” Cindy Kennard told NBC News’ Ann Curry in an interview airing Thursday, Nov. 29 on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
The Kennards are one of a growing number of working families who have become homeless. In the wake of the recession, experts say that families like the Kennards represent a historic juncture when it comes to homelessness in America.
“It’s hard sometimes for people to appreciate. They’re so used to the stereotyped homeless populations, the visible homeless, if you will, who live outdoors in public locations and they’re not aware that there are literally hundreds of thousands of people, many of them working, who are homeless as well,” said Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania social policy professor whose research focuses on homelessness.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
The Kennard family settling in at another church shelter. Each week, the family stays in a different Sunday school classroom.
The number of people in homeless families living in suburban and rural areas rose nearly 60 percent during the depths of the Great Recession, according to figures from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). More than one million school-aged children are now homeless, according to the Department of Education.
“There are more children homeless now than have ever been before,” Culhane said.
WATCH VIDEO: No Place Like Home: Working families increasingly homeless
For Patrick Kennard, the feeling that he’s failed his three daughters, 9-year-old Jillian, 14-year-old Melodie and 16-year-old Brianne, sends him into despair.
“I think I could have handled this whole situation better had it not been for the fact that I was taking my three children into it with me,” said Kennard. “They didn’t do anything to deserve this. They didn’t do anything. They’re totally innocent.”
How to help the families featured on our show
Photo credit: Ann Curry
The Kennard family (clockwise starting on far left): 16-year-old Brianne Kennard, Cindy Kennard, 14-year-old Melodie Kennard, 9-year-old Jillian Kennard and Patrick Kennard
Cindy and Patrick Kennard, married 19 years, worked hard to pursue the American dream. They have college degrees. Both tried to build their savings as they worked. Their dream began to crumble when Patrick Kennard suffered kidney problems that led to expensive hospital stays and mounting medical bills. Even with the health insurance he had from work, the family still owed around $5,000. Their car broke down repeatedly, costing them more than $3,000. The couple's debt began to mount. Combining their student loan debt and medical bills, they found themselves more than $35,000 in debt.
Unable to afford child care, Cindy Kennard was forced to quit her job leaving them with only her husband's income, around $35,000 a year. The family was living paycheck to paycheck and still did not have enough to cover their monthly expenses. They became behind on their rent. They downsized to a cramped two-bedroom apartment from their more spacious four-bedroom apartment. Again, they were unable to afford rent and were evicted.
“I wanted to dig a hole and let somebody cover me up,” said Cindy Kennard.
The youngest Kennard, 9-year-old Jillian, took the eviction news especially hard. “I was scared because I loved the house and I didn’t want to leave it,” she said.
The Kennards pondered living in their van or at a campground. They made heart-breaking decisions, including pawning their wedding rings for $100.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Cindy and Patrick Kennard holding hands.
“One of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do was to sell my wedding band,” Patrick Kennard said. “That ring on my finger meant the world to me.”
For Cindy and Patrick Kennard’s daughters, being homeless means living a life of uncertainty and sometimes shame.
Through tears, 16-year-old Brianne described the hardest part about being a homeless kid: hoping no one finds out.
“Sometimes when we’re on our way to school, we have to ride up here in, like, a church van and people can probably see that and then they probably wonder why,” Brianne said. “But people finding out is probably one of the scariest things.”
Brianne has told a few of her close friends who have kept her secret. She was willing to speak publicly about it for the first time because she wants to help other kids like her.
“When we became homeless, we lost everything but our faith and that’s what I would say is don’t lose your faith,” said Brianne of her advice to other homeless families.
Nine-year-old Jillian also feared telling classmates about her family’s struggle.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Jillian Kennard built the bird house pictured and carries it with her from shelter to shelter because it reminds her of her old house.
“I didn’t want everybody to laugh at me,” she said.
When her friends left school and returned to their homes, she went to a shelter. Jillian said, “I felt happy for them because they had a house and I didn’t.”
The red-headed little girl clings to a pink bird house she built out of popsicle sticks, glitter and glue because it reminds her of the family’s old home.
She sometimes has nightmares and dreams of one day having a slumber party in her own room with a bed covered in Tinkerbell sheets.
