Y'all are so invested in my sister and her new truck and I am so happy about it so I want to tell you a little bit about it while I drink my coffee. If you're new here, my sister Lesley got pregnant when she was 12. I got pregnant when I was 14. So we had a very crazy life. And also she has given me permission to share all of this. She is very open about her testimony and her story and I love that about her because she wants her story to help other people. Same with me. She also battled drug addiction for many, many years of her life. It's been hard. It's been really hard and when you grow up a certain way and you think that that's normal, it's really hard to get out of that lifestyle. So she has literally clawed her way to where she is. And I'm so proud of her. A lot of you want to know how she took care of her child. That's really hard to answer. She was able to keep her child. I don't know how. I was able to keep my child either because we didn't even have a house at the time. We kept our kids. The father to Leslie's baby was also a minor himself. So they were just two kids. His mom did step in and help a lot and ended up helping raise the baby. Leslie also had people along the way that were angels that saw a girl that needed help and helped Leslie and could help them. But still, she struggled with addiction on and off. She was able to go to free rehab and she got clean for the first time in years. After she got out, she was able to get her daughter, get custody of her daughter. But then she relapsed again. She's been sober for 8 years now. Her daughter's grown and her daughter is actually a mom. So her daughter is 23 years old. Leslie's a grandma. Leslie works at a boat factory and it's really, really hard work. She has a criminal record. So it was hard for her to find a job when she got out of rehab initially. And she also had no work experience. But she got a job at Subway, which she excelled there because she is such a hard worker and she's a fast learner and she was able to become manager at Subway, which I was so proud of her. She was living with us at that time. And she eventually moved out and got her own place. So now she's been working at this boat factory for over 8 years. And she doesn't have a vehicle. I just decided I'm going to get her a vehicle one way or another. I don't have the money to buy her vehicle, but God has given me opportunities and people on the internet that are so generous and giving and I said, we're going to have an auction. And with the help of many of my friends, we decided to have an auction and we sold a whole bunch of my stuff out of my house. I was going through my house, grabbing stuff off the shelves, grabbing stuff out of my kitchen, out of my pantry. I sold a bunch of stuff in my house and we made about $6,000. I did spend about $1,000 on stuff for that auction. It was on what not. And she also bought a printer, a label maker, bubble wrap, shipping tape, labels, all kinds of stuff. And I also bought some items to sell because I wanted to have some more expensive items to sell. Also, I got some P-Rex and Corningware and some of those really nice vintage items. And so the show did really well. We decided to start looking for a truck for her because she lives on a really sandy dirt road. She doesn't want anything super nice. She's not trying to get a Lamborghini or anything. But we wanted to get her something reliable. And optimally, a truck would be the best fit for her because her road is so sandy and when it rains, it gets washed out. And I think a car might bottom out also because I have definitely very closely to getting stuck on her road. So we started looking and we're looking for vehicles that were about $5,000. And I couldn't find anything. I mean, it's really hard to find a reliable vehicle in the economy for $5,000. So I said, alright, we're going to have another sale. And whatever money we make, profit, after all the stuff that we bought, we're going to get her a vehicle. And whatever's left over will go towards insurance because even though she works every day, she works her butt off. She gets up at 3:30, 5:00 AM. She has bills, rent, electricity, phone bill, child care. So she doesn't have any money left over at the end of the day. So she was worried about insurance. She's like, well, if I get a vehicle, how am I going to pay for insurance? I'm going to have to get a night job. Like I'm going to have to go back to Subway. So we had another sale. And we raised $2,000. We got the truck for $6,000. And I'm getting her a quote for insurance. And then we will do all that fun stuff. So hopefully we'll have enough money to pay for at least six months of insurance. I'm so excited. I can't wait. I can't tell everybody how thankful I am for being on this journey with us. It's been really fun too. And it's given me and Leslie an excuse to have to spend a lot of time together because we're both so busy. Sometimes we'll just get distracted with our jobs and our lives and we don't see each other. So it's been really fun too. Spend so much time with her. I have more what not sales. The other ones won't be charities. But I want to start selling stuff because I love vintage stuff and I think that it's so fun and maybe Leslie can do them with me. And it can be like a little bit of supplemental income for her. So, anyway, gotta go. I just wanted to let you know all the details and all the tea. And say thank you. I love you guys. And this space has been such a blessing.
