Now that some things - not all things - are starting to settle a bit, I thought it would be good to take some time and give a little post on what's been up with Squad Lead Shadda and her trusty 2IC Kesa. Unfortunately I still don't have the internet (possibly even computer setup anymore) to play Planetside 2, probably for another month or four. Some of you may have already moved on to other things and that is fine, but I thought it would be nice to let you know that I didn't just drop off the face of the gaming world on a whim.

Late November 2016, about a week before Thanksgiving, we got told by a friend that there was someone in our area that was in an abusive home situation. They were finally willing to leave so I went down and picked them up. At the time almost all the nearby shelters for domestic abuse were full and could not take anyone. When asked, my family of origin outright refused to allow us to bring her to our house for just a few days while we straightened things out and looked for more shelters. So instead I put her up at a hotel and spent time running back and forth from my work place, home and the hotel with Kesa.

After a week goes by and still no openings Kesa and I decided we probably should find a longer temporary situation. Half a week later, in returning to our house to pick up some supplies we found it locked tighter then it had ever been in the 3 years we had been living there. Thankfully we had keys and were able to let ourselves in. Of course soon after that the family came home.

I'm not going to go into details about what happened, a lot happened that night. Bottom line, tl;dr though is that evening we got our keys to the house - which we had been living and helping to put money and time into and had been told was our home too many many times - taken away and the door closed in our face.

That winter, 2016 going into year 2017 was one of the coldest I have known.

We managed to find an RV and get it plunked down in an RV lot that did not require income to be magically 3-4x higher than the rent. We took the person who we helped out of the abusive situation with us and spent the next four months struggling to keep our feet under us and our water lines from freezing. It was hard to look for services or other places that would be better equipped to help this person. With only a shaky WiFi to work with and no safe place to set up my awesome PC, I found a close friend who could use it and really go places with it, even if it was 5+ years old. I'm down to a laptop and smartphone. Which, while I can't play huge games on, I have still been able to enjoy and use to keep Kesa and myself sane with.

After about four months with us, the person who we had been trying our best to take care of became more and more difficult towards us and started becoming downright abusive themselves when we started laying down rules for everyone's safety, well-being and just general health. They were then able to find a in-house program that had room to take them in and left for that and are now making their own decisions.

Kesa and myself are still surviving, and despite a finally failing car (goodness that thing really is older than me and has been used so hard), we are surviving way better than we should be. We still have a lot of rough spots ahead of us to go through, but we'll outlast those storms and come out with some amazing stories afterwards.

I have not forgotten Merry Havoc Squad. Not a week goes by when I don't laugh on how I got Warlock to join the Outfit. Or Aimee making interesting landing spots, AngelsCries freaking out over my driving and then freaking out over the fact that I survived. Or how eight of you piled into my Sunderer when I announced I was driving off a cliff. You'd think I was selling tickets to an amusement ride or something. :)

I know several in the Merry Havoc Squad are not Christians, but I also know you know (or at least suspect) my faith. I could not have made it this far without my faith in Christ and the real "coincidences" that Jesus Christ has made line up for us, one after the other after the other. I also could not have made it without the constant uplifting encouragement of all my Christian friends that I have made online, specifically many of those in the Christian Crew Gaming. You guys have been more of a family then I ever thought a family could be, with everything you've done. My family of origin are practically strangers now by comparison - and that was before they closed the door on us! Many of you in the squad are my Squadies who are like random cousins and nephews, heh. :)

Kesa and I may not be playing Planetside 2 anymore but we are now more often on the internets then we were 3ish months ago. If you have questions or just want to chat, send us a steam message! We love to hear from you guys and k ow that you are still alive (k, Warlock? Aimee?)

Remember; play hard, laugh even harder, cause havoc and always tear that hand brake out.