About Us:

Hello! My name is Matthew (he/him), and my partner is Elliott (they/them)! We're two queer, disabled people living in a house in the Pacific North West.

Within the last month, we were visited by what I'm calling the "queer stork." This stork delivered a bundle of joy to our lives (though admittedly the delivery was 17 years delayed) that we are now working hard to attend to!

By all this, I mean that a 17-year-old girl was displaced from her home, and wound up in ours. What started off as temporary shelter is starting to look like a permanent addition to our family, and with that comes the responsibility of financial resources.

We are working hard to allocate funds through various assistance, utilizing food banks, and other local agencies that offer care, but there is always a small period where applications take time and energy to get started. To keep ourselves present and focused on these applications (and our own health), we cannot take on additional employment at the moment, so we're hoping to have a small boost from our community to get us going!

Our New Kiddo

Our new child (she/her) is an amazing, young black teenager, who is also queer. She's so motivated to work on her mental health and explore her new space. It's been amazing to see her experience the world as a teenager, which she could not do in her previous environment!

We want to do everything we can to support her, which includes applying for emergency guardianship. But we also want to assure that we (as white folks) can keep her connected to the BIPOC community and support her in a way that emphasizes intersectionality.

One thing on our list of goals is to do a parent consult with a black parental educator to improve our understanding of this situation and assure we minimize our impact. We've also connected her to a black, queer, female therapist and have done tons of research on local black community events! All of which we plan to use these funds to afford.

(*Just another picture of us because I don't want to post a minor's image on the internet)

Our Goals

All of the funds raised will go directly to the cost of caring for our new kiddo. (If we somehow go over our goals, it will either pay back some of the money we've spent or go towards her expenditures in the next month, or go into a savings account for her to use for college/etc).

The average cost of a teenager in 2023 is $1,438 a month, but we're just aiming for $835 to get started.

(note: we do have a mattress now, but it's got some broken springs, so its not ideal)

Our current "shopping list" looks like this:

• $350 for one month of therapy (Working on getting insurance to bill)
• $35 for a nebulizer
• $150 for furniture
• $100 for personal items (crafts, clothes, etc)
• $150 for events and social groups & personal items
• $50 for parenting classes & resources

Stretch goals - Some other things we'd like to afford include:

• Up to $75 for a nebulizer (assuming a better one)
• $0-100 for opening a new bank account
• $45 for replacement documents
• $240 for the court filing fees (maybe more, hopefully getting it waived)
• $200+ for food & basic needs

Which would be an additional $625 to our goal.

(note: we do have a mattress now, but it's got some broken springs, so its not ideal)

Other Info

✨ Additional Funds

While I don't think we'll get above $1,460 IF we do, again, all of the money will go towards her care. (A small amount of back-pay to our now empty savings accounts, additional therapy costs, and then the rest towards the college fund or food!)

✨ Money to her directly:

Kiddo has her own GoFundMe (which I can link if anyone is interested). We believe her having her own spending money is important! Especially at 17, but we have no say over where those funds go and thus our own fund is necessary.

✨ Helping without money:

Of course, money is hard to come by these days, so there are ways that the community can help without donating! Clothes, furniture, and food are always needed. Make-up and care products for black skin. Time and resource assistance... etc.

Alternatively, sharing is always useful in this world! So share if you can!

Thank you!!