The Cassard family is relocating to the island of Malta!

And to answer your next two questions:

(It's a rock off the coast of Sicily that barely appears on any maps)

Our family is preparing for a big new adventure. Come the new year, we are making the trek to start our lives in a new country. We have spent the past few months selling off the bulk of our possession, and downsizing our lives into 13 bags and a cat carrier. Needless to say, we are excited and nervous about the possibilities ahead of us!

While the Cassard adults are not strangers to selling off their lives and relocating, this is the first time that we are moving our entire family to an entirely different hemisphere. We also know this move is going to present our family with unique opportunities that will enrich our children's lives in ways they can't even comprehend.

WHY A GoFundMe?

We have spent the last few months scrimping and scraping to pull together what we can to support us on the other side while we find a place to live, figure out transportation, and get any essentials we weren't able to pack.

However, life has thrown us a curve ball, and Nicole will not longer have her position in the Special Education department at GRPS. We thought she would be able to stay until the end of the year, but they informed her that was not the case. For our remaining months she has accepted a position in the same building, in the same room, doing the same job, but it's at a third of the pay. Which would be hard enough if we were staying, but is impossible when we were budgeting for something bigger.

That's where you come in. The drop in pay has us $7,000 shy of where we want to be. So it probably goes without saying that we need a bit of support to help us cushion that landing. We know things are hard for everyone right now, and we do not expect people to cover that entire shortfall. But as they always say, every little bit helps. You would be helping our family get to our destination safely, and give us the opportunity to help others who need to do the same.

WHY MALTA?

Human Rights and Protections

(Prime Minister Robert Abela and the leader of the opposition party Alex Borg at THIS year's Pride celebration in the country's capitol)

Malta as a country is open and accepting of LGBTQ people, and as of January they actually have full constitutional protections.

And Malta has a decent sized Autism support community, and legal access to additional learning and job supports. Which has become increasingly more important for our family as time has passed.

We have always prioritized living in a place where we are able to live as our authentic selves. It's why we moved to San Francisco, and it's why we felt comfortable moving back to Grand Rapids when we did. But now, things feel very different. And the tide is turning in a direction that very directly impacts our family and in ways that don't seem like they will change for a long time.

Life opportunities

They have an increasingly robust healthcare system that will provide Kat with career stability and opportunities since they have switched over to working in the medical field in the past year and they absolutely love it.

Nicole is excited to be surrounded by a country whose roots date back to prehistoric humans. Having a long chain of uninterrupted humanity to learn from is a very rare thing to see. She hopes to keep teaching, and help in education in any way she can. She has started putting together Maltese Language tools that she is selling on her Teachers Pay Teachers site.

Malta also had a growing computer gaming development industry. And with Malcolm's dreams of going into game design, giving him access to people to learn and network with is going to be very important.

And Kaylee is obsessed with learning all about people, languages and cultures. It's impossible to think of a more diverse place that sits on the cultural edge of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Family History

Lastly, Kat's grandfather, Thomas Ebejer, was a Maltese citizen and Kat has always hoped since they were little that they would one day get to live there. And now seems to be the right time to return home. We have been working on this project slowly for 5 years. Kat and the kids have their citizenship, and Nicole's is being processed in Malta as we speak. With any luck, by the end of the year the family will be able to travel as full fledged Maltese citizens!

THANK YOU!

Thank you for reading this, thank you for your love, thank you for whatever and however you are able to do to help us. It feels weird reaching out in this way, and we wouldn't do it if we didn't need a major leg-up. Thank you all so much! We appreciate you being in our lives!