Fast forward again to the end of 2013. Remember we’re talking about the money here and who receives it and why. After another year of service, of giving 12+ hours a day each day to serve community on a volunteer basis, my husband and I were challenged by fate to survive without his ability to support us.
As many may recall, my husband is a Canadian citizen and I’m a US citizen. Our partnership was made possible by the job he held going back and forth over the border pulling loads of product into the US all the time.
Rather than repeat here the long story, which is documented on the blog as well, let me summarize it to explain that he was told at the border he could be refused entry to the US and that this could be either for 5 years or permanently! Since I have been refused entry into Canada, this would be the end of our partnership. (1)
Since this man is not only my sole means of support, but the anchor of my ability to be in a proper environment for the first time in my life, I was devastated by this possibility. We were essentially homeless, this was the most horrendous and frightening thing that could ever happen to us. We were literally sick with grief at the thought that we could be forcibly separated from one another.
Even so, I had no thought of asking for support from the Hope Chest. In my view, at that time, the Hope Chest was for those who were more needy than I, which goes to show how much spiritual arrogance was lodged up in my heart about receiving, and about giving being balanced with receiving in the flow of Divine Abundance.
It was fine so long as I was the giver, but the very thought of needing to receive was a big part of what made me feel sick to the depths of my being.
It took some convincing to make me release the struggle over my worthiness and release my hidden pride to humbly receive the assistance, which was now a necessity to make it possible to make it through the next 8 months. It took that long to get through all the governmental red tape to get my husband a green card that allowed him to work in the US.
This support from the Hope Chest amounted to between $1,000 and $1,500 a month for 8 months, and it was also used to pay for the fees involved for paying for the marriage visa, the mandatory medical exams, and so on and so on. These fees alone totaled in the thousands of dollars when it was all said and done. The Hope Chest also assisted to get us across the country to our new home in Arizona.
Thanks to Margie Laflin, who without ever having laid eyes on me, and based solely on knowing me in the forum, offered us a place to live for free for as long as we needed it.
We lived with her for 6 months while waiting and waiting for the paperwork to go through for us to be able to be independent again. (We miss you, Margie, my beautiful sister!)
Those funds available for team support through the Hope Chest were the major contribution to our survival during this passage. There were also those who sent money to us directly, too many to acknowledge here, but they know who they are.
My gratitude for your personal offerings to help me is endless, oh lovers! Even now, I can’t think of it without weeping. I love you!
Since last July, when my husband finally got situated in a job here in the US, we’ve received funds several times as well, some of which were to support my needs for software, computer repair and upgrades. Without them I could not have done my job.
Always these needs are based on whether or not there are funds for such ‘luxuries’, since the basic needs of a place to live and food to eat come first, and there’s a whole team of us required to provide the level of service you see on this platform.
To round this story up, which is only a sliver of the story of this team, and not even the most dramatic, let me say this. I’ve been so very fortunate to have a stable partner who is the bread-winner and who enables me to be a worker bee in service to you without drawing a paycheck for it.
None of the other members of the team, both present and past, has had this option. Their love, devotion and service has gone on for year after year with whatever other means of sustenance they could come up with.
I think, like me, that their rewards for doing this service are ample enough to sustain the soul. At this time, we’re being asked to bring this to ground and also look to sustaining the body, right here and right now.
In straight physical terms, this includes the costs to sustain the ‘body’ of this platform which takes money to run. It can’t be ‘run on the cheap’ like some have suggested, not if we wish to support the large numbers of visits we get to it every day.
So, I want to acknowledge the support that’s gone on in our community that’s brought us here. I, for one, would have fallen off the back of the wagon last year without the Divine Abundance that community has funneled to us.
I want also to acknowledge the hardheaded, huge-hearted crew of volunteers who refuse to stop and refuse to admit defeat, even while treading water endlessly.
In the end, it’s up to us all to do what we feel called to do. We, your servants, do what we feel called to do, and we will keep doing it too, one way or the other.
If the platform dissolves under our feet, we’ll continue in a far poorer way to do what we feel called to do, perhaps in other connections than in this community if it fails, which is to serve with all our hearts and all our souls throughout this Ascension process and for the good of all.
Footnote:
(1) For those who are unaware of my personal life stories, I haven’t always been well-behaved. I have a record of drug abuse that prevents me from entering Canada.
See my blog bio at our About Staff page for a bit more info. Scroll down and find me there. The good, the bad, the ugly, it’s all out there for all to know. In the interest of transparency, which has always been my concern, it’s all out there.