DLANA
As I mentioned on the Home page, my name is Dlana. I just turned 30 and I’m a single mother of two wonderful girls. We don’t have a permanent place to call home.
Some time ago, I gave up my firstborn son for adoption. I was young, going through a period of homelessness, and had no way to care for him. It broke me, but I knew I had to be stronger to take care of any children, and I promised myself I would work towards that goal and do everything in my power to give them the love and stability they deserve.
Fast forward to today. My daughter and I (now two daughters) currently stay a month or so back and forth with my mother and then my newborn daughter’s grandmother (OK, with my boyfriend, but the other sounds better, even if it sounds more confusing). He lives with his mother so it’s really her place
DLANA
KAREN
Eight years ago while I was back living with my mother in her apartment I had a wonderful little girl who I named Karen. This addition has been an absolute joy since the day she was born. She’s outgoing, energetic and fearless, but starved for attention from friends or a consistent father figure. Although she sees her father from time to time, he has his own issues and I have sole custody. Karen celebrated her eighth birthday in July and it was marked with both blessings and challenges which I’ll share later in this story.
FREYA
In June of 2025, I gave birth to my second daughter who I named Freya Lilith, giving Freya her father’s last name. No, we’re not married, and he is not Karen’s father. William and I have known each other and been in love for eight years, but we both have so many issues it does not make sense at this point to take that step. Hopefully there is a more permanent future in store for us, we’ll have to see. Freya was born a month early and I was not expecting nor prepared for that timing. Still living with my mother, I needed things for the new baby like bottles, diapers and a crib.
So, I reached out to my friends and a few neighbors I both knew, and new ones I discovered on a social media app called Nextdoor. There I met a couple who have become good friends and mentors, as well as sort-of adopted father and mother figures to me and grandparent figures to Karen and Freya.
Mr. & Mrs.
Karen calls them Mr. and Mrs. and clings to Mr. for affection on the very few times he’s physically been around. They have asked to remain anonymous as far as this website is concerned and I will honor their request.
They have helped our little family so much over the past few months, but they are retired, both collect Social Security and are on a fixed income. It was Mrs. that suggested creating GoFundMe project and Mr. that said we needed a website to go with it.
None of us knew anything about doing that sort of thing, but after getting further advice we were able to get help creating, building, launching and promoting the sites. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. and thank you to the team for your caring suggestions and hard work to make this dream a reality.
It really is quite something. We have so little, but we have a website!
We continue to trade text messages several times a week with Mr., occasionally multiple times a day. They first bought some things for the baby like bottles and diapers from Amazon and had them shipped. Mr. asked for a friend’s address to have them shipped because he didn’t want to ask a single woman her address over the internet – how sweet, respectful and old-fashioned is that?
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Later, after a week or so, he bought a bassinet and other things from local garage sales and needed to deliver them. That day was the first time we met. He asked to meet my mother as well, but brought up and acknowledged that it was too soon for the one-month pre-maturely born infant to be out meeting people.
I remember him texting something funny so I went and looked it up. He texted:
I would appreciate meeting your mother. I’d like her to be somewhat comfortable with this strange man helping you. I acknowledge it’s a little out of the norm. “Mom, there’s this older man who contacted me over the internet who’s buying me things.” Even I would tell you to be careful!
We have since developed a close relationship. They have provided needed items like food, medicine, funds and once a ride when I needed to get prescriptions filled. They have even paid our cell phone bill when it was turned off, as I attempted to juggle a minimum budget with another person in the family.
Karen’s Birthday
My older daughter’s birthday was anything but normal. We attempted to have a small outdoor summer party at the park inviting a few of her friends.
However, two days before her birthday after spending a rare week with her father, she returned with head lice. We had to cancel the party. Ugh! What an ordeal that was. If you’ve ever gone through that you know and have my sympathy, if not consider yourself blessed. Yet as I’ve learned, it happens occasionally to grade-school kids. At least it’s fairly easy to eradicate with the proper medicated shampoo. Or so we thought.
