It’s just good to see good being done. This thread had made me feel better than anything I’ve done for ages.
:eek: Where do you live? (You don’t have to tell.) I’m paying close to 700 a month for a basement bachelor apartment three blocks from the sewage-treatment plant. (Okay, it’s otherwise a pretty decent neighbourhood, and it’s twenty minutes’ walk from the beach, but still.)
Rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania (Outside of Johnstown PA) We poor folks down this way. And I mean that compared to the average. Which makes this so the much harder to say thanks. It was such a sum that I shook when I seen it, shook and trembled, shook.
RyJae, the image of your kids enjoying the trampoline makes me very happy.
Please remember that the idea of “paying it forward” is not necessarily monetary, not necessarily immediate, and doesn’t need to be a sacrifice. Someday do something nice for someone, and you don’t need to spend a cent.
Cash sent via Paypal. It’s from the gmfphoenix account. So how much we up to?
RyJae, as I said before once you are back on solid ground financially then you can start paying it forward. Get the money back from the bank, and get everything sorted out, then pay it forward.
As far as the trampoline goes, if it helps your daughter, my vote is not only yes, but hell yes. One suggestion is look at the various models on the market, and make sure you get one that will last. It makes no sense to save $50 if it wears out in 6 months.
Everyone, I will get back to my PayPal account tonight and total everything up.
That is why I did not tell you the amount before I sent it. I was afraid that you might be shocked to the point that you would say no.
That and I wanted it to be Christmas in June at your house. Christmas presents should be a surprise. 
Hi Sold welcome to the boards. I hope you will stick around.
No one is asking you to contribute if you cannot afford it. There is no “Did you contribute to a doper in need” litmus test here. You don’t have to contribute to be part of the cool crowd here.
To be part of the in crowd here, all you have to do is pay the membership fee (after your 30 days are up*) and not be a jerk. There are a few other rules, but those are the biggies.
If in the future you get better off and want to help someone else get there, that’s cool. If you don’t wish to, that is also cool.
What you have accomplished for my family is more than my previous pessimistic outlook would’ve allowed. Since I left my previous job (A lot of out of town work, couldn’t be away from my daughter when she needed us all) a while back, I knew I would be taking a pay cut. No big deal, and still isn’t we where good customers with our payments. Not living “great” but enough to eat, a roof and a house we can call home.
This just showed me how one misstep, one large unexpected, screw job, we where away from living in our cars. As much as I’m looking back now, thinking how I laid in bed imagining just that since last week. Every time I was about to doze off, jumping awake in a cold sweat knowing in my mind that if the bank didn’t sort this out quick enough, we’d be in so deep as to never recover.
Now I’m looking back at this last week, and realizing that there are people that don’t have a “Rick” who persuaded me, and started this whole thing, to pull them off the brink. And that makes me sad, I cannot financially give anything to those less fortunate right now, but I’m good with my hands, and willing to work at about anything. So I took some time and contacted Somerset County HFH (Habitat For Humanity) a few minutes before I started this. It may not seem like much, but my outlook on not just my life, but the life, and direction I want our family to move in has been defined.
Dopers, no matter how much we all “PIT” one another, how much we “GD” one another, we really are a family, a home, a place to console one another, to hold one another. No matter how virtual, those words, the simple and not so simple acts of greatness resonate through out this place. You not only made us see the bond, you have quite literally changed us. Thank you again, for everything.
RyJae, the word “profound” springs to mind in your reaction. I’m happy to have been a part of it.
Dude, don’t mention it. Family covers for each other.
Exactly.
Seconded.
Rick, thanks for handling all of the administrative work. Seriously, we couldn’t have done it without you.
RyJae, I now know how you got your username. Take care of your wife and your precious ones. I’ll echo the sentiment of previous posters: get everything back on track first. Then when the opportunity presents itself, pay it forward.
tdn, thanks for saying what I couldn’t put into words.
I’m kinda late to the party, because my stoopid kidneys have been giving me fits (well, not fits; stones and infection is more like it) for almost a week now. But I sent my donation before I read that enough had been raised, so there. 
Hey, RyJae, you and me are practically neighbors! We’ll have to, like, hang out some time or something!
RyJae as someone who contributed, after telling us about what your area is like, I have to say when you have the means to help someone out in your community. I don’t know if any of us were expecting to get the money we sent back but I know I would want someone else to be helped down the line. Only by helping others can we make this world a better place.
This thread makes me happy about being a member of the SDMB.
I hope everything falls into place nicely for you and your family in the coming days, RyJae.
Rick, it was real good of you to get this done. Thanks.
I’m thrilled that you got what you needed and then some. More important than the money is the knowledge that people really do care. I was the recipient of an outpouring like that a few years back and I know the exact feeling you described. Amazing. I was more than happy to pay it forward.
Most feel-good thread evah IMHO! A wise ex-girlfriend once told me, ‘Everyone you meet in life is just doing the best they know how’…sometimes that rings a bit true. At times, circumstances nail each of us. All luck and good times to you and yours.
/back to lurk-mode.
"We don’t want to spend your contributions on a “wasteful” item but its something she does love, and we wanted to get her for so long and well this may give us the chance. "
I wanted to say this too: I personally feel that you should keep whatever money is given and use it on your family. Pay it forward doesn’t mean you get things straight with the bank then drop a big donation somewhere. It means when you see a situation like this, you help with what you can at the time. That’s what most people here probably did. Use the money on your family and enjoy it, have a dinner out for Pete’s sake. There’s no guilt here, no feeling bad. Enjoy what’s leftover after the needs and relax. Exhale.
God DAMN these allergies. Can’t effing see straight with the runny eyes and runny nose.
:::HONK:::
mkay, better now.
I’m honored to be part of this board.
RyJae, get your daughter that trampoline when you can swing it. As a parent with a kid who’s got a bit of the same issues you’re dealing with, anything you can do to make her life a little better is A-OK with me!
If we’re all family, does that make you my half-uncle or first cousin once removed?