2011 around the Holidays our budget was tight, my husband and I were both in Real Estate, he was my Broker and had moved from our home office to a fancy office a few months earlier in the hopes of generating us some much needed business. It was a chance he had to take and unfortunately it did not generate us any leads or business and the Real Estate bubble was not the only one that had burst….our savings bubble was on the verge of popping too!

We have two small children, at that time they were 3 and 1 year old, I did not have the extra cash or the desire to put them in daycare and get my old desk job back. In fact, I could not have thought of a more miserable way for me to spend my day, me the girl who since the age of 3 when asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” answered emphatically, every time ‘A MOMMY!’

I turned to something I truly LOVE doing and that was baking, I felt that if I did something I truly loved I could support my family. I started with a generations old recipe for Baklava, the same pastry my Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother and many, many, Diab women before me had made. I quickly expanded into making gourmet brownies, chocolates and various other baked goods as I received more and more inquiries from friends and friends of friends. The first month I did not make enough to even cover my car payment but the next month was better and the next better than the last and every month a little better than the last….

In the process of, set up and acquisition of quality organic and non gmo ingredients I was building a steady customer base, but also falling far behind on the household bills, months and months behind. I called each utility company, credit card, cell phone, car loan servicer and home loan servicer and made arrangements to pay small portions of what I owe, just enough to avoid complete shut off of our services. I gave my fancy car back to the bank, cancelled Satellite TV, Satellite Radio, and all Vacations were off. Home is where the heart is and that is where we were going to be for a while.
The kids had no idea we ran out of money. I watched them day after day playing, laughing, singing and enjoying each moment with what we did have, which was still A LOT! They taught me so much, I don’t miss the things I let go of, I embrace me new old car that gets me from point A to point B and back and has air and heat, I am grateful for every moment I can be with my children for we all know how fast time slips past and I have no regrets about not returning to a desk job. I was confident that one day Sweet Box Treats would be able to sustain us all, my goal each month was not to beat anyone else but myself, just do better than you did last month Nisreen, I kept telling myself I could and I did.

Support from my friends and family and others in the community who had heard about me was AMAZING!! There were some non-supportive messages received along the way, I only mention that to let you know there are always those who will try to rain on your parade or think you should do things differently….I ignored them and kept on doing what I was doing, making quality treats with LOVE and spreading the good food word.

At the end of March 2012 the weekend of my Son’s 4th Birthday I started a Facebook Fan Page and it’s been growing every day, almost 2,400 fans as of today! Encouragement in the form of Likes, Sharing, Orders and even Donations came pouring in not just from my friends or fellow residents of the Verde Valley but from other cities, then other states and even internationally!

This last December I by myself completed 58 orders in a two week time period, I baked many party trays of various goodies, made almost 50 dozen chocolates, over 85 jars of salted caramel sauce and hot fudge and 20lbs of Peanut Brittle! Looking back, it was a lot of work but it didn’t feel like a lot of work at the time.

After New Year’s Day had passed I had some down time to reflect and write this post to share with you all. I want to say THANK YOU so much for a terrific end to 2012 as I am now caught up on all of our household bills, it’s a great feeling and I couldn’t have done it without you.

Your support allows me to be the actively involved Mother, the Wife, the Realtor, the Baker, the Candy Maker, the Negotiator and more!!

I move into 2013 ready for continued success, exploring avenues for private funding to expand my business license, obtain more efficient equipment, perhaps a tiny boutique style storefront to showcase my Organic Chocolates and Pastries, and grab a freshly brewed cup of Coffee or Tea. On the wall of my modest space it will read:

“Everyone deserves to feel they are supported.
Everyone deserves the strength to mute the voices of their critics.
Everyone deserves to relish in the sound of laughing children.
Everyone deserves to indulge in a decadent treat.
Everyone deserves quality ingredients.
Everyone deserves LOVE.
Welcome, I’m so glad that you’re here.Taste the Love!”

xoxoxo
Nisreen Diab-Hawley

Please visit me at: www.facebook.com/sweetboxtreats and keep tabs on what’s new!
Email questions/orders to: MyFoodieUniverse@gmail.com
Donate to the further expansion of Sweet Box Treats: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UY25GG797Y72N

