Just a bit of my why, I was born in a low income family and have through my 40 years on this earth scratched and clawed my way to the lower middle class. I meet my partner through an online dating site 10 years ago. She had 3 of her own kids which 2 are adults now and moved out. Her youngest is autistic and we will probably be raising her until we have passed on. My partners brother has been in and out of prison most of his adult life and that we know of has 11 kids out there some where

A few years back he got out of prison and and 2 of his daughters were living with their grandmother and step grandfather. Over the years before we learned their dad was getting out the step grandfather had been abusing this girls in a sexual manner. We tried to tell the grandmother and she just brushed it under the rug even after we tried getting social services involved. The grandmother played them and the situation went into oblivion. Fast foward a couple years when their dad gets out they confide into him their story and records the audio and we turn that in and the law finally listens.

Because he had been in prison so long and signed rights over to the grandmother he had no say but to make a long story short we ended up taking these girls in and the step grandfather went to prison for sexual abuse of a minor under 12 4 counts. These girls dad is a real piece of work himself and abuses drugs...so much so he told one of his girls that he wasnt smoking anymore just using needles.

Bi polar druggie and institutionalized he could not even try and get rights to these 2 girls who at the time were 9 and 13. He fought constantly with the social worker and us....and turned our lives completely upside down. Over the years we have had to get them into therapy buy a new house out in the country where her mom and brother dont know where we live because of stalking issues. And we have finally gotten these girls settled and some of the drama and our own mental health back to normal. We have taken on so much more debt and emotional drama because of all of this just to protect these girls and save our sanity.

I know 100% it could always be so so much worse for us. But the reason im posting this is because of my why....im tired of living paycheck to paycheck to try and keep us afloat. I want to give my partner a better life, upgrade our home, and keep these kids safe. Im hodling for that....and for all the other apes out there much much worse off that we are.

This is my first post on reddit and im sure some errors in this. I just want you apes to know that i hodl for my family and all of you! Much love!!! <3<3

P.S. was going to post this and will once my karma is up at r/AMCSTOCKS. just want to send much love to my fellow apes out there!!