 So, hey everybody, if you're live with us hang tight we're getting Elizabeth on we just lost her for a moment and then we'll get started so I know we're live streaming now so hey everybody while you're waiting for everybody to get back on board here. Tell us where you're from in the chat box, let us know where you're listening from. This is going to be a really amazing day interview Dr Jill live episode today. I'm with new friends Emily and Rachel and I'm going to introduce them in just a second. As you know you can find all of the podcast on YouTube or on Stitcher or iTunes or wherever you listen to podcast, please jump in there and listen and review. So more people can hear these episodes. Today, I am so excited to introduce Elizabeth Kripe and Emily Rachel. They're both from Texas and I will introduce them each personally but they founded an organization called Malachi's message. And today we're going to hear all about what they are doing to help mold victims. If you're out there, a lot of my patients colleagues friends, followers have had mold related illness I've become somewhat of a mold expert, due to my own experience. And today we're going to talk to these two beautiful women who are actually doing something for those of you out there who are suffering and maybe need some assistance. And we'll talk all about that today. Let me first introduce both of my guests. First, I have Elizabeth, Elizabeth studied psychology in California. She completed her. Oh, is it California, Texas. That's a city in Texas. Right. No, no, I did my degree in California. Okay, got you. I saw this. Got it. Okay, I saw that like, is there a city in Texas that she completed her credential program in California. She taught junior high high school and continuing high school students for seven years before becoming a stay at home mom, one of the most important things on the planet. Her family moved to Texas for a better life and a new job for her husband and after her second daughter turned one, they moved into an apartment that set her on her mold journey and we're going to hear about that today so stay tuned. Elizabeth and Derek for a short time were homeless and had no savings left to spend. Again, I know so many of you listeners know what that's like they knew after recovering the help of people in the position they had been in was the only option. Elizabeth's life was forever changed when the diagnosis of MCAS PC us and see the act disease after the mold exposure. She's not only co founder of Malachi's message but also serves in the capacity of executive director. So, Elizabeth first of all so happy to have you here and we're going to hear your story so stay tuned up if you're listening. Emily I want to introduce you as well and so excited to have you here to both from Texas she's studied journalism in Austin before she found her passion and helping people build or customize their perfect home. She loves everything about real estate and tell she and her family became victim to their homes toxic environment. Her family suffered greatly and you lost your seconds and Malachi, which is the namesake of the organization Malachi's message. In whom this foundation is in memory of he inspires her to help people the way she wish so much could have helped them. She and her husband Josh since their mold exposure have dedicated their life to helping mold victims through their company Texas mold inspectors in the Houston, Texas area. She's also co founder of Malachi's message and serves on the board in the capacity and board chair. And you guys reached out to me and we'll talk about again even how you connected to me but I was delighted when I saw your fire and your message about what you were doing to help people. There's a couple areas as a doctor that I can't do a whole lot about one is I am not an environmental expert I've, I guess I've become kind of, I know a lot about the technicalities but I can't go in patients house and find the mold and help them treat it I have to rely on other professionals. And the other thing is, I always like literally get a check in my heart when I'm sitting across from patient because as I tell them. I really think there's mold on your home and it's making you sick. I know it's going to cost thousands of dollars either remediation or moving, or some people lose their home. I had, I literally had tears in my eyes when I read the brochure and the things you guys me about Malachi's message, because I know those of you listening have had your own stories and I want to hear both of your stories because so many people are suffering and it's just devastating and so in many ways, emotionally, physically, mentally to relationships. And as, as you know well Emily even loss of life. So, let's start in about, tell me a little bit about both of your stories with mold and how you first kind of encountered this dark toxin. And then we'll talk about Malachi's message. And maybe Elizabeth you want to start first with, with what happened with her. Yeah, I'd love to. My husband was a fabricator in California for about 13 years, and when the drought hit he thought we need to go into something more sustainable so we he got an apprenticeship in Texas as an apprentice linemen to climb power poles and make sure he was left on I just have to clarify a few women have asked me oh you're married to alignment like what football team does he played for. I don't know if you know know if you saw him you would know he's not alignment. And we moved here with like great intent we wanted to build just an incredible life for our kids and we ended up in a studio apartment on an apprentice skill and I had a high risk pregnancy I was on bed rest so I was not able to work at the time. And we a year after living in Texas we found a two bedroom two bath apartment and we thought perfect we had two daughters, the one had turned one the day before we moved into the