My Mom, my sisters and my nephews in the newly gutted house

This is a once-in-a-lifetime appeal for your generosity for my family in their time of need.

Specifically, this is an appeal on behalf of my mother (Sun), my sister (Alexsa) and her two boys (Drake and Aiden, both under 2), and my three younger adopted sisters (Valerie, Salyn, and Janae), who have all lost their home.

Until 2 weeks ago they all lived in my family home where I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As you may have heard, my town has undergone a massive natural disaster in the form of unprecedented flooding. The Cedar River crested on June 13th at nearly 32 feet, 12 feet higher than the previous record set in 1929. My family had only a few hours to grab the essentials before having to flee their home, and they are only a few of the 24,000 people who eventually fled their homes.

Like most people in the area, my mother does not have flood insurance (not required for her mortgage because our house is not actually in a flood zone) and the very idea of her home being flooded was completely and totally unimaginable to her. Watching the water continue to rise to the second floor of our house was surreal; seeing the state of the house after the water receded was completely shocking and nearly unbelievable. The entire house was full of mud and trash. A boat was stuck on the top of our garage. Hardly anything from the first floor is salvageable

For those of you that know me and my family you will know I come from a very modest and unusual background. For my most of my life my mom has made a living through the simple yet essential activities of providing daycare from our home and bringing foster children into our home for medium-term care. In essence, she is a caretaker, a mother. Without a functional home of her own, it will be impossible for her to continue to make a livelihood as she has known.

My mother is the most generous, selfless, caring, maternal, warm and loving person I have ever known. She is also extremely resourceful, resilient and strong, and I know she will make it through this, no matter what.

If you would like to help her, I would be forever grateful.

Please click here for details on how to donate.

(Please forward to anyone you know who may be interested in helping. Thank you.)

The flood - our house in red (click to enlarge)

Alexsa & Baby Aiden in our old kitchen

Our refridgerator, freezer, washer, dryer, out in front for colleciton

Des Moines Resgister - Before & After

CNN broadcast - Martial Law in Cedar Rapids