The family has moved 15 times in the last four months. Through a church and community program sheltering homeless families called the Interfaith Hospitality Network, the family rotates to a different Sunday school classroom each week.
“I had the stereotypical man holding up the sign, ‘Will work for food, have family, need help’ and I never realized how close I was to being that person,” Patrick Kennard said. “Homelessness can happen to anybody. We’re proof of that.”
Brian Rosecrance runs the Interfaith Hospitality Network’s chapter in Johnson City, Tenn., that’s been helping the Kennards as they find their financial footing. He said he has seen a distinct change in the families seeking help.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
“In the past three, four years, we’ve seen higher-educated people. We’ve seen people who are currently employed coming to us. We’ve seen a lot of families with job layoff situations where they were laid off a month or two ago and now they’re homeless,” Rosecrance said.
Rosecrance said his waiting list of families needing help continues to grow. Part of what makes the Interfaith Hospitality Network unique is that it allows families to stay together.
“One thing that I've seen for as many years as I've been doing this is a real resilience with these families,” Rosecrance said. “And I think that's the whole secret. That, you know, mom and dad don't have to go one place while the kids stay with other relatives or they don't have to be separated in a shelter between men and women.”
Advocates say there are not enough shelters for the nation’s new wave of homeless families and many shelters separate men and women because of security reasons.
Shaun Donovan, the secretary of HUD, said that shelters must begin to use their funding differently to accommodate the rise in homeless families. He acknowledged that family-friendly shelters are under-funded.
“I’m not satisfied that we have the full amount of resources that we need and we will continue to fight for more,” Donovan said.
Donovan said he is working on an ambitious plan to reach families before they become homeless.
“I absolutely believe and the president [President Barack Obama] has fought for greater investment in homelessness in making sure we have adequate shelter, but also in making sure we have new, innovative directions that we can go to prevent it,” Donovan said.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
The Kennard couple outside what will be their new apartment.
Back in Tennessee, the Kennard sisters say that they are learning unexpected lessons from homelessness.
“I’ve learned to love more, to love more people, to love the family more and love the outside world,” said Brianne.
The family recently received some good news. The church shelter they’ve been staying in offered them a grant to help them pay rent for up to five years. The family is expecting to move into a four-bedroom apartment next week.
Perhaps Jillian will now be able to put down her bird house and decorate her own room with Tinkerbell décor.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Jillian looking at her birdhouse.
To help the Kennard Family: Email kennardfamily5@gmail.com
To help Darlene Gaines and her sons: Email Darlenegaines2012@gmail.com
Editor's Note: Ann Curry's full report airs Thursday, Nov. 29, at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.
Additional Resources:
Organizations Featured in Our Report
Interfaith Hospitality Network
Government Organizations
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Homeless Resource Exchange
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Homeless Advocacy Groups
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Leave a Comment:
If anyone deserves to win the lottery it's this family
Anyone depending on the lottery for their livenhood and/or retirement does not deserved to win the lottery. The Lottery is the REAL OVER 99% paying for the UNDER 1%. A lot of OWS Hypocrites play the lottery.
Although this story is very troubling, and I hope the family overcomes, it still strikes me odd everyone in the Kennard family appears extremely well fed. Are they too proud to apply for low income public housing ?
The family's situation is the expected effect of capitalism.
The economy eventually benefits when families like this to go homeless, do not receive medical care, etc. Capitalism is a lot like evolution. It creates pressure for change, such as the family moving to a different area, the medically expensive dying, or systemic changes (like lower taxes). If we bail them out (socialism), then our economy suffers a little more because it is compensating for a "negative" asset. It is a tug of war between the economic good and basic humanity.
Nonsense! There hasn't been real capitalism in America since the 19th century.
America was closer to unfettered capitalism in the 19th century, but even back then it was mixed capitalism. Pure capitalism would be driven 100% by economic drivers. Consider these other influences that exist:
If anything like the above is affect an economy, pure capitalism is not being practiced.
This was truly heart-breaking to read. I'm glad they have remained faithful and glad to see they are finally getting help.
Kids shouldn't have to live like this.
The real crime is insurance and how they don't want to pay for squat these days...
