Swallowing my pride

Over the past few days, God has shown me that pride is not something good. I have refused for 7 years now to ask for help from anyone, because I was too proud. Today our Minister had us read 1Peter 5:5, he had us take special note to the last sentence in that verse, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble". That hit me pretty hard.

So here I am, my family is in need of help, and I am swallowing my pride and asking for help for my family. What you are about to read is a story that could happen to anyone. We ask that you please take the time to read the following letter and if you are able, please give a donation. Even just $1.00 can add up. You can also help by passing our story along to your friends.

Anyway, here is as short a version as possible of our story, you can read more on our web site at, www.thejoyofhope.org.

Our story began in June of 2000 when Dan went down a flight of stairs the wrong way, and injured his back. The injury was bad enough that the work Dan had always done, (16 years), he could no longer do. At that time we had an antique and collectible business that was doing very well, but the injury prevented us from being able to do needed work, and we could no longer continue that venture either. WE turned to the Social Security system, but they only changed his work history to suite their needs and be able to deny his claim, and an appeal was useless. Through it all, we lost our house, and our credit, but not the ability or will to make money and survive.

We found a nice farm house to move to and started to rebuild our lives. We got a paper route which was something we could both do together, that did not put too much stress on either of our backs, (I already had a back problem from an injury 25 years ago), we also cleaned the church once a week. That was nice because the kids were able to help us whenever we were having trouble with our backs. In between those jobs we started an online business of Affiliate Marketing and web design.

After living in the farm house for 4 years, we all started getting very sick, and could not get better. We all would run high fevers, and constantly have a flu type cold. I started having severe pains throughout my body, to the point I could no longer help Dan clean the Church, or deliver the papers. After about two months of this, one day while cleaning our bedroom, we moved our bed and found mold growing on the carpet under it, and black mold all along the walls.

We tried to help the owner remidiate the mold, but it was all throughout the house, and would have cost tens of thousands of dollars. The house had been sold to a developer and was going to be torn down, so that was not an option, and we had to move. Unfortunately, we had to leave almost all of our belongings behind, furniture, clothes, toys, etc. Of course our health was in bad shape from the mold, which we determined was there when we first moved in. So we had lived with it for almost 5 years!

The next house we moved into, was a new modular, and we were one of the first to live in it in the summer, so we were the first to find out the house was not put together properly, so all our air conditioning was going under the house, instead of inside the house. It cost a fortune to cool a crawl space, and does nothing to the heat in the house, no matter what you do. The owner of this house refused to make the repairs needed, because it would cost too much, and be a lot of work to get it all fixed right. So we had to leave there because the air quality was horrible because of the problem, plus myself and our handicapped teen, cannot deal with a lot of heat, and we had numerous heat strokes all through out last summer from the excessive heat.

Because of the mold at the farm making us so sick, (we still suffer from it), we cannot seem to find a house that doses not in some way make us sick. We searched 6 months for a house in Indiana, before coming to the conclusion that God wanted us out of the Midwest because of how severely allergic we had become to molds, and chemicals from the exposure we had for so long on the farm. So we left Indiana, and traveled across the Country in a van with 200,000 miles on it, our kids, cat and what we were able to fit on top of the van and in the back. We ended up in a small town in Southern Colorado and rented a house that appeared to fit our needs. At least until there was a water leak, and the repair man put off fixing it for weeks, and left us to do the best we could, and dry it up. Unfortunately, before it all dried mold began to grow, and now there is a problem here too. We’ve had to turn our water to the water heater on and off every night, (this was where the leak was coming from), for the past 6 weeks now! We withheld our rent for August, in an attempt to get someone to fix the water heater, as well as hook up our furnace, because it gets cold in these mountains sometimes at night. Unfortunately all that got us, was being told that we will never be satisfied with this house, and that we needed to be out by September first! This all took place almost two weeks ago, and still no repairs have been made and still we are fighting the leaky water heater and Dan and I are doing our best to keep every thing dry and to make sure the mold gets no worse than it is now.

It is pretty clear to us at this point, that we are never going to get away from mold in rentals, and we need something of our own that we can make repairs on when needed. However a house is not the answer because of how easy mold can grow. Our next option is an RV, which is the best option at this point, because on top of everything else we have gone through, we lost 50% of our Internet income this past Tuesday! If we had an RV, we could get a work camper job to get us through the winter season, and next summer season, while we work on gaining new Internet clients. Since we lost the income this week, we no longer have enough money to make our monthly bills, and we especially do not have enough to move on, and at this point, we are looking at out tent once again as home. Unfortunately, campgrounds do not allow workers who are tenting, plus the cold is coming, and a tent will no longer be an option.

