Abbey Dennis

Our son is due October 31, 2012 and I would very much like to have a home to bring him home to!

<p><span id="internal-source-marker_0.6261612996089754" style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At the beginning of this year my life was very different. My husband and I both had full time jobs, a house, a little bit of savings, and had decided we were ready to add another child to the family.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On February 5, 2012 - while most of you were watching the superbowl, and my husband was stuck at work, I decided to do the grocery shopping for the week. I went to a store less than half a mile from my home in suburban Virginia Beach, VA. Upon leaving the store a stranger with a gun approached me, he kidnapped me, forced me to drive to different locations, where he'd carry out a new horror on me. Before getting away he assaulted me and robbed me (of what I had on me, my car, and forced me to drain my checking account via ATM).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thanks to the excellent work of the police, this man was caught within 24 hours, and is being held without possibility of bond while awaiting trial for his crimes against me; Abduction with intent to defile, Robbery auto, Robbery, Sexual battery, and Sodomy by force with weapon. After this man was caught and identified, I learned that a couple of month prior he was released from prison, where he'd spent most of his adult life for a similar crime.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Knowing he is behind bars is a small comfort, but I am still left with paralyzing fear. I found it difficult to leave the house, and was diagnosed with PTSD and a panic disorder, just after finding out that days before the attack my husband and I had conceived our second child. I had to take a leave of absence from work because the few times I tried to go into work, I had a panic attacks. Paul would work when he could, but often he had to stay with me because of my panic.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Down to one income, we could no longer afford our rent and knew we had to downsize. Then just days after a grand jury indicted my attacker, our house was burglarized. Nothing was taken, someone broke in and turned the radio on and up to full volume. Police investigated but found nothing to help point fingers, but did think it was a real possibility that friends/associates of my attacker were behind it, to scare me from testifying. Due to the nature of our situation our landlord released us from our lease, but we'd already gone through our small savings trying to stay afloat the last few months.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We were forced to sell what we could, pack essentials in the car, and put the rest in storage and drive to GA to live with a friend. Starting over 500 miles away, we went several months with no income at all while Paul was looking for a new job. We have been staying with a friend in a small (500 sq ft) one bedroom apt since April, sleeping on a futon in the living room. This situation hardly works now and once we add a newborn into the mix we will need to find somewhere else to go. Unfortunately, we have nowhere else and would have to raise our children in a shelter. &nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What we need</span><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My husband has a full-time stable job and is earning a steady income, and while we won't be able to afford much for rent, we will be able to afford a small apartment, and maintain this without assistance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What we can't afford is to get established in a place of our own. As I mentioned we have a very very low rent budget, and have technically been homeless for the last 5 months. When I can find a place in our price-range, due to our lack of recent rental history and recent credit (we fell behind on some bills when we lost our house, but have almost completely caught back up) most landlords are requiring a large deposit (2 or 3 times the rent), which we simply cannot come up with. We also need the funds to get our belongings from storage in Virginia to our new home in Georgia.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am setting a goal of $2000. Half of which will go toward getting our belongings here and the other half will go toward helping with a deposit on a new place and any deposit we may need to get basic utilities started. </span></p>

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