Then Eli collapsed from exhaustion. At urgent care, with nothing left to give, we both broke — and mended. We remembered we were a team.

I widened my job search and landed a remote admin role — not my dream job, but a lifeline. With my first paycheck, we bought real groceries. Eli cried in the car. We replaced the solar lights with real lamps.Dinner that night was more than a meal. It was proof: We were still standing. Still loving. Still choosing each other, one hard day at a time.