Even just sitting on her couch talking about her financial situation, Michelle Szczerbiak can feel her breath turn into a raspy wheeze.

Asthma, emphysema and other health problems have kept her from working in the last few years, she said, putting a financial strain on her family while she waits to see if she qualifies for disability benefits.

"It's a struggling battle," she said. "It's just rough."

Since the summer, her husband, Joe, has worked in the produce department at a grocery store. While his income has helped the family, it has also been offset by a reduction in public assistance benefits.

"I don't really believe in taking money from the government," said Mrs. Szczerbiak, 33, of Stowe. "But if we weren't getting the food stamps, I don't know how we would do it, I really don't."

With Christmas around the corner, Mrs. Szczerbiak says she is facing the choice of either buying presents for her children or paying her heat and water bills.

She'll have to explain to her daughter that Santa will not be bringing her a $150 Hannah Montana dollhouse. Still, she'd like to be able to give Bratz dolls or art supplies to 5-year-old Elizabeth, who loves to draw, and GeoTrax toys and Transformers figures to her 4-year-old son, Joey Jr.

Mrs. Szczerbiak also hopes to give gifts to her 14-year-old son from a previous marriage.

"Christmas morning at your own home, you want to wake up as a child and see some presents under the tree, but that's bills that aren't going to get paid," she said.

Mrs. Szczerbiak said that her lung problems make it difficult for her to clean. Her living room is scattered with clothes and toys, and pictures of the children hang on the walls, as well as a detailed line drawing that Mrs. Szczerbiak did of an old Mustang.

A self-described tomboy, Mrs. Szczerbiak said that she can't go back to the work she did in auto body shops before she had Elizabeth and Joey Jr. -- the dust and fumes irritate her lungs.

The family receives financial help from Mr. Szczerbiak's grandmother, but also has bills from sending Elizabeth to a nearby Catholic school.

Someday, Mrs. Szczerbiak would love to go back to school to get a degree in fashion merchandising to start her own sportswear business.

Her husband has an associate's degree in business from Community College of Allegheny County but hasn't been able to find a job better than Foodland, she said.

"At this point, we're willing to relocate anywhere in the United States," she said, "if we find something that's going to pay OK."

This Christmas, the Szczerbiak family will get a boost from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Goodfellows Toy Fund, whose mission is to ensure that needy children have Christmas toys.

Goodfellows works with the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program and numerous local agencies to distribute toys to thousands of needy children across Western Pennsylvania.

With the economy struggling, the need this year will be greater than ever. Please help this worthy effort.

You can make a tax-deductible contribution to Goodfellows by using the coupon on this page or online at www.post-gazette.com/goodfellows.

Every donation will be acknowledged in the newspaper.

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