Reliable Transportation for Our Children

My family and I are asking for help with a reliable second vehicle. I currently drive a 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid with approximately 197,000 miles, and thankfully it is still getting me to work. However, it is our only vehicle, and our entire family depends on it.

Our household consists of my wife, our four-year-old son, and our infant daughter. My wife stays home with our daughter because we believe it is important for our children, especially while our daughter is still an infant, to have their mother with them. She previously worked, but we made the difficult decision for her to leave her job so she could care for our daughter rather than place her in full-time childcare.

I currently work two jobs. During the week, I work as a paraprofessional from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and I work at Walmart several evenings a week, usually from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., with one evening from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. My first job is approximately 30–45 minutes from home depending on traffic and can sometimes take close to an hour. My second job is about 20 minutes away.

Because I am the only person with a vehicle, when I leave for work, my wife and children are left without transportation. This has become especially difficult because our daughter needs weekly physical therapy. Our son also needs to attend daycare, and we are currently trying to find an affordable option that fits within our limited income. We are also exploring whether a government program may be able to help with the cost of childcare.

A second vehicle would give my family something we currently don't have: independence. My wife would be able to take our daughter to physical therapy and take our son to daycare without having to work around my schedule. She would also be able to take the children to their regular appointments, run necessary errands, or simply leave the house with them when she needs a break. Caring for a four-year-old and an infant alone for long periods can be overwhelming, and having transportation would take a tremendous amount of stress off of her.

We are not asking because our current car has completely stopped working. It has been dependable for us, and we are grateful for that. But with nearly 200,000 miles on it, we know that major repairs could eventually become necessary, especially because it is a hybrid. If something serious happened to the vehicle, our family would be in an extremely difficult situation because we have very little savings and no other transportation.

We have been working hard to build a stable life in the United States. My wife and I met in China, where we started our family, and we eventually moved to the United States after she received her green card in late 2023. The transition has not been easy. Finding stable employment has been difficult, and for the first year and a half we lived with family and later lived in a family's basement. Living in a basement with our young son was challenging, although we remain very grateful to the people who helped us during that time.

This year, we were finally able to move into our own apartment. We are proud of how far our family has come, but our affordable rent still takes more than 30% of our household income. We also have outstanding medical bills, including approximately $2,000 from an emergency room visit for me and approximately $400 in medical expenses for my wife, along with other smaller medical bills. We are working and doing our best to meet our responsibilities, but there simply isn't enough room in our budget to take on a car payment without putting our family further into debt.

I am working two jobs because I want to provide for my wife and children and continue building a better future for them. We aren't looking for a luxury vehicle. We would be incredibly grateful for a safe, dependable vehicle that could help our family get where we need to go.

A second vehicle would mean much more to us than simply having another car. It would mean that my daughter could reliably get to her weekly physical therapy. It would mean that my son could attend daycare more consistently. It would mean that my wife wouldn't be stranded at home with two young children while I am working. And it would give our family a little more stability, independence, and peace of mind.

We are doing everything we can to move our family forward. A reliable vehicle would give us the opportunity to do that without taking on debt we cannot afford. More than anything, it would be a hand up for a family that is working hard to build a stable life for our children.