apartment and we thought this is great. You know, privacy would be amazing. And within December 1 to July night, like we had over, I think over my husband said he counted a week ago and over 200 doctors visits ER visits. We saw neurologist E&Ts. You know, a long myriad like so many people. I was taken by ambulance three times to the emergency room for my throat closing with anaphylaxis and my daughters watched it every time to the point that my youngest would just grab my leg if I went to the store because she was so scared that another I'm going to come and take mommy away. And so we just thought Oh, maybe it's the humidity maybe it's a stress of moving right maybe it's just the stress of a new job and less sleep, you know a new baby she still one she was kind of difficult. And then you know all the symptoms started so my youngest who was starting to talk when we moved into the apartment stopped progressing at all it got to the point that like she stopped making sounds. And she would walk into walls. She actually got kicked out of her daycare because they said she was too much of a liability, because her daycare workers never knew when she was going to fall and she would like gash her head. She would scrape her arm and they said I'm sorry we don't know what's going on. We took her to a pediatrician who sent us to neurologists they said everything is fine. And we're like no something is something's not okay here. My oldest was three at the time, and she was having bloody noses almost daily, like pulling hair I remember in the shower once pulling her hair and I'm going, mommy is this normal to lose my hair. I know this can't be normal and I'm asking doctors right nobody's giving me an answer. And both were hallucinating, both would take like four naps in the middle of the afternoon after sleeping for 12 hours straight through the night. And she, she is advanced for her age, like with speech. And so she actually regressed to the point that she couldn't form a sentence. And she was trying to say like the word cats, and she would start yelling just sounds at us. And we're like baby girl what are you what are you trying to say and she would get so mad because she couldn't understand why we didn't know she was saying there's a cat. Oh, that's a word finding for a three year old finding but that's like a three year old version of it right they can't get because that's exactly it like the brain fog and everything else like she's experiencing it at a young age. My husband and I were very passionate people are very independent but we're very respectful of each other and we were experiencing like mold rage. It's real and we were getting angry and yelling and we're like who what is going on this is not as I was getting debilitating migraines. My OB told me I needed to probably have a full hysterectomy because it couldn't figure out where the pain was coming from I was 35 at the time. It was just, it was not enjoyable to say the least I had hives on my back for months straight right and I'm like, this is not normal like oh my goodness everything's bigger in Texas but nobody told me about all of this. And so we, we talked to our landlord at the apartment, and they said it was just us. I reached my allergist and got my shots, and my throat closed again, and he said, I can't even give this amount to a new board. There's something in your environment, and I thank God for that allergist because I went home told my husband. And that same night my daughter slipped our AC was leaking. And my husband started to go through every event because he goes, your doctor just said it's in our environment, you guys are home more than I am. He's leaking there's got to be something in our ventilation system. So he pulled all the screens off and looked and he's like this is not dust. So we searched online and like read the reviews for inspectors not knowing at the time the difference between like a licensed mold inspector and somebody that is just doing it. And thankfully we got a hold of Texas mold inspectors, and my husband called them and my daughters and I left we came back and Josh was standing out there with my husband, who at the time had just had surgery on both wrists, like due to the exposure to, and he just said well, you want to heal your family you need to leave and not look back. Wow. And at the time I remember my husband was on unpaid leave as an apprentice and we had a total of like $111 in our bank account. We did each other and went well, then we have to leave. And my oldest look to me and like communicated like can I go get my doll inside the apartment and I had to tell her no and that was heartbreaking. And we didn't know like we called family, a good set of friends took us in on their floor that night and my daughters and I flew to California to stay with family, and my husband had physical therapy still so unfortunately the next four months he slept in his truck. Left on buddy's couches and near Galveston Bay and the buildings are older and they had a lot of mold so he would leave there and go sleep in his truck. And then he tried to go back to the apartment once or twice but he's like I just couldn't like I could feel it just suffocating me, knowing like this is what tore our family apart I just couldn't be in that place. So we tried to pursue legal action. And we found out there are some corrupt lawyers unfortunately, we lost that battle, which was not great. But we tried right like I have to say we kept trying, we kept fighting. And we eventually found a doctor in California we found one that we thought was helpful. And it turned out it wasn't 20 grand later, we found a second doctor that I call her my unicorn like she is amazing and she like right away found our toxins she worked on my gut she didn't detox us super hard. She was the one that I actually diagnosed my mass elevation syndrome. And I mean I have to say thank you to