Shalom:
First, thank you to all who send messages of love, support and prayers to Mark, Monti and I. Especially those who continued to donate to penpal, despite the post here and there, but knowing all we have gone through.
The beginning of February, we lost internet usage where we lived. This alone almost pulled the plug of this blog, but Mark found various cafes that had free Wi-Fi, so I could keep it up somewhat. We were also in the middle of looking for an apartment. Thanks to the VA, we had a Section 8 voucher in order to get us a place of our home.
While we received it in October, we began to hit walls when we learned that, even with a voucher that means, the land lord would receive their rent, because of the eviction in October 2012 still on record, no one would rent to us.
And then the middle of December, a dear lady from Missoula, the city that the VA wanted to move us to, stepped in and began to help us break down walls. So many people say "support our veterans," but this lady came beside us and began to kick in door. It was this dear lady who went to very door of the Missoula Housing Authority and asked the director to consider helping is get a apartment, to be willing to give us a second chance.
Bless her sweet heart and the director of Housing, they did meet us, talk to us and was willing to work with us.
Mark and his VA social worker wrote a letter to our former landlord, asking if he was willing to work with us as we began to off the past-due rent. He was not only more than willing, but gave us a very nice recommendation, saying we were very good tenets and the only problem was that we couldn't pay the rent. A copy of this agreement was send to Housing, so they could see we were indeed working off the eviction. But the progress is slow and it meant a long wait.
The beginning of January was a dark period for us. We really needed a place of our own and yet we could not find a place that would overlook the eviction. Mark and I worked hard not to take our black mood out on each other, but sadly angry words would be exchanged. But more often than not, we hung on to each, and to G-d.
There were so many times we wanted to give up, but we knew there where wonderful people praying for us as well as with us. Having not heard from Housing, we were beginning to think this application had also had been turned down.
Thus, I began once again looking for Section 8 apartment that would take the voucher and overlook the eviction.
But renewed hop came the second week of February when, after many teary phone calls, we finally began to get answers. There were a few forms (back ground checks from Virginia, etc.) that Housing was waiting from. But Missoula had indeed approved our application and was willing to give us a home.
Finally! Our own home.
First, thank you to all who send messages of love, support and prayers to Mark, Monti and I. Especially those who continued to donate to penpal, despite the post here and there, but knowing all we have gone through.
The beginning of February, we lost internet usage where we lived. This alone almost pulled the plug of this blog, but Mark found various cafes that had free Wi-Fi, so I could keep it up somewhat. We were also in the middle of looking for an apartment. Thanks to the VA, we had a Section 8 voucher in order to get us a place of our home.
While we received it in October, we began to hit walls when we learned that, even with a voucher that means, the land lord would receive their rent, because of the eviction in October 2012 still on record, no one would rent to us.
And then the middle of December, a dear lady from Missoula, the city that the VA wanted to move us to, stepped in and began to help us break down walls. So many people say "support our veterans," but this lady came beside us and began to kick in door. It was this dear lady who went to very door of the Missoula Housing Authority and asked the director to consider helping is get a apartment, to be willing to give us a second chance.
Bless her sweet heart and the director of Housing, they did meet us, talk to us and was willing to work with us.
Mark and his VA social worker wrote a letter to our former landlord, asking if he was willing to work with us as we began to off the past-due rent. He was not only more than willing, but gave us a very nice recommendation, saying we were very good tenets and the only problem was that we couldn't pay the rent. A copy of this agreement was send to Housing, so they could see we were indeed working off the eviction. But the progress is slow and it meant a long wait.
The beginning of January was a dark period for us. We really needed a place of our own and yet we could not find a place that would overlook the eviction. Mark and I worked hard not to take our black mood out on each other, but sadly angry words would be exchanged. But more often than not, we hung on to each, and to G-d.
There were so many times we wanted to give up, but we knew there where wonderful people praying for us as well as with us. Having not heard from Housing, we were beginning to think this application had also had been turned down.
Thus, I began once again looking for Section 8 apartment that would take the voucher and overlook the eviction.
But renewed hop came the second week of February when, after many teary phone calls, we finally began to get answers. There were a few forms (back ground checks from Virginia, etc.) that Housing was waiting from. But Missoula had indeed approved our application and was willing to give us a home.
Finally! Our own home.