So we are seeking help in securing an RV. If 10,000 people gave only a dollar each, we could get a travel trailer and would own our own mold free home. If 50,000 people or less donate just $1.00, we could buy a mold free, non leaking class A RV that would take care of our needs for years to come, perhaps the rest of our lives. Give us a means by which to make an income, (work camping), which will in turn provide the means by which to travel the country and start a mass education on the dangers of mold and bring awareness to those who need to learn what it can do to you. There is more info on our dream to help others on our web site at, www.thejoyofhope.org.

We are not lazy people who want a hand out, we are poor, but we work very hard, often times putting in 12 hours per day and barely making enough for rent and food. Work camping or even parking, we would not only have a place to live, we could support ourselves even in the hard times because space is cheap and comes with utilities. We don’t want help to support us the rest of our lives, we don’t want a hand out, we need a hand up. We are the man Jesus spoke of who was beat up and robbed, and left lying on the side of the road, and a Samaritan came by and helped him. We have lost everything due to mold and our need to move, and are struggling hard to make ends meet. We need a Samaritan.

We want to thank everyone who reads this, and reaches out to help our family. You are a Blessing to us, and we are ever so grateful to you for caring enough to help. May God always Bless you.

Blessings to all,

Carmella and Dan Dunkin

If you would like to help us buy an RV, you can do so buy clicking on the donation button below. If you have a used RV you want to donate, then Praise God, and God Bless you!

And The Mold Goes On

At this point I have to post something somewhat funny for a title, have to try and find a glimmer of comedy in all of this. I know, it is in no way funny at all, but when you have been through all we have, you must gain a little laughter somewhere, or else you will just sit and cry. Here's an update to our never ending toxic mold story...

