by Kun Lyna Chan Tauch (Kay)
I remember the day I surprised my girlfriend with an apartment.
At the time, she didn’t know I had been working behind the scenes to make it happen. I wanted to give her something that meant more to me than just a place to live. I wanted to give us a place to begin.
I had no idea then just how much that apartment would come to mean.
I was introduced to Willing2MoveForward during a time in my life when having a little breathing room could make a big difference. They helped me with my rent, and that support gave me something I needed badly: stability.
I had a lot going on. I was rebuilding my life, working, teaching, taking on opportunities, and trying to figure out what the next chapter was supposed to look like. When you have a lot on your plate, something as basic as knowing, “My rent is handled,” can change how you carry everything else.
But what stood out to me about Willing2MoveForward was that their support wasn’t just financial.
They checked on me.
They wanted to know how I was doing. They wanted to know whether I was okay. They didn’t treat me like a bill that needed to be paid. They treated me like a person who was trying to move forward.
And eventually, that was exactly what I did.
They didn’t keep supporting me forever. They gradually weaned me off their assistance and helped me get to the point where I could take that responsibility on myself. Today, my spouse and I have been paying our rent independently for eight months.
That means something to me.
Not because paying rent is some extraordinary accomplishment, but because of what it represents. I went from needing help maintaining housing to being able to maintain it myself. I also walked away with something I didn’t fully appreciate at the time: a rental history that continues to benefit me today.
That is the difference between simply helping someone survive a difficult season and helping someone build a foundation.
Willing2MoveForward helped me get through a chapter without allowing that chapter to become my identity.
And that apartment I surprised my girlfriend with?
She’s my spouse now.
By the time this story is read, we will have welcomed a baby into our lives.
So when I look back at those keys, I don’t just see an apartment anymore. I see the beginning of a family. I see a moment when things started to become a little more stable. I see the kind of future that is easy to take for granted once you’re living it, but wasn’t guaranteed when you were still trying to build it.
That’s why I believe Willing2MoveForward deserves continued funding.
Their impact isn’t limited to the rent they helped pay. The real impact is what that support made possible afterward. It gave me enough stability to keep working, keep building, and eventually take the responsibility back into my own hands.
Sometimes people don’t need someone to fix their entire life. They need someone to help steady the ground underneath them while they figure out how to stand.
Willing2MoveForward did that for me.
They helped me move forward until I could do it on my own.
And now I’m standing on that foundation with my spouse, preparing to raise a child in the home that started with a surprise and a set of keys.
For me, that’s what their investment looks like.
Not dependence. Not charity without an ending. A bridge to something better.