you at this point too though I know we talked before a little bit but while I was searching and doctors were telling me, there's nothing else wrong with me and I was looking at mass elevation syndrome I remember looking at some of the stuff you would put out there and going. Okay I'm not crazy. I said there's actually somebody out here saying this is real then I it gave me the boost to like keep going and keep fighting and keep trying to find somebody that would listen to my story. And that was huge because you know it's still going through brain fog and we're five years out now and I'm functioning enough to run Malachi's message but Emily knows we became very fast friends, more like a sister at this point and three years after the flight of stairs, like my body was so inflamed and I used to run five miles a day. So the, you know, it just destroys, it just destroys you and almost your identity right and like reformat who you are and you're trying to look in the mirror and go no I swear this is me still inside. Yeah, thank you sharing there's so many things in your story that I can relate to my patients can relate to and everybody listening and sure who's been through it. The brain fog the relationship issues I'm in the midst of writing my book which is partial memoir and also about environmental toxicity and the same thing. I talk a lot about about how the Olympic system causes dysfunction and ability to express ourselves, even insight into know what's happening and especially communicating with other people. Your experience is not like you have this great relationship like was going on, because the mold affects our ability to communicate and even the emotions are crazy and, and then your daughter with the words that's so classic for many of us word finding and, and then even the five years like I'm six years out and I feel like I'm back to my baseline but it takes so many like I usually tell patients six months minimum, and often 18 months is a very long course. Wow. Emily, do you want to share just a little bit about your journey and like what you know because you had a similar journey and then you guys got to Malachi's message but would you like to tell us a little bit about your journey what happened and how you, and then how you guys connected you Sure. I'll start it before we went into our toxic home I used to be that person that used to think everybody was crazy if they said mold was dangerous. I used to work for home builders and Austin I used to run their communities. And I had this one client who if I had actually looked at anything she had given me I probably probably would not be sitting here today, but I had this one client who went out and talked to me about mold. And we were just about to move and her window had broke during construction and she was so afraid that if it rain water was going to get in it's going to create mold and oh my God so dangerous. I was like, Oh, yeah. You know she was sending all these leads and to look at I was like well it's not that dangerous that's you know that's a weird thought to think I never looked into it. Anyhow, few months later we moved into this town home I quit my job because I wanted to be a stay at home mom to our son Sebastian he was 10 months old at the time. So we moved to Livingston, Texas to take a different opportunity that will allow me to stay at home. And unbeknownst to us we moved into this town home that had all this toxic mold in the wall cavities, the HVAC system on the floors you couldn't see it. Yeah. It's obvious we also couldn't smell it, but it was so toxic and this is where it was a blessing because, unlike a lot of people, you know when the mold starts to grow only one person or two people start to be affected, we were all affected that first week. Wow. Even my dogs were having issues they were potting in the house when we didn't have any issues with them they were scratching at themselves like they were invested with fleas. One of my dogs was gagging and throwing up. The first symptom that I had was my menstrual cycle, just out of the nowhere shifted from a very easy non painful one to extremely painful one very heavy bleeding. I also had terrible GI issues out of nowhere and then I developed this cystic acne all over my back, face and neck and I'm in my 30s. And of course a lot of people are saying it's stress. My son and my husband both developed sinus issues that first month. As we stayed in this environment, my son who was already saying words stop speaking went to grunting and just making noises. The light in his eyes literally went away. It was like nobody was even there. He wouldn't respond to his name. He was tired all the time. He was hitting his head on the walls and the floors he was running into walls. He was walking on his tiptoes. Everything set him off all of a sudden. You couldn't turn the lights on. You couldn't make loud noises. And he developed these symptoms sooner than I did. About six months, seven months in, that's when I started to go really downhill fast. That's when I developed debilitating anxiety out of nowhere. The kind that puts you on the floor you can't control it. Hair loss, dark circles under the eyes, fatigue, joint pain to where you can't even close your hands because it hurts so bad. Breathing issues and of course the doctors couldn't figure out what was going on. My husband who was literally on edge with me because he was like what's going on with my family and my wife more so. I was kind of thinking like maybe I should just start thinking about divorce. But at that time, that's when he decided to stay home with me more to help me. And that's when his exposure level went up. And all of a sudden he started having random nosebleeds, fatigue, he developed terrible GI issues, he developed joint pain to where you could barely stand up in the mornings. And so he knew something was wrong. And so how we figured it out