Starting a life together in Norway

Summary: We're getting married and asking for money so we can live together. See below for the long long long version.

I don't have a credit card, and can't support this campaign, but I want to! What do I do?
No worries; you can make a contribution via PayPal right here - Marius will be adding any money coming into that account as offline donations to this campaign, so it will still count.

Who are we? What's our story?
We are a couple - Jennelle from Washington state, USA and Marius from Norway. We met online through shared interests, and even though Marius is already 40 years old (she's not even 30 - score!), we developed a serious crush on eachother after a little while, like a couple of high school kids.

We've both got a fair bit of life experience and know the value of having that special someone in your life who you can share everything with, good or bad... now, after hunting down the cheapest possible flights and traveling halfway across the world a couple of times, we're pretty darn sure we want to make this a permanent thing. After Marius popped the question (and streamed it live for the people of the Internet to see! Madness!), we're finally getting married in September of 2018.

We both like animals, video games, and bacon. She's really into owls, and he pretends to be a mayor while streaming video games. We're kinda cute, I swear.

That's lovely and all that jazz, but what's this fundraiser about?
Well, I was hoping you wouldn't ask. Just trust me on this one, okay?

...no? Fine, that seems fair. Worth a shot, though. Anyway, the thing is as follows: In order for Jennelle to stay in Norway after we get married, we need to fill out some paperwork. The application fee is $1,250. Real talk: We're broke. Marius is on disability, and while Jennelle is currently receiving benefits in the USA, she will have no income at all when she moves to Norway. In order to pay the application fee, we're holding out our hands and waiting to see what falls into them; hopefully, it'll be money, but we'll accept bacon or adorable baby chickens if that's all you have (we really won't, though, as these hands we are holding out are figurative - you can't donate bacon on GoFundMe... yet!)...

Wait, if you need $1,250... why ask for $3,200? I can read and understand numbers, you know!
I know, right? That doesn't make sense. Except, as Jennelle pointed out in her infinite wisdom (can you tell who wrote this yet?), she also needs an estimated six to eight hundred dollars minimum to ship whatever possessions she will be bringing with her. We can only fit so much in our suitcases, and (at least in an ideal world) we would really like her to be able to bring the things she won't be selling or throwing away. We're not just bringing her to Marius's home; we're making this our home, and (like most normal people) she has stuff. Things. Objects. Material possessions.

In addition, we need to have an electrician do a fair bit of work on the house - at the moment, among other things, we can't boil a kettle of water while running the kitchen fan without blowing a fuse. There's a distinct lack of outlets, so there are far too many extension cords and power strips in play. Previous owners of the house appear to have done some uncertified DIY work which has had to go and still needs to be replaced. We're not saying this place is a giant fire hazard (at least not as far as we can tell), but it's something we need done in order to be sure and to have some quality of life (seriously, there's like 4 outlets in the entire living room). We've been planning on saving for this, but with other expenses adding up... well, it's gonna be a while.

Oh, and we also need a new toilet. Don't ask.
...unless you really have to ask. Long story short, the toilet broke and Marius broke it some more while trying to fix it. There was porcelain everywhere, and we now have to use a bucket of water to flush it... It could have happened to anyone, okay!?

So what you're saying is you REALLY just need the $1,250?
That is indeed our most immediate issue. All the other stuff is pretty high on the list too, though. If you want to look at it that way, however (as you are free to do), our main concern is definitely being able to afford the application fee  before we have to turn in the paperwork.

So when is all this due?
We're getting married in Washington on September 12th, and after spending some time there, we will be in Norway at the start of October. We'll need to hand in some paperwork as soon as we're able after that to get the marriage registered and approved locally, and should ideally submit the family immigration application soon thereafter, as processing can take a while. The maximum amount of time Jennelle can stay in Norway without a visa is 90 days, so we must have this sorted before the start of 2019 but really should have it taken care of as soon as possible.

And you have no money to put into this already?
Well, we have some. We've tried to save some, but it's not easy. Marius has been setting aside any funds (subscriptions, tips, etc.) he makes from streaming ( his Twitch channel  - not a shameless plug, honestly! Purely for information purposes) for this goal, and we're currently looking at around $250 there. We've also received $120 as an early wedding present so far, putting us at around $370. Why are we telling you this and still setting the goal so high, you may ask? Because that is all the money we have, and unforeseen things always happen - nothing ever goes the way it's supposed to, right? We all know that if we're being honest. The goal is the total minimum we need for all of the above things to be remotely viable. Can we make do with another $850, pay the application fee for Jennelle to live in Norway, and get by on that? Sort of, yeah. Would that be good? Not so much. If we're going to attempt funding this endavor ourselves, we'll have to burrow ourselves deeper in credit card debt, and that would be flat out terrible (Marius already has about $10,000 in debt in addition to a mortgage, but we're not asking for anyone to cover that here, soooo it could be worse, right? We're not THAT greedy! Right!?).

So you're just gonna beg people for money? I've heard better sob stories - why should I give you anything?
Well, no... or, you know what? Sure. We're begging. Technically, we're laying our lives out for the world to see and asking nicely because we're broke and at least one of us (Marius) has made terrible decisions with money in the past, so we need the help. But yeah, we can go with being beggars. We're realists, and have little to no pride left. Why should YOU specifically give us money? I don't know. Maybe you're a hopeless romantic - or maybe you're a hopeful romantic!? Maybe you have more money than sense. Maybe you feel bad for us, or just like us. You have your reasons to throw money at us or not as you wish, I'm sure.

Actually, maybe you just came here to give us our wedding present; we haven't registered a list anywhere because we don't need china or cutlery, but we do need money.  We basically have all the pots and pans we need in Norway, and bringing more physical things than we already plan on would make no real sense. Anyway, we have no idea how much to expect, and we've been quite transparent with what we need - regardless, we are very grateful for any amount given by anyone, as that's honestly the only thing we really need. So, we made this page and shared the link with family, friends, wedding guests, neighbors, random Internet people who might like us, and that one guy you know from the place over in that town. Speeeaking ooooof:

I... honestly, I just came here to give you your wedding present.
That's wonderful! Thank you so much - we certainly won't stop you. 

Why are there SO MANY WORDS here?
Because Marius wrote this whole thing, and he has a severe problem with words; he likes to use a lot of them, and is quite incapable of stopping himself even if he wants to. Simple, right?

I hate you and don't want you to get any money.
Okay.

I love you and want to give you money, but I'm broke.
That's fine; we love you too, and know what that's like.

I don't even know you, and I'm not sure what I'm doing here.
Hi! We're Jennelle and Marius, and you can read more about us above - unless you did already. If you started at the bottom, you're weird. We like weird.

Please stop.
Okay. I'm gonna stop myself now, and leave this as it is - just gonna sign off by saying thank you if you read all of the above for some reason, and extra thanks if you're helping us out with this. I'm really sorry for all the words. It's a real problem. Notice how there are still more words? Yuuup, me too.

Seriously:
Thank you.