Help us get the fresh start we desperately need

Hi, for those who don't know me, my name is Lindsay. My husband's name is Stephen, and we have a super cool 2-and-a-half-year-old named Declan.

We're a multiply disabled interfaith/Jewish family living in Nashville, Tennessee. Stephen works remotely, full time as a newsroom editor, and I'm an immigrant, a stay-at-home-mom, a musician, and a disability/LGBTQIA+ advocate. I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, POTS, chronic migraines, and I'm ADHD/Autistic. That, and my son also being autistic, drive a lot of my disability activism. But, as you know, can also add some extra expenses and complications to life.

And basically, life has become really expensive and difficult here in Tennessee. In fact, we need to get out of our current apartment - our lease is ending and our landlord wants us out to renovate, and due to Nashville's housing boom, likely rent it out at close to twice the cost. Even the least expensive two-bedrooms in the city would be $200 more than we're paying, which we can't manage right now.

We need some help to move to a more affordable and progressive place. To get to a better place, both proverbially and practically, and build a better life.

We've been dealt bad hand after bad hand, and with both losing a car (in an accident) and losing our housing, things have gotten increasingly hard. We need to move somewhere by November 30th, and we've picked Moorhead, Minnesota (across the state line from Fargo, ND.) Though we need help with the immediate expenses of such a big move, it will make our life much more affordable and easier in the long run.

The expenses we're trying to cover:

More of our story and why we need help:

I immigrated from Toronto to Nashville 4 years ago, to marry Stephen. I was getting priced out of the Toronto area, and with me being a musician and him originally hailing from Northwest Tennessee, it made a ton of sense. Not only that, but I dreamed of living here from a young age.

We've had some great times together - I'm so fortunate to have married my soulmate, and we welcomed our son, Declan, in November of 2020. But unfortunately, we've had a lot of unforseen struggles as well. As most Nashvillians know, the cost of living has gone way up here in recent years. Add onto that a global pandemic, and the fact that I cannot work in the US until I file my final adjustment of status (which costs $1225), we've just been struggling along already.

Then in the months of August and September, we've just dealt with one thing after another. In mid-August, we were on our way to Walmart when we got in a pretty serious 5-car accident on I-40. Though Stephen was driving very responsibly, we got in a bad collision and though we miraculously were all okay (especially Declan, since he was still in a rear facing car seat), our car was totaled and given our other struggles, we've been without a vehicle ever since. Though we try to take transit when we can, anyone who's lived here will tell you that system isn't great, and we've had to take on a lot of costs in terms of just ubering to appointments and therapies. We have multiple disabilities between the three of us, and Declan was recently diagnosed with autism, so making sure he doesn't lose access to speech therapy and OT (which he is thriving in) is a must.

And now we're losing our housing. We got the news a little over a week ago. It was nothing we did, but with the Nashville housing boom (that Stephen and I happened to kind of sneak in just before), our lease is ending and they want to renovate our place, likely to rent it out at a much higher cost than before. With me being unable to work at all until I can shell out $1225 at once for my final green card fee, we were already struggling to make ends meet on Stephen's salary alone. But nothing is nearly as inexpensive as our current place is, even with our rent having gone up over the years, which makes life in general feel very difficult here. Let alone affording a car payment, which sounds near impossible under such circumstances.

Luckily Stephen's job is remote. Though it doesn't allow him to work in every state, it allows him to work in several states, one of which is Minnesota. After finding out we could save up to $250 a month by getting a (much nicer than what we have now) 2-bedroom apartment in Moorhead, MN, as well as getting expanded medicaid for Declan (which further saves around $180 a month), we decided to set our sights on there. That money would allow us to once again afford a vehicle, save up for my green card, and generally get back on our feet. It seems like a wonderful place to live, with people speaking very highly of the schools there and therapies and services for neurodivergent kids. Not only that, but it's a far more progressive state than Tennessee (does not ban abortion, and protects its LGBTQIA+ residents), and this gives us a lot of hope. Especially for Declan. Not only do I want to be easily be able to afford everything he needs and a lot of what he wants (which he has now, but we're very stretched), but I want him to grow up in an environment that I feel is positive and accepting of him.

It sounds amazing and I feel so relieved thinking about it. But, as you know, even with such significant long term savings, moving long distance is very expensive in the short term. We have to leave our current house regardless, so some of these expenses would happen no matter what, but even with all the positives of a long distance move, it's got some serious expenses in the short term. So we're asking that, if you can, and feel moved to do so, to help us get this "hand up" to live a better life.

Any little bit helps. Seriously. If we do raise in excess of what we need for moving costs, it will be put in savings to go towards my final adjustment of status, so I too can make income for our family.

Thank y'all so much!

--Lindsay