Story Of The 2018 UB Adopt A Family

[Lipripper]

Now that it's just about time for our 2019 UB Adopt A Family I just wanted to thanks everyone for your generous giving last year by sharing the story of how it went down.

[Lipripper]

Here is the story of Nick and Adriana and the two little boys .

This is the day-to-day story of my grandson Nicholas and his family. It was written by my daughter, Nick's mom.

Nick and Adriana have been together for 13 years. They have seen each other through some very difficult times. They have two boys, ages 4 and 1. They both work hard just to keep their children in a safer environment but that leaves little left for much else. They live paycheck to paycheck, very rarely asking for help unless it's in dire need. About six months ago their car broke down and they haven't had money to repair it.

Their day starts with Nick leaving for work early in the morning via public transportation. Adriana starts her mornings getting the boys fed, dressing them for the day and making sure dinner is cooked before heading off to work.

To get to work, she rides a bike that was given to her as a gift from her mom while towing the boys in back. While at work, the boys attend daycare in the building where she works since they can't afford a babysitter and there is no one home during the day. When Nick gets off work, he takes public transportation to Adriana's workplace to pick up the boys from daycare and then he also rides the bicycle back to their apartment with the kids in tow.

Although tired, Nick then proceeds to feed the boys, takes the time to play with them at their apartment or, if the weather is good enough, takes them to the park. Then he gives them a bath before putting them to sleep. This routine is only made more difficult by the random requests of their employers to work overtime. Always pressed for time, it's a long day for everyone.

Now that Chicago's weather is getting colder and the holidays are upon us, these stresses that are today commonplace will only add to their already tense days. The changing weather will bring about a more urgent need to somehow obtain the funds required to fix their car and to avoid the grueling weather that is on its way.

They are definitely deserving of any help they can get but more than that, of the recognition that they, as young parents, are doing a great job sacrificing of themselves for the benefit of their children.

As y'all know my grandson and his family were chosen to be the family we helped in last years Adapt A Family.
Everything was going great in the collections them in the last few weeks one of our members  FD made this post.

Mike,

Since I was going to donate again anyway, I have a challenge for the UB members.  Instead of buying myself more tackle that I don't need, I'm going to put that money to good work helping someone who needs it.

I will match every dollar donated between now and the  cutoff.

I lived the life of the young couple we are helping when my kids were little.

Even though it was decades ago, their story brought back the feelings of desperation I had when I was fired with 2 kids under 4 years old and my wife was a stay at home Mom. Long story short, that was the event that lead me to starting my own business, but in the beginning it was a lot of PB&J's and Mac and Cheese - for years.

Let's raise enough money so they can at least buy a beater car to get to work.


Sent from the end of the paved road...

[Lipripper]

Well after that things took off and by the end our giving UB members had given $3,250  and FD gave a matching donation of  $1,385 for a grand total of $5,205 which we made a little video of us giving them the symbolic checks with the money n our bank. We gave them $1,000 or them to spend on Christmas and get caught up on a few bills and the rest we held for them so they would have it to help them get a  car to get them through the winter. Here is the short video of us giving them the money.

Video of giving them the checks

After that night here is what they sent us and their mom in text messages.





As you can see they couldn't believe this was happening to them.

[Lipripper]

Well they started their look for a new vehicle to help get them through the winter. Adriana's dad who knows a lot more about cars than I will ever know went on the search with them and the first one they looked at they fell in love with it and the seller was even willing to let them take it to a mechanic to have it checked out. They kept that in the back of their but went looking at more cars. After looking at about seven or eight more they went back to the first one they looked at and the gentleman   was true to his word and let them take it to a Firestone store to have it checked all out. The mechanic at Firestone said it was in good shape and only needed to have a break job done on it. So they went back to the seller and said they wanted it. Here is a picture of them with their new van. It is a 2006 Honda Pilot and only had about 106,000 miles on it. The inside of it looks just as clean and good as the outside of it. Thanks again to everyone who donated and to Lee for his big part in making this happen.

Nick ..Adriana.. Little Nickey and Adrian with their new car



Their new van