was we left the environment to go visit my brother after 13 months. And that's when we all started to feel better on our way back home. We have like another God, kind of blessing, we got a text message out of nowhere. When I was searching for everything but mold. There's tenants who rented a home from the same landlord but just kind of down the street, texted us to let us know that their son Cody who the doctors were saying may have cystic fibrosis. Didn't, and that it was actually mold exposure. And so we knew right then we have been praying for this little boy and that's why they texted us. And so we knew right then that that was God saying it's mold and so when we got home we tested the town home. And sure enough, we had extremely high levels of stocky botchers to tell me I'm going to ask for Jill is alternate all of them. Very high levels and so we left the town home, and we thought that's when you know our nightmare was over but then we found out the remediation contractor was lying to us the landlord was lying to us even our mold inspector wasn't even properly licensed. And so we ended up taking a left and right. Because of my background and my husband's background he had his own remodeling company we decided to just go to the person who could give us the answers and we found out that we qualify to become a licensed mold consultant, and we didn't plan on getting into the industry we just wanted to get somebody to give us the answers. And so we went, my husband went to this class and while remediation is going on I'm giving them all the details and instructors telling us all the rules laws and regulations that are being broken. And then when he got back, we found out we were expecting our second child. That's when the landlord said everything was perfect. We can go back in. Josh went in. He did his own assessment. And of course we found out it wasn't ready for us to move back in so we, we left, and quickly found out how expensive going through mold can be because we financially got depleted. Yeah. And then we found out that of course we were losing our second son Malachi at 23 weeks because he had developed a terminal birth defect called anisephaly, which is linked to fissure, which has been linked to fissure and mold 31 anisephalic children. He often has had the whole correlation and so in the species that were in my body also correlated what happened was my body stopped absorbing folate, which is what he needed to close his neural tube. Absolutely makes perfect sense. And so, you know, we lost him and your landlords don't have to pay any price for any of this, unfortunately. But when we lost him you know that that really is what solidified our whole destiny in this industry because we knew we now knew the truth about mold and we also knew how corrupt this industry is with contractors and we wanted to go into it and be that honest voice and do everything we could to help people and And then Elizabeth came along. I, you know, it's very lonely when you go through mold nobody really understands and so when I met her she was like my blessing to have a friend, you know, while going through it and how did you meet. No tears. It's okay. It's okay if there's tears like this is the big deal and we all know I mean I'm the same way both of your stories make me to want to tear up and I just want to reach across and hug you both, but to take something that's so tragic and both you went through some your own tragedies and to turn around and try to help people I mean there's no better more beautiful thing that could come out of this. But back to how did you guys meet. I can tell you that because I'll never forget the phone call and it's interesting because I had actually just gone to their apartment complex with my father did the day before because my dad was one apartment. And when we were touring the complex and we were they were taking us through the model apartments, you could see more like in events and I pointed out, and she told me she's like that's not mold that's just stuff I was like, no that's mold. And she didn't she anyway she kind of got mad at me but and the next day her tour. I got a phone call from dare Elizabeth. Elizabeth husband and typically whenever people call me it's usually the mom. It's rarely ever the dad and so I remember when he called and he just he just sounded defeated like they have been through such a nightmare and I don't know what what had happened and I was like yeah, more can cause that and then when we Josh went out there the next day and found that what they were living was extremely toxic environment and so a few months later after that Elizabeth sent me an email and I forgot why but that's how we reconnected and we just started talking and and then her and I both after going through what we went through and honestly seeing everybody else who goes through it on this side and by being in the community, the number one hurdle that keeps people from recovering is the lack of finances. There's nobody there financially to help you there's nobody to give you money to go to, you know, get a hotel. There's nobody there to help you replace your belongings, you know, home insurance doesn't cover that. There's no no health insurance is going to help you go to the proper medical doctors to get the testing the treatment. I just reiterate that because it's so important and you listening out there I know you know this if you've been through but fires, hurricanes, all these kinds of things are typically covered. Mold is not covered and I do believe the insurance has gone to bat and created a state that most companies don't cover because it's so common if they would go bankrupt if they covered all of the mold. And especially with like you guys both had stories as the contractors go more quickly things get built more quickly materials get water damage in construction, and there's so many more things you both