Hello, my name is Carol Oehlschlager. I have a 12 yr old and we live in this little house I purchased in 1999. My daughter's dad and I were together 14 yrs and always worked low-paying jobs and struggled to make ends meet. In 2024 he left, we do not know where he is, and have not received any child support. There is no bitterness and I understand his struggles are real so have not pursued him for money. He is a good person and if he had any extra I know he would give us some. Four years after I had my daughter, I was diagnosed with postpartum cardiomyopathy. I am blessed by being able to manage it with medication. Four years after that, I finally realized what I wanted to be when I grew up and returned to complete my undergraduate degree ( I had dropped out in 1988) majoring in social work. I told myself that I was not going to stop until I got my Master's degree with a goal of becoming a therapist. I graduated with my Master's in Social Work in May of 2024 from USM with a 3.954 GPA. I took my LMSW-cc exam 6 months later, obtained a wonderful and good-paying job 6 months after that, and am loving every aspect of my life. I wanted to pull my family out of poverty with a plan to pay down the mortgage on my house (I currently owe only 32k), fix it up (we have never had enough money to make needed repairs), and then sell the house and move closer to Portland, which is where I lived for 10 years when I first arrived in Maine from Pittsburgh, PA (Go Steelers!) 32 years ago. I was an Uber Driver in Portland for 7 years and still love Portland. Will I ever make it back to Portland? It remains to be seen. I want to be upright and honest about my intentions going into this since this was my initial plan. My credit is not great but is not the worst either. I thought I could get a home equity loan to make the repairs which could possibly run up to 75k or more, it is hard to know at this point. I need my roof replaced, electrical work done, new windows, plumbing, carpentry work, flooring, and possibly even more. My heat stopped working in February coincidentally when temps hit -17, and my pipes burst. A plumbing and heating company came in 4 days later, had things up and running in about 5 days, and just a few days ago sent me a bill for 5600.00. My employer is generously paying 1K of it for me. I have accumulated some credit card debt living off of credit cards until I got my job. Saturday I went into the bank and found out that my home would not pass the appraisal needed to get the loan. I am devastated and desperate and asking for your help. I put my goal as 20k for my LFEBridge but can always raise or lower it accordingly. I have come this far and held on to this house for this long and cannot afford to pay the high cost of rent, security deposits and other money needed to move to a rental. My daughter is happy in school here, has made some truly amazing friends and just would like to stay 2 more years before moving on to our next exciting adventure in my journey of helping people care for their mental health so that they too can achieve their dreams. Thank you for listening and donating if you feel compelled to do so. If you do not, I hope I can count on your positive energy being sent my way.
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