I came from nothing in Ohio.  I had teen parents, nothing to my name, and started life by doing good in school and loving my people.  I worked my way up in the world one crap job at a time.  I swept floors, cleaned kitchens, cooked, served, ran, ducked, jumped, all of it.  I eventually worked up to be noticed in a small company and earned a general managment position.  The pay was small, but the experience was great.  However- the industry died nearly overnight- it was a movie rental shop and while I lasted to be in the last 3 stores nationwide, crime in the low income area I was in took a toll and ultimately my store closed after bullets came through the store front window.  I was left with my thumb in the wind, again.  The man I married, bless him, stuck with me.  We had 2 kids at this point, and we both were working just to make ends meet.  His parents were good, but not in a position to do much more than provide us a home to get back on our feet again. So we took the home and the kindness and started again. At 30 with 2 kids and again nothing to show for all my work...  I couldn't take my kids out on trips, I couldn't pay for summer camps, or even school washington DC trips...but i worked and he did too to give them a home, food, education, and the means to have more than we did.  Now I am 36...My whole life I always wanted to see my country.  Enjoy the emense amount of different landscapes and enviroments, mix of cultures, wonderful foods...I always said I've got to cross that river.  I have gone to the smokies, I have seen the southern beaches, but all as a child on someone elses plans, never just been where I wanted to go.  Especially as an adult. We camp often for my kids to get weekend vacations, they are 10 and 16 now. It's fun and cheap, but not new, special, or something different.  We've gone to weddings in other states, but never just packed up for our own travels to where we want to go. Never experienced the difference in cities, never seen snother landscape outside of Appilacia.  I am very open minded and free spirited, and stuck in Ohio.  The confines of my living place are starting to wear me down.  I want to cross that river and fullfill my dream, even if it's only just on the other side- I want to show my kids to do what your heart tells you to do.... but the reality of paying for that could cost them more than me.  I am not selfish, I can not charge my kids daily lives at the cost of my dreams.  I can only hope that a good hearted person would maybe care, and with a little research be able to see my story is genuine, and much more tragic ad unfourtunent than I care to tell.  I hope someone would care that these kids see this fullfillment and use the inspiration to take what little I give and make the most of it, so they don't loose faith in the world of possibilities; so they can go further reach higher and have more.  In a mild sense of selfishness- I really want to show myself the other side of that river, to take the breath of air that says "I did it"  it doesnt matter how... I just know theres so much more that my heart and head would find having made it, just being somewhere different, assuring it exists. I want to find whatever is calling me beyond this limbo I'm in, find whatever my heart is sayin is out there... I'm open, willing and listening, I just need to get to where I can see it clearly, see from the other side.  To look back at what I came from and really appreciate where I can go next.

I hope this finds you well and whether or not I am chosen for you to help, I hope your day is truely grand. The world is beautiful, you are too. Thank you for reading. 

Love and Light,

Ashley.