probably have more knowledge on this than me but so common. Right, especially the cheapness and now we make things instead of out of like brick and stone and concrete it's more cardboard it's not cardboard but it's like the, you know the porous material like a particle boards and things and drywall that really absorb moisture and can be just a night is for mold or they get damp while they're sitting on the lot, getting ready to be built and they get put in your home, all it takes is a little more moisture and that mobile start to grow. I, I honestly was shocked when we got into this industry because I thought we would be going to more flooded homes, you know, or older homes but our number one client are new homes, and people don't know that. And that's because the builders contract have that arbitration clause that keeps all their lawsuits out of the public. But new homes are actually the number one home that we go into. Wow. So what's your Emily what's your, and then my thought is just because of more quick construction less more like shoddy work and stuff but did you see anything in particular. It's like the materials or the kind of construction or the reasons why we're having so much more trouble with new construction. Yes. Well, first off, they're not all following the building codes. And air infiltration is one of the biggest issues using the wrong route in the showers a lot of times, the builders not checking and the contractor that they hired is using a porous crowd and not a non porous crowds. And so every time they take a shower that water is going right through and right into the wall. And the next is someone's another big one improperly installed or not properly size so those are the three main ones that we find and also the wheat polls on the outside. I can't tell you how many times where builders will put on the wheat polls they don't go all the way through because they forgot to do it. What does that mean tell me more I don't even know about the polls with that part of it. So the wheat polls on the outside of the brick veneer at the bottom that's supposed to allow for moisture to evacuate because the stone or the brick that isn't non porous so when it rains and stuff moisture does get behind that brick. And those we polls are supposed to allow for that moisture to evacuate out properly and not sit inside of those wall cavities. Okay, that makes perfect sense because of course that exterior environment. Wow. So you two met and you had a good hearing your stories like with your children even the regression of language and the relationship issues which I think any of us who've had mold have gone through because we're not ourselves right and we're more for me it was and I literally like I said I was writing about the limbic system which is our fight or flight response. There's a lot of literature on the chemical, a lot of literature is around chemical toxic exposures and mold is no different. And as you mentioned Emily, these mycotoxins people don't realize but they are immunotoxic so they crush our immune systems. They are to write a genetic which causes can cause birth defects as in case they can cause malnutrition malabsorption they can cause mass selectivation, and they can cause neurological brain dysfunction. Dr. Dale Brett is on Alzheimer's and he says about one third of the young younger like 50s and 60s Alzheimer's patients are related to mold to one in three, and he actually said that's probably an underestimate. So even like nuance at dementia, in many cases is mold related. And this doesn't surprise you guys because you have both experienced some of this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I couldn't remember anything when we were in the thick of it. Me too. I was there too and people have heard my story so I don't need to share all that but I interestingly just a little bit about that was I was never, I never thought I would go into mold. I mean, what Dr. even really is taught about that I knew enough about it to know it was real, but my own experience after the boulder floods and my alps got flooded I get severely ill very similar to both of your stories. And I realized, oh my gosh, I have to learn everything I can not only to heal myself but as I started to realize and then after I recovered and you know I've been seeing patients, I started going back to patients and really, you know, asking them the questions and as you well know if you if someone would have just said you have mold in your home before you knew it, everybody's like no I don't have mold in my home. So you have to get creative about well you have you had any water leaks in your dishwasher or your showers or is there ever a musty smell or as a addict invented properly and there's so many questions that get to the heart of this, that people don't realize they have mold or they might have exposures because like both of you said initially it's usually not visible, like we don't see it it's not like there's black growth stuff on the walls it's hidden behind walls, underfloor boards, all kinds of places that we don't think to look and often we don't even smell it now if it gets bad there's a musty smell, but frequently you can be massively affected by mold and have no signs outwardly in your home right, and that's the scary part for you know not knowing. So then, how did Mel okay message come about I know that's after your son who you know passed in that was it 23 weeks he said, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. So he was diagnosed at 23 weeks. And the hospital that we were at, due to their Christian beliefs will not induce me, like other hospitals will have for terminal pregnancy so we carried him to term and he died at 35 weeks so we delivered at 35 weeks. But the way that the name came about for the foundation is when my husband and I before we found out about the birth defect. We were trying to figure