For the people who have asked "why would you pay medical bills instead of the rent?" Sometimes you don't have a choice, especially if it is a chronic, life threatening illness. The article said the father had kidney problems. Kidneys are not anything to mess with. I am sure that he HAD to keep paying his medical bills so he could continue to manage his health. I don't know what it is like where they live but here if you owe the doctor money, they wont see you next time until you pay it. He probably had to make a choice - his life or their roof. My husband and I are both college educated, we both work and we live paycheck to paycheck. We also dont live beyond our means. We do not have credit cards or super fancy cell phones. I do make a car payment on a vehicle but that will be paid off in July. Our other vehicle is almost 20 years old. We are one paycheck away from being homeless because the cost of everything is SO outrageous and even with medical insurance, we do still have medical bills. I hope this family is able to get back on their feet.
I am a Christian. Human beings are "entitled" to food, water and shelter. To hear the horror and hatred that comes from so many is disturbing. It does not matter to me if they had too many children (which child was too many?) or the person is suspected of being overweight. Will that be a crime for the elite to prosecute? The crime of having children? The crime of not being proportionate in height and weight? We are a sad, sorry and extremely greedy race of creatures.
As human beings, we are "entitled" to nothing.
The day the civil rights groups, including the ACLU and UN began telling us and the rest of the world about civil rights and "basic human rights" was the day many people just sat down and waited for their "rights" to drop into their laps.
In a perfect world, yes, we should all receive those things. But the world isn't perfect, and as a Christian, you should know the Bible says that the poor would always be with us.
We struggle, we do the best we can day by day. Some succeed, some do not. Being in the right place at the right time; health issues; vagaries of business decisions that are out of hands; Mother Nature herself; and downright luck, all play a part in life.
We are guaranteed nothing, and are fortunate to receive the spark of life and the will to go on.
put your faith where your blathering is - adopt and support unwanted babies. give your $$ to charities and the homeless. feed and share your housing with the needy and the destitute.
you may dress and act like a Christian but the similarity ends there.
I am also a Christian. Did you know that even ancient Israel had a welfare program? The farmers were instructed to leave a certain percentage of their crops in the field for the poor to glean. In fact, if you read the book of Ruth, you will see where Ruth and her mom-in-law came back to Israel and gleaned in Boaz' field. In many ways the society was different back then, relatives readily took relatives in who were in difficulty, and society was not modern or convenient. But they had it right when they attached welfare to meaningful work. Also, I believe that it is important for relatives and friends to help to the extent they are able. And I practice what I preach. One of my grown kids lives with me right now and works his rent off. In months that he can afford it, he gives me $300 a month. I grow vegies, fruit, and cakkleberrys (produced by 6 hens--they are SSOOOO funny!) in my back yard, and share with my family and friends, and a neighbor down the street who's husband became ill and can't work.
Lisa -
Exactly.
When I lived in Tennessee, many farmers in the area did the same. They left the three outer rows of their fields for those who needed it to pick the vegetables and only harvested the rest.
The thing to note here is the people had to get up and go to the field to pick the vegetables for themselves. No one picked it for them and brought it to their tables cooked for them to eat.
Several people would gather vegetables for elderly and infirm people who could not physically fend for themselves, but on the whole, everyone took care of themselves.
The farmers who did this were those who had large fields of corn, tomatoes, beans, and things of that nature, as well as fruit tress and tame blackberries and strawberries.
Those that had wild plum tress would clear the brush and brambles around the thickets so that the neighbors could get to the trees and pick the plums.
There are lots of negative comments on the Vine about the South, but when push comes to shove, the South will survive.
TO WORKTILLDEATH:
Humans are not "entitled" to anything and no one has a right to anything that is provided by someone else. YOU do not have a right to the fruits of MY labor! We should stop referring to government social programs as "entitlements" (as in "you are owed this") and start referring to them as government-run charity.
Charity is a wonderful thing, but only until someone becomes so used to it being there for them that they never go from being a recipient of charity to a provider of charity. This is, in fact, one of the major problems with the work that charity organizations are doing in third world countries.
However, I agree with James Madision that "Charity is no part of the legislative duty of government."
