Stress

Our kids DESERVE this vacation!  They've sacrificed more than they should have to for their family.  They've given up vacations, birthday money, new toys, movies, Saturday mornings, time with their parents, and even eating meat!  Their parents are working all the time rather than declare bankruptcy and default on their home loan.  Their good spirit has earned them this time with their parents away from work!

Like many young parents, my husband and I got into huge debt supporting our family while in college. We thought we were doing the right thing, taking good care of our kids and setting good examples by going to school.  Now I can't get a job in my field and have 4 part-time jobs.  My husband and I work 7 days a week, many days are 10-hour days, just to pay our debt and keep our home.  We've given up so much - even things that don't even seem like extras.  Unlike a lot of young folks in our shoes, we are NOT declaring bankruptcy to take the easy way out!  Still, it is hard to watch others declare bankruptcy only to turn around and live lavishly.  We never even got a honeymoon!  Our kids are such good sports and have made so many sacrifices.  They give us their birthday money and they work hard every weekend to help clean the house since I have to work and can't do it myself.  They quietly read library books, draw pictures, and complete their homework with little help while their parents are hard at work.  We make the most of our little time together, like sharing meals together as much as we can.  But even to take a day off, like Memorial Day, I have to work another day since I have no paid time off.  My husband and I really want to reward our kids for how super they've been.  We want them to know that people who work hard and do the right thing get a break from tough times.  And we'd really love the chance to give them quality time - all of us together and NO WORK.  THEY deserve this vacation!

My grandmother will be 91 in August. She lives in CT and we live in NC.  My youngest daughter is named for her and neither she, nor my middle daughter, have ever met their great-grandmother! She is an incredible woman and an inspiration to me...I need my girls to have the chance to meet her! My father and stepmother are willing to join us on a road trip to CT from NC to have a chance for family memories with his mother, his daughter and grandaughters. I can't imagine a more meaningful trip for all of us.

My name is Mike, and I live in Virginia.  I found out in February that I had metastatic melanoma, and that I would need surgery.  Over the past four and a half months, I've had 8 operations and I'm quite tired of the entire process.  Further, no one can say whether I need to be worried or if the surgeries are actually helping me.

Both myself and my wife are college students with about one year left.  She will have a degree in International Relations with a minor in German, and I will be graduating with a degree in Biology/pre-med.  Everything permitting, I will be moving on to medical school following graduation.  We are both servers at local restaraunts, and have been looking forward to the summer since mid-September of last year.  Unfortunately, this summer did not bring the financial relief we had hoped for due to a dwindling economy and a lack of tourists, and also the enormous balance on my medical bills.

Between both of us working over-time (except for my time out due to surgeries), going to school over-time and trying to make sure our one-year-old has everything he needs, we have become entirely too stressed and bogged down with the load on our shoulders.  Then we found out we are going to be blessed with another son at the end of August.  However joyous this news was, it also adds to the stress.  How can we make things work with two children when we are barely scraping by with one?

To top it all off, 4 weeks ago I was in an automobile accident and sustained some pretty serious injuries that would leave me out of work for about 6-8 weeks.  I feel that we deserve this vacation because it will give us time to re-connect with each other as a married couple, and it will also help to re-energize us.  This will help us buckle down for the last year of stressful living and give us the motivation to make it to the light at the end of the tunnel.  All I can hope is that you all see my story and help in my effort to just catch a break from this stressful life I've found myself in for the last couple of years.  Thank you all - Mike

it's been a long 18 months. and it all started in january 2008 when my mother called to tell me -- the weekend before new year's eve -- that she'd been diagnosed with lung and brain cancer. the lung cancer she'd likely gotten from decades of cigarette smoking had caught up with her and had already begun to spread to her brain.

this was not her first cancer diagnosis. when i was 14, she spent time in the hospital with bladder cancer and had a relapse of that a few years later.

this time, though, it was more serious. lung and brain cancer meant extensive and brutal chemotherapy and radiation treatments in the months ahead.

a few weeks after that call i arranged to take my mom to go shopping for wigs since she'd be losing her hair from the treatments. shortly after i arrived, my dad took my hands and told me the news: my oldest brother -- 20 years my senior -- had died unexpectedly the night before. he was nearly 50 years old and had gone to the emergency room complaining of stomach pain. turns out it was an infected pancreas and during his transport via helicopter to the area's major hospital, kenny suffered a stroke and died.

after dealing with the grief of losing my oldest brother (i'm the baby of 4 kids) and after getting over the anger of my mother's sickness, it was time to help my helpless father cope and deal with day to day duties of dishes, laundry, paying bills.

it was a long year. and the responsibilities have carried on to 2009 and will likely continue. my mother is in remission for the time-being, but she is a different woman than she was 18 months ago. she is weak, she is unable to function normally and relies heaviliy on my father to bathe, go to the bathroom, and for food/meals. i help where i can. and am the caretaker when dad needs a weekend away at his brother's cabin in the woods. in 2008, my mother fell twice and broke her femur twice. the recovery has been slow and no where near complete.

while i don't mind pitching in, it certainly has taken its toll. i just need a little break. just for a moment to catch my breath.