We are down to just six weeks before we leave! We are so grateful to the people who have donated to our campaign so far!
May has been a very busy month. Each day we’ve been organizing, packing, and making piles of what to donate or sell. We’ve also been doing administrative tasks like researching new apartments, finishing paperwork with our current location, and figuring out the details of flying with two assistive devices and two cats. My license has been updated and is on the way in the mail, and Ryann still needs to make a trip to the DMV to update his. My taxes are done and things are sorted out with the IRS, which is a big relief.
We’re making good progress, but June is going to be even busier as the move date gets closer!
The most pressing need right now is submitting applications for a new apartment. We’ve been looking for places that will become available in mid-July, and there are several good options in the area we’re aiming for. It’s very important that we secure the location as soon as possible so we have a destination. Ryann’s sister is helping out by touring the possibilities and checking for wheelchair accessibility.
As we explained in the last update, we are NOT able to use a moving service, so we are shipping our belongings to another part of the country. This is less expensive than paying someone to move everything, but it is still a significant cost in postage. Our first box has arrived safely, and it was $80 to send.
Not every box is going to weigh exactly the same and some need more insurance than others, so we’re estimating that it’s going to cost about $80-$100 per box. We have twenty boxes, which is really not much when you’re talking about every single belonging of two people, including books.
We’re making vet appointments for the cats so they can be up-to-date on vaccines, get exams to make sure they’re ready for a big trip, and get prescribed medicine to help them tolerate flying. The local vet costs $86 up front, plus $55 for each vaccine. The prescription shouldn’t cost much to fill, but we need to be ready to pay whatever the full cost of each visit is.
We’ve raised $1000 toward our goal! That makes a massive difference. When we received some donations outside of GoFundMe, we reduced the overall goal to account for everything, so it says $661 right now. The first person to add $5 has a chance to get us to a hilarious number…but seriously, anything helps right now.
Thank you so much for your help and support! If you can’t donate, sharing this link helps a lot, too!
We cannot thank you all enough for everything you’ve done for us over the years!
ALSO: If you’d like to buy one of my paintings, they are available here! Ryann made this cool graphic about that below:
