A Few Changes

So with only 9 days till Dallon and I fly out to Ohio, and with $1500 left to fundraise we began digging deeper for more ways to save money. We ended up being steered toward a low-cost housing option in Xenia. There is a convention/retreat center a couple miles from the training center which has some dormatory style housing available. It is very cheap! For the full 2 weeks of our stay it will only cost $270! This saves us a massive amount of lodging costs. The best part we found was that the room is really a suite. It has two bedrooms (one with a queen bed, one with 3 twin beds) and a private bath for your suite. There are no meals provided, but there is a fridge and a microwave so we can keep breakfast/lunch items there easily. This will increase our food costs, but we figure is saves us about $500 overall.

So we have about $1000 left to raise in 9 days. We still need to rent a car and come up with our "other" expenses like food, gas, training supplies, etc. We are going to contact some church members in Ohio to see if we could possibly "borrow" a vehicle for a much smaller price than renting one. The cheapest rental car that will fit our needs that I've found is $675 (without the extra insurance or taxes). Keep your fingers crossed that we'll be able to find something for much less. If we can decrease that cost, we won't need to raise as much in the end.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us out. We are almost there! Only 12 more days until training begins! All of our arrangements in Ohio have really come together better than I had anticipated, and for much less! At this point (if we still rent a car) the trip is costing just less than $3500. The original estimates we were given was $5000-6000!

In total to date, we have raised about $15000 in just 8 months! Thank you!!!