Tausha was expecting to dramatically change her money habits but she was thrown for a loop when her counselor pulled up the shredder and asked if she was ready to cut up her credit cards. “WHAT?” she exclaimed. Her credit cards had become an unsustainable means of survival. Tausha was determined to throw away that crutch, take charge of her life, and get on the right track for the sake of her two young children.
She had already come so very far. In late 2006, Tausha was abusing drugs and her parents had taken over the care of her four-year old son, Zachary. She was living in a tent on the side of the road when she learned that she was pregnant with her daughter. “That was a gift that was given to me to stay clean. I knew in my heart that nobody could take care of my daughter as well as me.” A public health nurse helped her sign up for health care and get into transitional housing along with her son.
But shortly after her daughter Jayden’s birth it became evident that something was terribly wrong with the infant’s health. “The doctors kept giving different diagnoses. I would read every book there was about one and then they would come up with another.” Finally, it was determined that Jayden had osteogenesis imperfecta--“brittle bone disease”--a hereditary genetic bone disorder that meant the child’s bones could fracture even from being carried. Through all her daughter’s hospitalizations and the ordinary stresses of parenthood, Tausha kept herself and her family together. “She’s my miracle. I wouldn’t know where I would be today if I didn’t have her to take care of.”
In 2009, Tausha enrolled in the Housing Authority’s Family Self-Sufficiency Program, completed a bookkeeping certificate at Clover Park Technical College and started working. She signed up for an Individual Development Account (IDA) with Associated Ministries and began saving to buy a home for her family. “The IDA gave me a structure for saving. It was the first time I had put my tax refund into savings as a working parent. I had always been chasing my tail with saving, because the temptation to take it out and spend it was greater, so the match money for my deposits was an incentive that kept me in the mode of saving.”
Tausha took the leap, shredded her credit cards, and managed just fine without them. “My debt is completely paid off and I’m keeping two cards with a zero balance, just to keep my credit score up. In fact, my credit limit has been increasing every year even though I only use the cards a few times and pay them off right away.”
Tausha participates in a “Success Team”—regular meetings with other women who are working on similar challenges and goals. “They’re people who want what’s best for you. I surround myself by people who have what I want, with goals I want to achieve, too. We encourage each other’s goals and check in monthly—that helps to push forward. I want to show the doubters that I can push past what I was like six years ago.”
She’s working full time as a parent advocate at A Common Voice, helping parents who have children with mental and behavioral issues. “A friend encouraged me to get a job doing this kind of work because I’ve done it so well for myself and my own children. It’s my passion.”
Tausha achieved her goal of homeownership this past February and the family is excited to live in their new three-bedroom home. “When I tell my story it’s still so surreal. I picture myself six years ago, dreaming of all the things I could only hope to accomplish someday. Now looking at my beautiful home and the admiration for me reflected in my children’s eyes and smiles, I know that all this hard work was worth it!”
