You have every reason to believe that another day will make something happen because as long as you keep trying, it will. I speak from experience exactly as yours. We lost EVERYTHING. I sold my wedding band to buy a birthday gift for my teenage son at the time. Everyday you wake up hoping that today will be the day that the phone will ring and you will be able to begin to rebuild your life, and every night you go to sleep thinking that tomorrow will be better. You get up and you keep going because all you have left is the effort and the belief that some day it will get better, and guess what, it does.

I know you don't believe that, and I don't blame you. The exhaustion can be overwhelming sometimes. That's why I added to my signature the quote from Winston Churchill - If you're going through hell, keep going. - As long as you don't stop, you WILL come out on the other side.

I don't know about you, but for my family, there was no unemployment or food stamps or TANF or anything except the local food bank occasionally and the kindness of strangers. The people in our lives who were more in a position to help turned their backs on us. It was easier for them to believe that we had somehow caused our business to fail than it was to believe that sometimes bad stuff happens to good people. If they believe the latter, then that means it can happen to them, too, and I think it terrified them, not that it excuses their behavior. Amazingly, we got a lot of love and support (and food, etc.) from strangers and neighbors than the people who supposedly love us.

My husband and I both have technical backgrounds, and for almost a year, the only work we could find was at a discount department store - he as loss prevention, and me as a cashier until FINALLY, FINALLY, one day the phone finally rang with a job offer for him that he could live with. Granted, it pays a third of what we once made as business owners, but at least we can feed ourselves and keep a roof over our heads.

I still hold out hope that some day something even better will come along, but as Stephen King says, "The world has moved on since then" and we know we got left behind in the dust....and you know what? We're actually okay with that now, three years later, because we no longer play by anyone else's rules but our own. I worked in a drug store for a while so we could buy another car. We paid cash for it, royally pissing off the finance guy at the car dealership. Apparently when you pay cash, they have to file a lot of paperwork with the IRS. Boo-effing-hoo!

Everything has changed so much now, and like it or not, we have to find our own ways of survival. You will find it. Just because it's not staring you in the face right now doesn't mean it's not there, you just haven't found it yet. As long as you don't give up, it will happen for you as it did for us.

The upside to all of this? Our lives are SO much simpler now, and we spend a lot more quality time together. We don't have all that 'stuff' we used to think was so important.

I know how hard it is pounding the pavement day after day after day, but believe me, it will pay off in the end.

Bless you and I wish you the best!

WW