Late in 2007 my husband and I were just getting used to the fact that a baby would be joining us in a few months! We were driving to his cousin’s house for dinner, we were a bit early so we went to look at the model homes in that subdivision and of course we loved them! The developer was offering all kinds of incentives to purchase and a Wells Fargo loan officer asked us all of 5 questions and printed out an approval letter on the spot. We left with a stack of paperwork and we thought it over and decided to go for it. A huge step up from our little 1,000 sq ft fixer upper but this was the home were we would raise our children and it had a magnificent cabinet filled, light filled kitchen which certainly was icing on the cake

Fast forward to 2012…..2 kids later, the housing market had crashed and was still steadily declining, the home we owed $355,000 on was now worth $160,000. I became a WAHM and my husband closed his business and took on another job, we, like many could not afford a $355,000 home any more. We could’ve bought a home identical to ours down the street for $160,000, this would have been ideal. I discussed this with Wells Fargo Home Preservation Specialists to no avail, it was like talking to a tape recorder on repeat, why could I not find a human with the ability to comprehend the fact that if they foreclosed on our home the most they could sell it for would be $160,000?  Why not save themselves the hassle and rewrite our note? The real reason it’s hard for people to modify is that the bank who pretends to own your loan often doesn’t even own it anymore. Read this…http://mortgagecomplianceinvestigators.com/education-resources/should-i-modify

After 2 failed modification attempts, lost paperwork, a Home preservationists who quit and left our file in limbo with no one to return my calls, I received a Trustee Sale Notice. Panic set in….Then I saw a post by my friend Bradley via Facebook, he worked for an organization that assisted homeowners who were in similar situations. A Not for Profit organization called “Real Estate Settlement Resources”, I sent him an email at bradley@re-sr.org, explaining my situation and telling him I had gotten all the way to the office of the President at Wells Fargo, which by the way if you need to reach him, his fax # is  866 278 1179. Very nice guy but I still did not receive a principal reduction because the final decision is up to FNMA!

Bradley checked our loan and confirmed Fannie Mae claimed to own the note, we checked County Records online and found NO assignment of our note to FNMA had been recorded, so now what? We talked on the phone for about an hour or so and he told me to write a letter or call the Trustee and he gave me very specific things to say and write including reference to a court case Ibanez v. Wells Fargo in which the MA Supreme Court Ruled the Trustee wrongfully foreclosed on Ibanez because the Chain of Title had been broken.

See Chart > http://www.scribd.com/doc/108619689/MCI-s-RMBS-non-MERS-Do-Did-Flowchart

Filled with a renewed sense of hope and an arsenal of UCC articles and Court Cases and State Specific Statues to quote I wrote a letter, faxed it to the Trustee, Wells Fargo (Office of the President) and FNMA headquarters in Washington D.C. The next day I called to follow up and make sure all parties received my letter, it was like the Three Stooges….Wells Fargo “We can’t do anything until we talk with FNMA”, The Trustee “We can’t do anything until we hear from Wells Fargo.” then finally I snapped and said the magic words to the Trustee “Excuse me but what does the loan servicer have to do with Chain of Title? You have a fiduciary duty to ME, the homeowner to make sure Chain of Title was not broken, if you do not I will contest the sale and file a motion for wrongful foreclosure against your firm.” At this point the heavens opened up and sunshine lit up the kitchen, the gentleman on the other end of the phone put me on hold and came back 3 minutes later saying “Yes you are correct, we can’t proceed with the sale of your property.” they postponed the date for 90 days to research the Chain of Title.

2 days later a representative from FNMA directly called me to apologize for my run around with Wells Fargo and promised to work with me on a principal reduction or agreeable modification solution, he gave me a toll free number to reach their Mortgage Help Center directly and bypass Wells Fargo 866 442 8574 .

Amazing what a difference it makes when the person on the other end of the phone knows you mean business and knows they may not have the right to take your home because in their haste to buy and sell paper they did not follow the legal procedure. Now they want to help me and hopefully if you or anyone you know is going through something similar you will contact Bradley (bradley@re-sr.org) and get some resolution.

RESR works with Mortgage Compliance Investigators and uses its products. MCI is a licensed Private Investigation firm, has an A-rating with the BBB and has created reports used successfully in 33 states and counting, and is the ONLY “auditing company” that can PROVE where GSE loans (Fannie/Freddie/Ginnie) are located.Check out the Educational Resources Tab on the MCI website for more helpful information and this link for updated charts that illustrate Chain of Title http://www.scribd.com/MCInvestigators.

Now I can breathe a sigh of relief and get back to doing what I love, making some Sweet Box Treats for you!