I had just come home from giving birth and neither my mother nor I own a car. After telling Mr., he immediately drove to the store, bought the shampoo and delivered it to us. As you can see in a couple of photos, Karen has beautiful, long curly honey-blond hair. My mother and I used the Nix shampoo to treat her hair – twice over several hours.
Unfortunately, it ended up being an extreme case and more than our efforts could fix. The infestation got worse and we were forced to make the heart-breaking decision to shave Karen’s beautiful hair completely. I’ve never cried so hard having to make her endure this. But she understood no one was to blame, this wasn’t something someone did on purpose. And she didn’t want her new baby sister to get lice from her. This is why in some more recent photos you’ll see she has such short hair. She had planned to get a shorter haircut because the summer heat was making it uncomfortable. But we didn’t plan that extreme of a haircut!
I knew from reading the Nix bottle that it shouldn’t be used on an infant, so we washed Freya’s hair with baby shampoo and carefully checked her hair several times a day for the next week. I’m so glad to be able to tell you that in this at least we were successful and Freya never contracted the lice.
One tragedy endured, and one mercifully avoided.
Despite this, with Mr. and Mrs. around what they consider new grandkids, Karen said she had the best birthday ever. What a blessing to have a daughter that sees the good in her life and doesn’t focus on her problems. I’m learning how to be a better person from my eight year old daughter.
And no, Mr. and Mrs. didn’t spoil her – too much. They bought her a doll, some drawing and sticker books along with colored pencils and markers. Oh, and later a new booster seat from Amazon.
Homeless?
You could say we’re homeless, although we do have places to stay, just nothing we can consider permanent or even stable. My mother lives on Social Security, has her own health issues, and lives in a government-subsidized apartment. The girls and I essentially couch-surf between my mother’s and Freya’s other grandmother’s apartment 90 miles away. This is tough on Karen as she is enrolled in public school at my mother’s and when we are at her grandmother’s she misses too much school. I’m saddened to think that she might have to retake the second grade from so much missed school, but that’s where we’re at. We don’t own a car. Neither does my mother, boyfriend or her grandmother (his mother).
How We Get By
After Freya was born I began to sufFer from Postpartum Depression. I started seeing a psychologist and am on medication for this which has helped. The PPD combined with a degenerative lower back disc problem – and a newborn makes it nearly impossible to hold any sort of job, even working from home, something I have yet to find. I’ve applied for Social Security disability, but that is a long road. We currently survive on $536 a month in food stamps, and the occasional generosity of a few friends like Mr. and Mrs.
They introduced us (actually Mr. drove 90 miles out and took us) to a new church close to where we’re staying and I finally feel we’re making some new friends. Karen is so starved for attention and outgoing that she approached two different families on that first day – in the parking lot walking to the building before church – asking their kids close to her age if they wanted to be friends.
Afterwards, Mr. took us to lunch and then grocery shopping. He gave me a $100 budget and I took one cart. He and Karen took another cart. He said they had a blast, but it was a challenge keeping Karen to “her” $25 budget, even when insisting on flowers for mom. Freya didn’t get a budget – but he said she was admired by many as she slept in the baby seat while being pushed around by her big sister.
We need a stable place to live as I care for my girls and get Freya to her first birthday. Mr. and Mrs. have paid to have this website and the GoFundMe campaign created to try and raise enough money for an apartment and utilities for one year, along with a used car while I work on my skillset, self-confidence and self-esteem with the goal of being employable in late 2026. I’m so appreciative of their help and guidance, but they can only do so much.
They are in the process of putting a team of people together to help me discover what government programs are available to help. Unfortunately with the cuts being made by the current administration, it’s very probable that government assisted housing (Section 8) might not be available – even after being on the current 26 month waitlist. The team will also help to keep me accountable as I work on my self-confidence and become someone who could hold a job to better provide for all of us.
We can use all the help and prayers we can get. We could really use your help.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know us, thank you for your prayers as we go through this journey, and thank you for your consideration in supporting us financially through GoFundMe.