Daniel Adams (right) poses for a picture with his wife, Sara, and son, Richie, outside their home in House Springs, MO. The Adams won the 4-month mortgage giveaway at the Dec. 27 game vs. San Jose.

Several weeks ago, Daniel Adams had to decide whether to make his house payment or pay the gas bill.

Of course, without the house, he wouldn’t need gas, so he paid his mortgage and bought a few cheap electric heaters to keep himself and his family warm until his next paycheck arrived.

But thanks to the Blues Fan Bailout Plan, he’ll be able to pay his gas bill just fine, at least for the next four months.

“It’s such a relief just to not have to worry about making that huge (house) payment,” Adams said Sunday, just one day after winning four months of mortgage assistance from the Blues. “Our house is the largest payment we have. We’ve had to sacrifice a lot of things to make our house payment. No satellite TV, no cell phone, no internet. We just do what we’ve got to do.”

Adams received tickets to Saturday’s game vs. San Jose as a holiday gift from his wife’s employer, who has season tickets on the glass. As an added bonus, Adams and his wife, Sara, were shocked to learn that they had won the Fannie and Freddie Mortgage giveaway, which will be awarded to one lucky fan at every remaining Saturday home game this season.

“I’ve never won anything before in my life other than maybe a couple of scratch off tickets,” Adams said. “My hopes (for winning) weren’t that high. It’s always usually somebody else. I told my wife, ‘you know, it would be really nice if we won, because we can really use it.’”

Adams has worked in construction for 14 years and has spent the last eight years with Dave Kolb Grating, a company based in St. Charles. With the economy struggling, it’s been hard to find steady work. Adams says that the more the economy slows down, the less people want to build.

But at the end of the day, that just means it’s harder for Adams to support his family, which includes his 10-year-old son named Richie.

“We’re a fairly new family and this is our first house we bought together,” Adams said. “We didn’t have much to put down on our house so we have a pretty high house payment.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to make week-to-week,” he added. “It’s been bad, It’s been one of the worst years I can remember in a long time. It’s hard to even make a budget when you don’t know what you’re going to make week-to-week. One week, I might work 40 hours, the next week I may not make anything.”

The Adams still live in their first house, located in House Springs. They say their home is exactly the one they’ve always wanted and is located in a neighborhood full of good friends.

“It’s a real small, tight neighborhood,” Adams said. “We would hate to have to give the place up. That’s why it’s so important to us to keep trudging on and do everything we can to make that payment.”

Thanks to the Blues, it’s taken care of.