The family in the article is in the situation it's in and we may never know where along the line in the past they might have made different decisions that might have prevented it. We don't know that different decisions in the past would have changed anything. And, frankly, it really doesn't matter. That family is in the situation it's in and there are many other families in the same boat and it could just as easily be you or I in that boat. The issue here is how the family gets from where it is to where it needs to be. The answer isn't as easy as it sounds.
I just don't understand. Any family should be able to live on minimum wage. Just ask the GOP!
Did anyone notice that the old man is as fat as a tugboat? No wonder he has health problems. Americans need to realize that we are the fattest country on Earth, and obesity is killing us. Pitiful...
The richest most powerful nation in the world doesn't have free national health care like so many third world nations .
But we've got more guns and bombs than anyone else in the world . And we are at war with many of those same third world nations .
Nothing is free in country. Somebody pays for all of it.
"free" health care? How on Earth would we pay for it all? WE'RE BROKE, or haven't you been paying attention??
They don't seem very bright.
They are homeless, get some help, then use the help to get a 4 bedroom place?
WTF? Live within your means or you will be homeless again.
Get a 2 bedroom. Lower rent and lower utility bills.
2 of the kids will be over 18 when the grant is finished.
Why pay daycare when you have a 16 year old girl?
Why did the mom quit her job?
This is why we need a one payer national healthcare system. Also, this family is right to do everything they can to protect their credit rating. It's not just for getting loans that you need good credit, prospective employers now check out your credit rating.
I'm very happy for the working homeless family, the Kennards. I'm very glad that they will soon be moving into a place of their own. I''m sure that the attention to their plight was magnified by the Rock Center piece.I, too, have a story, unfortunately, like millions of other Americans who have nothing. I'm not as eloquent a speaker as Brian Williams or Ann Curry but have tried to relay what I'm going through on my blog: contentagain@blogspot.com Maybe if there was some attention to it I, too, can begin to get out from under. Thank you.
Someone will win the selfish curse of a $500 million powerball jackpot...an amount that could go a long way toward providing shelter for the homeless, but history says very little will...most will be wasted and the winner will end up in bankruptcy. Why are these things happening in the land of plenty? Do we understand why America has had plenty to begin with and why its disappearing? What is our true purpose here? Is there really a God and does He have a plan that makes sense in the midst of all this chaos? When will He intervene and what will be the outcome? www.tomorrowsworld.org
We have to much greed in America. You take these last two wars. Arms companies are making billions of dollars. Contractors like Hallibuton is making billions.This past election, we seen these companies load up Romney with money, in hopes of more wars. Who knows how much money they spend on lobbying Congress.
Today we have many families homeless. I haven't seen one program from the arms companies or contractors of these wars reaching out for these homeless families. It's all on the government, church and volunteers to help these homeless families. While big time business CEO's are making wages and bonus of millions and millions. Their is no cares of helping the homeless families. We are living in the era of greed. While every one's blames government. More programs are screamed out to the government. While not a word of programs by the companies making billions and multi-millions for the CEO's. Greed have taken over America. Government, Church and volunteers cannot do it alone. It takes a joint effort of everyone in America.
Big time business is now built on stock holders and CEO's and not the employees. The more people the company lays off, the stocks go up and the CEO's makes millions more on wages and bonus. Many of the homeless families are from this system of big time business era of greed.
Isn't this type of thing what bankruptcy is for? And why can't the 16 yo babysit and the mom could go back to work? I get it when the oldest is under 12 or 14, but now? She should be able to work and not need childcare. Glad they're getting back on their feet.
I was one of those laid off at age 52, with a dying wife (kidney disease). America's liberalism is what causes this. You want to blame the rich, but I survived 5 years of underemployment and have risen from the ashes of ruin. You want to blame rich people, go ahead, you want to blame the medical profession, go ahead. But in reality, we must blame ourselves. Buy new cars, don't have any savings, live up to your income instead of below it, look for government to save you. This is what causes the problem in the first place. I don't blame me, I planned and went without in the good times, so I had a pretty big cushion in the bad times. You spend your check before it is made, you have children you cannot afford (you know how they are made don't you?), all the excuses of selfishness. Don't ask Obama to steal money from others for you, that is what charities are for. Take care of your future NOW, so when bad things happen, you can handle it. Don't have a lifestyle you cannot afford, live WAY under your income, spend wisely, and like me, when the road gets bad, you can survive on your own saved income.
to Impatient Girl - when you don't pay medical bills, you will be taken to court and sued. Most hospitals and clinics don't take care of billing themselves; it is out-sourced to collection groups that are relentless and merciless in their collection proceedures. They don't care that you have other expenses or a family to feed.
