America Deserves A Raise

I first want to say I don’t consider my story a pity story. A single mother is not something to pity. A single mother has strength, conviction, courage, and love. My story is not about being a single mother…it’s about what I have survived up to this point that has made me a hard working single mother. Let me prepare you first that what I am about to share is mind-boggling at the least, but very real.

Less than 10 years ago, I was a victim of domestic violence while pregnant with my first child and married to a man that I later found out to be still married to another women (mind-boggling, right?). After hiding from him for months so that I could carry my child to full term, I was finally able to receive an annulment from the marriage just a year after our wedding. For another year after that, I worked two full time jobs to support her until I met and married again. It was when we planned to leave the state that the legal battles began for custody. Hours of work went to pay the numerous legal bills since then. The strain of the constant battles have brought me back to single parenthood, this time with two children. To many, this just seems like bad luck or bad choices. Either way, it’s where I am. It’s what I do with where I am that shows I deserve a raise.

Despite the stumbles and back-peddling I have faced, I am still moving forward. I find temporary work whenever and wherever I can. In my community, I spend countless hours leading Girl Scouts as a volunteer Service Unit Manager and Troop Leader for (now) three troop levels. I intern for the local domestic violence shelter throughout the week so that I can use the experience to further my education, which I am pursuing online (half way to my degree all ready). I am highly involved in the education of my children and both of their schools. And I am still a mother first. A mother who with every job rejection letter, email and phone call (over 80 rejections so far) tells my children that it is because God has something better for us ahead. I have been a single parent, unemployed and still working for my community in other ways in order to continue to be a survivor. A survivor works hard everyday, in an office and in life. By winning this, I would be able to purchase a decent vehicle so I could have reliable transportation for a job. I have had the same vehicle for years, and it’s now 20 years old and reaching its last miles. Currently, their is a loud clunking noise when I turn, the passenger window won’t go down and a slow oil leak. As this vehicle breaks down, so does the ability to find steady work and provide for my children.