Hello all! I wanted to start this by saying thank you so much for being here; even just interacting with the post itself means the world to us.

As many of you know, Ben and I have had a pretty tumultuous year, or well, few years. It all culminated with me being unexpectedly laid off with only 2 days' notice last April, and due to the confusing nature of everything regarding that, I found myself with absolutely zero income for around 3-ish months: no severance, no unemployment. Finding a new job took half a year, and by that point, we have just been playing this never-ending game of catch-up.

We have recently been given a chance to move apartments, which would be incredible for a number of reasons - there are NO stairs, which is a huge deal for Ben and his back, as not having to climb up and down is going to do wonders for him and maintaining his recovery (he had spinal fusion surgery 10 years ago, with a secondary injury to the same in 2021 which ultimately ended his 15-year career with Best Buy). It's cheaper, which will help us continue to fix our finances.

The biggest pro to this move, however, will be for our mental sanity, as our current situation is quite chaotic in terms of neighbors. This move will give us very, very needed peace during a time where life has decided to throw pretty much everything it possibly can toward us. Between my lethal medical issues culminating in a surgery to save my life, Ben's chronic pain and attempt at navigating the broken disability system, traversing the health issues of our wonderful almost 21-year-old cat, and trying to stay afloat financially through all of this, I think we both deserve this chance at a respite.

This money will go toward leaving this apartment and moving into the new one. We need to hire movers for our big items (like our couch that was brought in through the 2nd-floor porch window...), supplies, even just gas to and from each apartment while we get everything settled. This would help us close the door on a chapter I think both of us will be overjoyed to leave behind and set us up to a bright future as we move forward.

Thank you again for any help, whether through donating or even just sharing this GoFundMe. We appreciate and love all of you!