Sick of being sick

As the title states, I am sick of being sick! 7 years ago after DH injured his back and could no longer work, we lost our home. We moved into an old farm house, which at the time we thought was way cool, until 4 years later when we found black mold growing on our bedroom wall. This find came after we all started getting very sick, and could not get better. Well that mold was not only on that wall, it was IN that wall, under the floor, and in other walls throughout the house. We had no choice but to stay there until we could find a clean house to live in, unfortunately being poor due to hubby's back injury that was not an easy task because it cost a bundle to move these days, between a first and last on the rent, and deposits, and not being able to work the job we were able to work which was the Internet. When you move you have a little down time with no connection.
We did finally find a brand new modular that was clean and we were able to afford. Unfortunately, this house had problems with the central air system. It blew insulation throughout the house from the attic and walls, and sucked dust and derbies up from the crawl space. This did not help our already sick lungs, and hubby nearly died from it. Hubby was able to see a doctor, who said he had COPD, asthma, and possibly mold infection in his lungs. Unfortunately we could not afford for me to see a doctor for the severe pains throughout my body, but I felt I could cope, and hubby needed a DOC more than I did since after all, he couldn't breath and thought he was going to die from suffocation. He had me scared half to death! Anyway, the owner of the modular refused to fix the central air, and when the heat of summer hit, we all thought we would die from the heat and humidity, because the AC did not work at all. We kept complaining for the problem to be taken care of, but it was such a big job and costly, he refused to fix it, and left us sitting in a house that caused myself and our autistic son to have multiple heat strokes through one of the hottest summers on record for Indiana. This of course upset me and I complained more, and the owner told us, he was not doing the repairs and we would have to get out!!!
After looking for yet another house we could live in that was not moldy, (the farm made us all very allergic to ALL molds, as well as a lot of chemicals too), our choices came down to, a moldy home that would kill us all, or get out of the state to a state that was dryer and not so much mold. So we sold and gave away every single thing we owned, all we kept were a few clothes for each of us, craft and jewelry supplies so we could make a little money on our creations, our lap top computers, the kids school books and supplies, (we homeschool), and a tent and camping supplies! We placed a few things in a very small storage unit, and we headed West, leaving our life and belongings behind for a second time in a year, as we lost everything on the farm to the mold, it was all too moldy to take with us. So we left with what we could pack in the back and on the top of our mini van with 200,000 miles on it, and headed for dry Country. We camped all the way, with the exception of a few motels we "tried" to stay at. Most of the motels all had mold in them too. Remember, we are very sensitive and the tiniest amount makes us all very sick. Camping was fun, but I was very sick from staying at hubby's mom's for a few days, (not sure what was in her house other than dust, which I am also sensitive too), but even with that issue, we all had a good time on our journey across the Country to find a new home.
We had absolutely no clue at all where we were going, all we knew is we had to get to the dryer states and take it from there. We ended up in Colorado and fell in love! The air was clean, and fresh, and we could finally breath again, (Indian was so bad it made me sick to be outside!), so we started looking for our new home. We looked in Trinidad, but there were no rentals there, so we kept going North, and came upon the small town of Walsenburg. Here we quickly found a nice little house that had hardwood flooring, (I am sensitive to carpeting too), and had just been remolded. We were turned down at first because there were too many of us, (5), and we had brought or cat, (no way were we giving her up now), so we offered an extra $50.0 a month on the rent. That was accepted and we were told we would have to pay an addition $100.00 on the deposit for our cat.
Here's were our story gets really sad. After all we have gone through for the last 6+ years, our new home that appeared to be free of any mold when we first moved in, acquired a leak in the basement, and by the time we found it, the mold had already begun to grow! It only takes 24 hours for mold to start growing, if the moisture issue is not taken care of right away, then you have a major problem on your hands. We did what we could to stop the problem from getting worse, but the water kept coming in and we could not figure out where it was coming from. We took bucket upon bucket of dirt out of the basement that was down there, until we got it all up off the concrete floor, (this took many days of working on it when we could, remember hubby has a bad back, and I have a hernia so hubby refused to let me carry it at all, there was a lot of dirt), and we have been running a fan down there to dry it up 24/7 for the last 5 weeks or so. We finally have figured out where the bulk of the water has been coming from, the water heater! The heater had problems when we moved in, and the contractor who did the remolding repaired the element, and put on a new pressure relief, but that did not fix it. Last week we found the pressure relief valve leaking, okay, it was pouring out when we found it at 3:00 am! Needless to say, the mold is so bad now, that it is making us all sick, and just when we thought the hell we left behind in Indiana was over. We are now waiting for a new heater to be installed, and in the meantime, we are doing without hot water. We turn the power to it on at night long enough to heat the water, then we all quickly take our bathes and cut the power. Not only are we dealing with all of this, but the water heater not working properly, is causing the electric meter to crank, and costing us big money, (the light company told us that was why our bill was so high, $70.00 for 2 weeks! We only have a fan, fridge and two laptops and a few standard lights at that time!)
So here we are, nice dry state, and right back in the same boat, living in a house with mold. If we owned the house ourselves, we could have taken care of things long before now, but since we are renting, we've had to wait, and waiting has created a situation we can not live in much longer. We sleep with the windows open so that the mold gases do not build to high, but once the temps start cooling down in the fall, that will be out of the question. At this point I am ready to live in our tent, it seems the only way we are going to be able to not deal with mold, is to either build our own log home, buy an RV, or just live in a tent. Needless to say I am frustrated, aggravated, irritated, and plain sick on being sick! Oh and if I failed to mention it, contrary to popular believe, ALL molds can make you sick, even kill you if you are sensitive to them, not just black molds! When I complained about the mold growing in the basement, I was told, "we don't have a problem with black mold in Colorado"! All molds are harmful to someone who is allergic to molds, and I am highly allergic to all molds, including the mold growing in my basement right now. Oh, and there are molds much more toxic that black molds out there.
The bottom line, molds, all molds, can be very dangerous, and can make any person very sick, especially if you live with a mold problem for very long. There is a whole host of illnesses linked to molds to, a few are, asthma, lupus, cancers, fibromyalgia, arthritis, bleeding lungs, nose bleeds, and the list goes on.
You can find more info, and links to some great info by going to our web site at, www.thejoyofhope.com Please do not take mold lightly, it is a very serious problem and it is growing like a cancer across the country. It is becoming more well known and talked about, but still not enough. People are dying in the homes with no way out, and no one wants to help. Please don't let yourself become one of these people, it is not a bag of tea, in any way at all.