out what we were going to name him, and we finally decided on a name Malachi. And so I looked up the meaning of it, and we just found that it was perfect for us at that time in our season because his name biblically is our angel or my message and so we felt that he was like our angel from God, letting us know that everything was going to be okay and that you know he was also the message that that you know we're going to get through this and so for the foundation, we named the foundation honor of hell but we also found that the name was fitting because we hope the foundation serves as an angel of assistance for those that it helps, and also that it gives people a message of hope that they aren't alone and that they can get through this. Oh, you're gonna make me cry again this is so it's so beautiful and then this is why I want to talk to you on here because I want to share your message I want to share what you guys are doing and this is if more people could be like the both of you to take something that was completely tragic in your life and loss and suffering and all kinds of things and then turn it into a blessing other people. That's what our world needs more of. So, so then how did you found the foundation and tell us more about what you guys do with Malachi's message. We started just conversation I think, at that point it was probably more out of rants of you know, this shouldn't be happening to people like our kids should have toys like we used all of our go fund me on medical bills that didn't help. And they kind of started that way and then we both healed enough to think a little bit clear and go, Okay, you know maybe we should actually do something about this. We only took on the legwork originally of all the paperwork and God has cleared with Texas and with the IRS, and in the process we were creating a lot of resources. And at the time we had some other women involved with us and we were kind of at an impasse on which direction should we go should we just go resources or should we go foundation and it was really heavy on my heart that I just wanted to be the hands and feet that helped people. And so at that point I said hey, you, you know would you guys mind voting me in as executive director of Malachi's message of the foundation side because this is really where where I feel like my calling is right now. Like I want to help people and at the time I felt like it was really important for my daughters to see that to see that even though you go through tragedy were big on like failure isn't shame, like it's something that happens it's a part of your journey but you move forward from it. I just wanted them to see that you can make something really beautiful from something really ugly to the point where I think the first children will go into our, how we help people but the first kids that we help my daughter, who the only thing she remembers losing our dolls and so she is a very, very unhealthy attachment to them and we just let her have it at this point. She wanted to actually give some of her stuff ease to the first kid that we were helping and asked if she could mail them to him or if we could go deliver them, because she wanted to make sure no kid went went through what she went through and at that point right I'm just sobbing in the store trying to get gift cards. Yeah, but that that's you know that for me personally that is why I looked at it and Emily and I, we just clicked it was it was bizarre and genuinely like we are best friends we do like together. It's weird we we joke well if we don't talk and it's been three days something's wrong somebody must have died. But we just clicked and we both had the same heart the same passion for being credible and for being above board and for being above approach and making sure we did it the right way. So we worked on it for three years before we went live March of last year is actually when we went live online with Malachi message and it was a three year process of learning and growing and talking to people that have been there before us and really still learning from billier but doing it as co founders together. And so it's been a it's been a fun adventure we decided on eight forms of assistance. And we basically sat down as a team and went, where did we need the most help. And from the people they've talked to because they are in the industry going, Okay, where are you hearing that people need the most need. And we went through we had a very long list. And we went okay that's a little much so we brought it down to eight forms of assistance one is specifically for military and one is specifically for minors. And we said okay let's do this we're not sure how it's going to work or what's going to happen we didn't have investors behind us. We're very grassroots still, and we went live, and by word of mouth we started talking to people, and that's honestly how we're like slowly growing is just our reputation and word of mouth and people going okay, like you're legit, you're actually helping people you're trying to do this the right way. So that is how we started we've been active a year. In the last year we've helped 18 different kids or families in four forms of our assistance. Currently we help with mold assessment reimbursement up to $1,000. We help with toy replacement for minors we send them on shopping sprees with gift cards. And that is a lot of fun we've had multiple bombs call it to be like my kid just cried and went, Mom why would they help us they don't know. Like, you know, like that. Nobody should go through that as a kid you shouldn't have to wonder where your next game board is going to be. We help with clothing replacement furniture replacement. As you all know, again, people probably know this by now but you can lose everything not everybody loses everything but my time. Yeah, it's a very huge loss. It's like it's the same as some of these things right