Hello!

This fundraiser is an effort to raise the money necessary to help us (a queer, disabled couple) relocate from St. Paul, MN to Providence, RI, so that Nate can start a PhD program that will finally help us pay our bills. This is an amazing opportunity for us, but getting there is proving to be half the battle, as cross-country moves are expensive even for able-bodied people, and we have to hire extra help to make the move possible.

A little about us: In February of this year, Nate had the incredible luck of being accepted into the History PhD program at Brown University -- which is why we need to move! He is truly excited about this opportunity, and is planning on studying trans/gender variant and disabled experiences in 16th and 17th century Europe through the lens of texts about monsters and monstrosity, and the ways that the social "norms" we live with have been constructed throughout history.

Meanwhile, Heather is a wonderful crafter and musician with severe ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). She has been unable to work since early 2022 due to her illness. While she finally won her SSDI case in the summer of last year--which was a huge victory, and also makes this move much more possible--it has still been a challenge to make ends meet. Heather is also very excited about the move to Providence and the opportunity to live near the ocean and see her family more often (she's originally from New England!)

We are hoping to raise some funds to assist us with paying for shipping our household items from Minnesota to Rhode Island, as well as paying for movers to help us load/unload at both ends. Having professional help is expensive, but it will be a huge boon for us, particularly considering Heather's illness. We are budgeting needing around $4,000 for the shipping of our things, and an additional $600 ($300 x 2) for moving services, based on the quotes we've received so far.

Thank you so much for your kindness, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone willing to help us start this exciting next chapter of our lives, which will finally offer us the stability we've been struggling to achieve.