We are Jesse and Erin James and we just celebrated our 10th Anniversary. We are a blended family with six children between us. We have two dogs who are training to be service animals. Calypso who is a two year old English Cream Golden Retriever, and Grim who is a 6 ½ month old Chinese Shar Pei. 

Jesse is an Aircraft Maintenance Technician at Southern Utah University, and also taking classes to help elevate his career. 

This past year, and has been especially difficult for us financially. We have had to deal with health issues for just about everyone in the family, we have had major car issues within the last year, which has us literally scraping the bottom of the barrel. We have been trying to stay afloat, but the past 6-8 months we have been inundated with medical bills.  We really don‘t feel comfortable asking people for help, because honestly it Is an uncomfortable position to be in. Truly, we would rather be the one giving aide, than ask for it.  But we have been forced to ask repeatedly. 

A little information on why we are setting up this fundraiser is honestly because we are literally drowning in medical debt.  Jesse, because of health problems has been to the emergency room four times beginning in November, has had surgery on his wrist to correct a tendon tear, and possibly has to get it redone. This makes it difficult for him to do his job effectively because movement 9/10 causes excruciating pain, especially twisting wrenches. Our 18 year old son also went to the ER in September due to severe bronchitis and walking pneumonia. Our 17 year old daughter needs surgery on her foot due to a large ball shaped cyst on the sole of her foot, which makes it extremely painful to walk. Our 14 year old daughter desperately needs braces due to teeth never growing in, or the ones that did grow, grew in the wrong direction. I need to get a lot of dental work done, to make it so I can eat without pain. I also have numerous health issues, along with debilitating pain that makes movement difficult. 
 

Our Shar Pei has to have surgery on his eyes so he can see (he has what is called Entropion, which is where the upper and lower eyelids fold inward, making it extremely difficult to open his eyes and keep them open.) He mostly navigates by sound. He was born with too small nasal passages, and also needs to get them widened so he can breathe. 

I (Erin) feel like every time we seem to make headway on anything, we get knocked back 100 yards and have to start over again. Right now I am trying To finish school so I will be able to get a better job down the road, so I am not working at the moment because the course load is too much for me too juggle with a job. 

We are asking for Good Samaritans to please help if you can. Again we know a lot of people are having financial difficulties with our current economy, it’s hard for everyone.  I know the goal is a lofty one, but with all of the ER visits, and surgeries we will be faced with this year, that is how much we will need to get those paid for. 
Thank you for any help you can give.  

Thank you in advance. Please share this to others. 
 

Thank you again,

Jesse and Erin