We bought our house 3 years ago. George had a different job, cancer was not a part of our lives and I had just graduated from college. We thought our lives were headed a different direction. Now we have a $1200 mortgage and are traveling around the country fighting for our son's health and we need a less expensive option. My parents have property in the country and have said that we can build on their property. We plan to cut our mortgage in half by building a small basic house on FREE property. That is how we can afford to build our own house. We are trying to build a life we can afford based on George's salary alone because I will most likely be spending a lot of time in and out of hospitals with Clayton and not able to have a steady income. We are going to be doing the work ourselves, no contractor or superintendent. We will have painted plywood walls and floors until we can afford to lay hard flooring for Clayton's allergies and put paneling on the walls. There will be no molding or extras. We will pay for things as we can over the years by being smart financially. We are selling our house with its $1200 mortgage and downsizing to a simpler way of life that we can afford. I'm taking the time while in Texas to research every cost efficient means of building I can find. That is how we are doing it. We are building a simple box that in 20 years time we can turn into our dream home, but for now it will be a simple very basic box of a house. God didn't give us the luxurious life we once dreamed about, so George and I are adapting and getting smarter about how we live.
As for our other purchases this past year, we bought a car by cashing in George's retirement plan from his old job because my car had already quit working once and his truck already had so many miles on it. We purchased a modest, basic, used car at a good price and traded in my old car. We were doing a lot of driving and needed a safe vehicle to tote Clayton to and from the doctor/hospital.
An amazing family in Fairhope gave us some money last Christmas and told us to spend it on something we needed other than medical expenses, so we bought a refrigerator because our old hand be down from my dad had already broken on us once and I didn't want to come home from the hospital to everything melted on the floor.
Then after Clayton finished chemo, we got a Pottery Barn card and purchased a basic sofa by using all of my birthday money from different family members and paying $50 a month from our personal bank account towards the difference. I thought we deserved a sofa that hadn't been plagued by chemo side effects and urine.
It takes every penny we have to make things work and there is no room for savings. Which is the number one reason we are building this house and selling our current one. We are trying to put ourselves in a better financial position so we can save for Clayton's expenses, a broken AC, etc. or a rainy day. Because we are smart enough to realize that life doesn't stop just because our child has health issues.
George and I have always tried to be responsible about each and every kindness we have been shown. Whether it was money or something else. Clayton's account has been used for his medical and traveling expenses. It has paid for more than $15,000 in flights for his treatment, more than $5,000 in ambulance rides and hundreds in fees at the Ronald McDonald House among other medical or medical related expenses. What it has not paid for was my car, our refrigerator, our sofa, etc. Nor will it pay for our building a house. We are building a house that George's salary alone can pay for in conjunction with our other necessary monthly bills.
We didn't ask for this. We are making the best life we can with the challenges we have been given and shame on this person for judging us without knowing the big picture. You think we enjoy this? We watch our friends lives move on and up and we are stuck fighting for the littlest love of our life sadly (but gratefully) depending on others to help us get him the care he needs. We are also trying our best to pay it forward by working (completely on a volunteer basis) to make The George Clayton Childhood Cancer Foundation a successful means of funding for pediatric cancer research. Nobody wants to be in this situation including us. But we are and we are making the best of it because our world happily revolves around Clayton no matter what trials it means we must endure as a family. Having people kind enough to support our family and raise funds for Clayton's medical expenses eases our financial burden, it does not ease our pain and the hurt we see our son go through time and time again.
If this person thinks they can handle this life and the financial pressures that come with it better than we can, then why did God chose George and I? Why didn't God give this person these obstacles? Clearly God felt George and I were the stronger, wiser and more responsible individuals to handle these burdens.
George and I put our lives out there through this blog so that those that care about us can keep up with Clayton and to educate those about life with a child with cancer and special needs. For someone to use this blog to make false assumptions and accusations about our lives is disgusting.
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