Help Us Stay Together

**On the 16th of this past April Jessica Byrnes did me the honor of becoming a one Mrs. Jessica O'Brien.  It was a small backyard ceremony with a few close friends to witness.  We couldn't afford to involve all the friends and family we'd have liked to just yet, but for what it was, it was beautiful.

You see, Jess is an Australian working in Canada and I'm an American who calls Los Angeles home. Since we met, we've frequently traveled back and forth between Los Angeles and Vancouver on visitor visas to be with one another. We knew right from the get-go that we were the Ones for each other and that we'd marry.

After thoroughly researching all the arduous options for her US immigration, we came to the conclusion the only realistic way we'd ever be able to start our life together in the same country and be able to both work was to marry.  Which we we're going to do anyhow. Neither of us earn a ton of money at the present and as such we both have to be able to work to afford having a place of our own. So we had a small ceremony and got married so we could start the immigration process.  And just be married; we love each other very much after all.

Immigration won't be cheap and once we can afford to start the process will still take a substantial yet indeterminate amount of time and money. As in, on a scale from 5 months to a, "you-are-dealing-with-a-government institution," amount of time and a "who knows what fees we'll come up with along the process" amount of money. It's hard for us to stay financially solvent under these conditions and any extra money coming in would go a long way towards getting us through these hurdles and building the foundation on which we could finally have the means to start constructing the rest of our lives together without burning up years in immigration nonsense.

Once Jess has her permanent resident status, we'll move back to LA and find a place together. The more padding the better for this part, while we settle and find work. An extra bonus would be finding a place with a garage space as we both know our ways around a wood shop. It so happens that my amazing father regrettably passed away a few years back now and left me a lifetime's accumulation of tools and the knowledge to put them to use. They however are in storage in New Jersey and I've yet to afford freighting the substantial weight of tools out or having a suitable space for a shop. Jess and I plan to create all manner of things together to supplement our incomes with the hopes of creating a business for ourselves as a basis to pursue our wants and dreams.  Plus, we both like making things, have some great ideas about what to make and we think it would be a great thing to be able to do together.

I'm really not the type to reach out and ask for help, especially in terms of money [neither is Jess], but to get us past this immigration limbo and be able to get my wife and I living in the same country so we can truly start our thing would definitely be the exception.  And insanely appreciated. The first thousand *should* cover the immigration, and the rest will help us get back to our friends and family whom we miss dearly in LA and start a business together. And with it, a measure of our own freedom to build upon.

Thank you so much from the both of us for taking the time to read this.  If you can help us out, words would never be enough to thank you guys for this one. 

- Mike and Jess**