The Affordable Care Act doesn't go far enough - we need socialized medicine with incentives to stay healthy. Tax breaks for being at a healthy weight, eating right, exercising and not smoking or drinking.
Sounds like you want the master race.
Germany was all about being healthy.
Nope, but why should my tax dollars go to help those who live badly and then will have very pricey health issues? Let people pig out all they want, but they will have to pay more. That is why I said INCENTIVE. It isn't mandatory but we'll need some sort of motivating factor. In our local county government, they did this for county employees and people were healthier and health care costs were less. Simply appeal to people's pocketbooks and they'll respond. How many of us ignore the directives and pleas from the FDA and their lame attempts at Food Pyramids.
I worked for the County of Orange out here in Ca. got buried in a trench had back problems from that and began having seizures 10 months later was told since I could no longer drive Heavy Equipment I had to fill out for disability retirement. I got 50 percent of my pay after working there 18 years I bring home 2,132 a month I pay 853 a month for my alone Kaiser insurance my legs still collapse when I'm walking from the back injuries and I have had 6 seizures in 10 years am terrified of driving for fear of having a seizure while doing so. The AME Neurologist Dr. Ronald Kent said my seizures were going to happen to me anyways so I was denied by the courts any help with that because he decided I was going to have them anyways A bought man in my opinion he had in consultation with my Kaiser Doctor had me take those meds exclusively after going to court I was denied any help with the seizures because of Dr. Kents input. after my last seizure in October of 2011 I called the counties WC insurer York insurance and told them of my back injuries being aggravated by the latest seizure and telling them of the court decision in that I was predestined to have seizures so after paying for those meds till October of 2011 they called and cancelled payment of my meds they had been making for 10 years. I got a letter in the mail a month later saying my co pay from Kaiser for those meds was 3,750 dollars, I was forced to take generics then something I had tried but under Dr. Kents input in the earlier years he recommended I take Keppra exclusively to avoid variations in the meds so I was put on Keppra exclusively to avoid seizures with these seizures I have chewed on my tongue a few times when having them and I bite down so hard my teeth have been busted loose and broken I lost my dental insurance with the loss of my job so now if a tooth is knocked loose or busted I have to pull them myself. My wife worked for CVS in 2009 she tried to stop a alcohol run on the CVS store out here in Riverside she fell over upon coming to the door to block them and broke her hand on the small bone behind her pinky finger the main nerve center of her hand. She was sent to a WC doctor who gave her restrictions that CVS said they could do with her still working. CVS since she was on WC worked her 40 hours a week at the same time they were working all employees less hours. She developed RSD where her spine was telling her brain the hand was dead so her hand got all disfigured and upon returning to the WC doctor he was so mad they had worked her with such restrictions he had prescribed that he took her off work completely. She also landed on her knees both were bruised severely on the night of the accident. She fell here at home one night walking into the living room bumped a chair with her foot upon landing she went to push herself up and the wrist right behind her broken hand busted trying to push herself up, come to find out then that since she was on WC disability and was off work for over 4 weeks they had cancelled her as being an employee so she had lost her Kaiser insurance because of that having happened I was forced to pay 450 a month for her to go to the Riverside County Hospital to have the wrist worked on a full week after it was broken the WC doctor for her on her busted hand had told her he didn't think she'd be able to go back to doing her job but since I was disabled she insisted she needed to try so he wrote her no restrictions her hand is still tweaked looking even after but the day the Doctors at the Riverside County Hospital released her she went to a restaurant and stepped off a curb and broke her femur driving her femur into her knee she told the paramedics that she needed to go to the Riverside county hospital where she was authorized to go but they took her to Corona Regional Medical center. So now she has a 46,700 dollar lien on her credit and the screws from the plate and 16 screws are rubbing on her knee so she can't bend her knee I have tried getting a refinance on my house to help pay my bills with the limited income from these accidents but the liens put on by the Corona Regional Medical center are not allowing me that option. I pay with my disability of 2,132 a month 1,198 for my mortgage payment am left with nothing but debt and liens from all this trying to do our jobs but used till you are injured then you are on your own. I used to go to fires earthquakes flooding and all sorts of natural disasters but the treatment I have gotten in my injuries as well as my wife's I have lost all trust between lawyers and Doctors I think I'd rather just have my kids to grow up to be cowboys instead of money grubbing Doctors and lawyers and such.