Mold, an invisible killer

This is a story that needs to be told and read by everyone in the country, it has already been posted in e-zines and other sites on the web, and I am making it my goal to get the word out on mold and it's dangers. My family lost almost everything we owned to toxic mold growing inside the walls and under the floor of our farm house that we dearly loved. Now we have basically no furniture at all, very few clothes, the kids have very few toys anymore, (all left behind), family heirlooms were lost, and worst of all, our health was seriously injured. All because of mold. Mold is a very serious subject that everyone seems to want to sweep under the rug and ignore, but it is not to be ignored, it is very serious and is slowly killing hundreds of thousands of people and most of them don't even know it! Mold causes many diseases, like cancer, arthritis, fybromyalgia, MS, lupus, asthma, interstitial lung disease, and that is only a few, the list is huge. Mold is much more common than people think, and the town we live in (Shelbyville, IN), is FULL of it! There are very few buildings that I go into that are clean, 90% of every house or building I walk into I smell mold of some type. I am so allergic to the stuff after living on the farm, that just a few minutes in a moldy environment and I am sick, either with a headache, unable to breath, severe pains throughout my body, coughing, sneezing, or my face turns lobster red and begins burning and itching. How sick I get all depends on how bad the mold is in the building and how long I spend in it. A few minutes can be mild for me, but an hour or more and I am in misery for days. If I spend more than an hour or so in a moldy building, I can be sick for weeks, even months, all depending on how long I spend in the building. I know I am not alone in my allergy severity, but I also know there are not a lot of us. So far I have met no one with a problem as severe as what my allergy problem is now. The more I am exposed to molds, the worst my allergies get.

I try to inform folks of how dangerous it is when I know they have a problem, but most do not listen to me. I honestly do not believe that it is because they don't care, I think they do not believe that mold can actually make someone that sick. It can though, and worst yet, it has been the cause for many deaths in this country, especially in babies! I cannot begin to tell you how sick I get inside when I go into a house that has mold, tell the owner there is mold somewhere, and a week later a family with young children are moving into that house. I've seen it happen too many times, just in the past year! There is a trailer near my house that I've never been in, but was told by the gentleman working to clean it out, told me there was so much mold in the place, that it was growing up the walls and smelled horrible. He said it was so bad, that the trailer could not be rented out. That was about a month ago, and now someone is living in it. Not only is someone living in it, but there are young children, because today I noticed kids bikes against the side of the trailer. Come on people, WAKE UP!!! You are allowing families to live in conditions not suitable for a rat! I don't get too upset when people don't listen in cases where you cannot see the mold, because they honestly don't know, all they have to go on is some woman telling them she can smell the mold, (I can smell EVERYTHING even what no one else can smell!!!), but in cases where it is growing up the walls, and they rent it out to someone anyway, that makes me so mad. In my honest opinion, if you own a house, and you know for a fact that the house has a serious mold problem, and you allow someone to live in it, then you are premeditating murder of that person, or family. Sorry to be so frank and so cold about it, but I have lived through total hell for almost 4 years now, and watched my family go through way too much to just sit back any longer and keep my mouth shut. I am taking a stand against mold and I WILL one way or another educate as many as I possibly can and do my best to make sure others never have to suffer the pains that I have had to suffer and will most likely suffer until the day I am gone from this earth. Mold is BAD, mold is toxic, mold can and will KILL unless we educate and learn how to live with it. Mold is everywhere, but there are things we can do, simple up keep we can do to our homes, that will help keep it out of our homes. Think about this for a minute, Indiana is a very moldy state, as are many Midwest states, (remember the Histo at SHS a few years back?), we have a lot of moisture here, (mold loves that). Watch a house being built, it is built part way and then rains, and the wood gets wet, it's not allowed to dry out before the workers are back putting up tyvek, and other things over that already wet wood that is going to hold the moisture in. What happens to moist wood that cannot air out? It starts to grow mold! Yep, you got it, that new house starts growing mold before it is even finished! I My husband and I have done a lot of extensive research on molds, and have learned a great deal and we are now working on an easy to understand book that will help educate others on this very dangerous issue. If you would like more information, or want to be informed when the book is complete, you can write us at; PO Box 771, Shelbyville, IN 46176, or you can e-mail us at; admin@thegourdreserve.com

Our hope is to help others to not have to go through the pain and loss that our family and many other families have gone through. If we can save one life by sharing our experience and knowledge, then it will all be worth it.
Carmella Dunkin