Hi, my name is Erin, and this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write. I am a mother of three beautiful children, and right now our family is struggling just to make it through each day. During my pregnancy and after giving birth, I experienced serious medical complications that forced me to stop working so I could recover and care for my newborn. I suffered liver failure and developed cholestasis, which left me severely anemic and fighting just to regain my health.

 Shortly after my first daughter was born, I experienced another devastating loss….I lost her father, who was our family’s primary provider. Overnight, our stability disappeared, and since then I have been doing everything I can to hold our family together through overwhelming hardship. I truly believed maternity benefits would help us stay afloat during this difficult time, but our application was denied due to reduced work hours during my pregnancy. Suddenly, the financial support we were counting on was gone. Since then, I have stretched every dollar possible, skipped meals, and put my children’s needs before my own just to maintain some sense of normalcy for them. Despite my best efforts, we have fallen behind. Today, we are facing the terrifying reality of losing our home and struggling to keep our utilities from being shut off.