This is why we need a one payer national healthcare system. Also this family is right to protect their credit rating. Prospective employers check credit ratings now.
Employers, landlords and insurance companies shouldn't be allowed access to your credit report.
Look I feel bad, I really do - this is awful. But like many situation, it sounds like a series of bad decisions. You have too much debt so the wife quits her job??? The 16 y/o can't watch the little one while mom works part time? Or maybe finds a 3rd shift job so dad can watch the kids when she's working?
Also - you can wipe out credit card and medical debt through bankruptcy. Regardless of what you think about bankruptcy, I'd say that's a far better choice than being homeless, esp when you have kids. God forbid, but so long as I have an income coming in the LAST bill I would stop paying is my mortgage (or rent). Everyone else can go pound sand if need be.
As far as student loans, as we've learned through countless articles on here - you can't get rid of them but a lot of people simply don't pay them. Are they worried about their credit? Because I'm fairly certain it is TRASHED already if they've been evicted and are hawking wedding bands.
Bad choices. I'm glad they're getting back on their feet though I hope they learn to make better choices, I don't want to see them back here again in 5 years. God bless!
I was homeless around 4 yrs old still remember sleeping with the fam. behind a bush and blisters on my feet like the yellow mushiness kind that stink. no mom, my dad was kinda off his tilt still a good dad. This family has it good from what I can recall of mine. In any case what happened to them is an example to us all we are just 1 sickness from having near nothing"Poof!" like magic the fragile american dream up in smoke.
I can relate. We never lived in a homeless shelter or church class rooms, but we did struggle. We had mounting medical; husband with medical from a heart attack, daughter with seizure disorder. Then he lost his job. We were able to NOT lose our house by letting a management company rent it until it could be sold. We bought some cheap land and lived on it in a tent. At first no water or electricity. Then slowly we added utilities when my husband got a new job. We lived this way for 6 months, after the start of school for my younger daughter and winter set in. We still live on the land, but now have a home and many improvements to the property. Sometimes life kicks you and you do what youhave to do.
I read this article and it hurts my heart. I am in a similar position as the people in this article, mounting debt, 3 kids, only one income. On the verge of bankruptcy. I work full time, cant afford to pay off my debts and have any money left over, cant save money.
It has actually cost me my marriage, and will be costing me my house soon, when we sell it and go our separate ways.
SO I can understand how hard it is to fail your kids.
So sorry for you, I'm sure this economy is hurting many marriages, mine included, terrible to lose everything and the one you love as well.
Even with two working adults, no children or extra expenses, not going out or taking vacations or anything extravagant all it takes is one little medical problem and you end up oweing more than you can make in several years. happen to my mother, they are paying bills, nothing extravagant, no vacations, or anything of the like, not even cable, one problem with merca and a knee replacement and now they have been paying off that bill for over a year.
Can't down talk a working family trying their best when outside circumstances occur.
I for one would love to be able to contact this family so I can send some tinkerbell sheets to the lil girl with the pink house. If the charity is in deed getting them a place to stay I want those kids to remember how to be a kid again and be able to lay in a bed covered in TinkerBell if that is her wise
So if anyone knows how to contact the charity helping them or anything please let me know so I can send some tinkerbell sheets to the lil girl johnboy12299@yahoo.com
If the father had taken proper care of himself (i.e. ate a proper diet and exercised) then the kidney ailment would have been a non issue. Having said that, however, I hope this family gets back on its feet quickly, and I admire them for continuing to work (and instill their work ethic in their daughters) and avoiding government benefits as much as possible. This family clearly hasn't "given up" yet and debased themselves to a lifetime of government entitlements.