yeah. Except you're all alone because nobody it's not a fine or it's not a hurricane, you literally go through it. Yes. Yeah, my don't understand right that's the worst part because you're like they're like, well, how can that be easier to have cancer and have a fire in your home that it is to have mold because. Yes, I understand. Yeah, so it makes you even like more alone because you can't talk about it I feel like don't understand. Right, right. Yeah, my, my husband Mark. Go ahead. No, my, no, my husband Mark hurricane Harvey here right after and a bunch of guys on his crew knew we had lost up to mold and they just blew it off until they all saw a line of people coming out of housing from a flooded neighborhood with like their kids on their shoulders and one bag of stuff. And one of his buddies looks at him and went man, I'm going to keep it censored the line when he goes man that that's really gotta you know that's got to suck losing everything like that without knowing about it. I mean the cab went silent and like one of them looked at Derek and went, Oh my gosh, that is what you and your family just went through isn't it. Like it doesn't, there's no connection that that does the same thing as a massive hurricane or flood. You're right so sad. You're right it's just in literally in my neighborhood in January, I was actually December 30. We had a really severe welfare come through and about 1000 people in my area lost their homes and it's the same thing I mean it's like obviously this is horrible tragedy and we've been able to, you know, try to escape but it's very similar to that situation where you lose. Yeah. So you guys just went official this year did you say the March of last year. Last year. Okay, yeah. Wow. So I've got it here and anywhere you're listening or watching this I'll put links to Melaka's message. If you're listening. It's Melaka's message.org and that's m a l a c h i s m e s s a g e dot org and at Facebook same thing so I've linked those here where we're live but anywhere you're listening you'll find those. How can people support you guys. Are you a nonprofit. Are you in the process or. Okay, so. Yeah, we were fully certified as a nonprofit before we went live and we're certified in September 2022 through the IRS. So all donations are tax deductible you can donate online or currently right now we have our behind the face fundraiser, going for a toy replacement fund and then any funds over that go towards our mission where you can pick from. I think we have 22 people that have donated their faces so you can purchase a pie and on June. It's fun. Yeah, yeah. Well what else is it that you guys need support with and obviously again I want to get this message out and hopefully that will be a little help but what else. What's your next goals what kinds of things can people support your mission with. Spreading awareness about the foundation. In other words any towards of assistance funds would be very helpful. Especially the military fine I don't know if you've seen the military and what was going on there Dr jail but it's just horrible of what they're having to put through. Have you seen that those conditions, some I've had patients that have come through that and then my daughter's in the army she's a captain so I've heard her stories to have on bases and stuff. But I don't probably know the extent of it is it just really significant what you're finding the housing. I've honestly never seen any, I've never seen more toxic environments than the homes on base. Wow. Wow, and is this all over your finding it. Are just in. Okay. Wow, they're not just dealing with mole but sewage level three water contamination lead asbestos. So, getting them the answers that they need to know if their home is healthy is very important not just for them but I mean there are military those are support that protect our country. And tell us real quickly I want to be real clear about what pieces because you got a couple different parts that the kids and the replacing toys and things and the military. What kind of that parts of the so say we are talking about support and I'm going to come back to that in the end. What about the actual say someone has a need how could they contact you and what kinds of things are you helping out with specifically. They can apply online if they go to our website now because message org and they can click on apply and all of the forms of assistance are listed there and they simply click the apply button, they enter their information and then I review all the applications once week, and we get back to them currently because we're still so young, right we've got big dreams to be all over but right now we are working with Texas residents. And we're doing that intentionally because I looked at it before this interview and we have over $100,000 worth of people on our waitlist right now that have been accepted that are just waiting for assistance a lot of it with medical bills, a lot of it with temporary housing, and they can go there and apply if they also want to donate to specific person we have two people right now more on our waitlist that are joining where they can donate directly to a specific person that's on our waitlist, which is really helpful because if you want to donate to a face and you want to hear their story you can just click on their campaign and donate directly to them, and that those are the main reasons. They're the main ways I guess the other one is our monthly so we have a few people that donate $5 a month. And that's huge for us like for just our morale to like see the monthly donation come in it helps create sustainability and it just makes me smile every every month. Oh, I love that you said. Right. I'm sorry. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly like any anything helps right we're a nonprofit we do this because people care and the people that cared about us to care of us now we want to turn around and help people take care of other people right that's it that's all that literally all we're about to the core we're not doing this for selfish gain in any way shape or form so yeah even $5 a month is a huge help because it goes to help somebody else that just lost everything. I want to put a challenge out there you guys I did not plan on anything like this but as I'm hearing your story I knew that what you were doing was important. And I knew the moment I got the brochure and that Elizabeth you contacted me. I just knew that you two were special and that also that your message and all that you went through like I said I love people who take suffering and tragedy and pain and cruelty and turn it into a way to bless other people because I think that's part of why we're here on this earth, because we all, all of us have lost and suffering not everybody has mold related illness but when we can take something that's tragedy and find purpose and meaning in that not only does it give us us like an excitement about life because we are able to turn that around. And then we can go back to something really tough and say well, that allowed me to get here and to really help you as you can tell I almost get choked up because I'm so passionate about living my life that way to the best of my ability and also, like if I can let people like you and help you out, I am so excited and I love what you're doing. So what I'm going to say publicly live is, I would like to match any donors and I don't know if they can just put my name in the donation so that you guys can tell me what I match, but up to $20,000. I would like to donate up to $20,000 and I'll match anyone who will donate up to that amount I will match. And I'm going to say this publicly I didn't plan on doing it. I would like that for you guys. So, I'll put that out there and then if you're listening here you can just donate malachite message.org is that the best place to go to put a donation in that is actually I'll put a form on our homepage for that specific Perfect, perfect, perfect. So there'll be a form there you can donate. I will match. I've said it live so I'm, I'm scouts on her. But hopefully that'll help you guys make a dent in the in the pile of people that are waiting to get help. I really believe in what you're doing. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, gosh, any last parting words of encouragement people who are going through this or anything else that that we can do to support you both. We have a podcast and we just launched so you can check that out. And we're really big on just reminding people like you're not alone and you're not crazy we both felt that way. I love that. Right. Like, you're not you're not alone you feel it you're not. And so that's that's why we created the podcast, honestly, and just so that people can hear their people's stories too and we love what you're doing I love listening to your stuff. So just spreading awareness and helping us meet your matching goal, my goodness, that would help so many people right now on our wait list. Yeah, I love it. What any other like bits of wisdom that you learned in this that you want to leave like say someone's out there and they're like right in the midst of this and they've you know had a big loss or they're trying to find safe housing. And what would you tell that person, I'd love to hear from both of you Emily and Elizabeth. If they just had a big loss and they're trying to find safe housing. Yeah, I would. I would say, listen to your gut instinct. You know, if you are trying to find safe housing and you go into an environment a lot of us what happens to the ties and literally like we know that we're being exposed again, and unfortunately, this industry doesn't have, you know, a set protocol for the manufacturers to follow. So somebody comes in and says everything safe but you feel that it's not listen to your gut instinct, I feel like that's a God given gift. Use it, and that's trying to tell you, you know, that's not a safe environment, get out or go get another opinion. And then just, you know, don't lose hope. You know, you can recover from this. You may not recover fully but you can recover enough to regain your quality of life back. But I would go be, yeah, I would go the other direction. This is why we work well together very union. I totally believe right let emotions in your body play a huge role they correlate and so I think grief is a big thing for me, and encouraging people to remember to grieve what they've lost, even if it's in little bits and pieces but acknowledge that you've lost something. And that's also going to help your body be able to handle what's coming next and so I'm very big on grief and give if you're doing it with your partner give them space to grieve. My husband in the last year just started that process. And like, remember everybody grieves differently and everybody grieves at different times but it's necessary for your body to heal to be able to actually grieve and walk through the steps of grief. And I love that you said that because so many of us kind of put you down and we suppressed it and we don't really feel it and it comes back in our physical body to cause illness away so that's a really important point to actually let yourself cry let yourself know whatever it is whatever you know for you to let those emotions flow through and somebody they feel overwhelming like they're going to take over, and they won't it's like a way that'll come and it'll go and it'll probably come again and again, but I love that you said that because even for physical health, that's such a core thing. Well, I am so blessed to have time with both of you love what you're doing. So excited to hear more today and to support you and just wish you the very best in all your endeavors thanks for your time today. Thank you doctor. Thank you.