Our Little Farm
Donation protected
Hi everyone,
We are a German American family of three living at the Baltic Sea in Northern Germany. We are Andrea, Wyman and little Glenny (5). I (Andrea) set up this gofundme page a while ago because of my husband's medical debt.
We had been living on the edge for a while ever since we decided to move back to the farm I grew up on as a child. We did that after our son Glenn was born in 2013. We made this choice, because our son had a chance to stay close to his German grandparents that way. We wanted to give him (and especially my mother) that experience. After three years, we wanted to move to the USA or at least to some bigger city where job chances after my graduation would have been much better. But then, first my husband and my mother got sick. I put my studies on hold to take care of my husband, our son and my mother. I also worked from home as a translator, editor, social media manager and in graphic design for some extra little income.
My husband is self-employed, lives in Germany, but works for a company based in the USA (online). For our health care provider, it makes a big difference if someone is self-employed or a freelancer; then it makes a difference whether someone works within Germany or outside of Germany. My husband ended up being put in the wrong category and was given incorrect monthly dues. Almost two years later, they realized their mistake, but they demanded the remaining amount of almost 2 years from us - all at once. Without the help of a lawyer, we would have lost our health care insurance. The lawyer managed to negotiate a payback plan. Our family made lots of sacrifices to pay back parts of the debt: I cashed in my personal pension plan, we delayed dental work, worked as much extra as we could, and my husband keeps postponing his 6-weeks hospital stay, because we cannot afford the 6 weeks without his income.
My husband turns 56 on November 26 and was diagnosed with an incurable lung disease at age 53: emphysema. He never smoked, but he was exposed to a lot of secondhand smoke while growing up. His symptoms are weight loss, weakness, fainting and pain in all kinds of parts of his body, because the lack of oxygen takes a lot of energy out of his system. He recently developed heart problems, but is still in stage 2 out of 4. The doctors gave him about 10 more years to live when he was diagnosed in 2016. He dedicated most of his life to volunteer work. He founded the first Jewish public library in Lithuania since 1943 in 2011. Even the Prime Minister spoke at the opening. The next photo shows Wyman with our son inside the library in Vilnius in front of the plaque that was put up there to honor my husband and his work.
Last year, my mother died and we did not know whether to stay or leave. At the same time, a young fellow named Mirco wanted to open a little horse riding school for kids on our property, so we rented the necessary space out to him. Our son Glenn loves Mirco, has taken riding lessons and really developed greatly because of all the different children visiting our farm and because of taking care of the animals.
I graduated this year, but my job chances are not good in the area we live in. I either stay away from my family for months at a time (which I did twice already) or we try to use the potential of our property. Besides the fact that the separation of mother and child is not easy, it simply does not work since Wyman does not have the energy to work full time and take care of our son.
We needed a plan: This March, we founded an association that allowed us to welcome children (kindergarten groups, birthday kids, children from low-income families) and seniors who otherwise have no or very little chance to spend time with animals. Kids from low income family can visit us for free or for a little donation. I did some further education in the field of Natural and Environmental Pedagogics to offer different programs. Once we can move into the bigger house, we want to start a B&B. Our property definitely has the potential, it "just" needs a lot of work.
If Wyman wasn't American, getting a loan would have been an option. The requirements (an American taking a loan from a German bank) got a lot tougher after 9-11, and again: our health care debt is not helping during this application process.
In October of 2018 everything changed. Our renter Mirco suddenly left us with his horse riding school despite a contract lasting for more than 4 years from now. Things are not as simple as they may sound: Although his decision to leave was a voluntary one at first, it later turned out to be a necessary move (due to local authorities). We don't want to go into details, but things were not handled with honesty and we found us in need to hire a lawyer.
The result of all the lies and betrayal is that we have lost a friend whom we considered a family member, our son lost his "big brother", his identity as the "pony farm boy" and potentially the horse riding lessons on his beloved ponies. We lost almost all of our sponsors because they are Mirco's customers and took sides. More than that, we lost the joy and happiness coming from children that had filled our property for almost two years. Although many attempts for a peaceful solution have been done by us, the other side chose a more public way to handle things. We were and weirdly still are hoping for a peaceful solution after all. A potential continuing cooperation that was once discussed seems impossible now. After having advertised his business from the very beginning bringing him quite a number of new customers, we sadly do not see that favor in return. We gave Mirco and his partner our family dog (she loves them) assuming we'd still be part of our dog's life. Everything hurts us personally, emotionally and financially. We now need to aim at a completely new group of potential customers and try to finance our lawyers while providing for all of our animals which originally were taken in together with Mirco.
We are not only on the edge as far as finances go, but also as far as strength goes. Our son developed psychological problems because of the instability and stress that emerged from all of this. Each one of us is supposed to go into a treatment at a health resort, but we are too busy trying to save our farm. Most animals were saved from slaughter, came from shelters or were given to us because they lived in poor conditions. We found an agreement with the health care provider to pay back the debt gradually, but it leaves zero room for further investments. Still, taking a loan is impossible. On the contrary, we had to use up our son's college funds for paying for some of the repair work and the lawyers. We have a business plan, we are not dreamers without a sense for reality. We worked together with professionals to develop this business plan, but we need to get somewhat back on our feet.
Me and my brother (early 1980s) on the farm
Me with my son Glenny on the farm (2018)
If you want to become part of our visitor farm, then please consider a donation. It would help us to get rid of Wyman's medical debt and to get back on our feet by being able to get out of this vicious circle. We still have Wyman's full-time job and an income from my freelance work as editor, social media manager and translator. Our goal is to save our home and our animals and to enable Wyman to go to the hospital for 6 weeks (without payment) as suggested by his doctors. We are trying to live the life our son loves and needs so much for at least as long as his father is still around.
A kid having fun with his father on our farm
Independently from the fact that you can donate any amount at any time, we would like to offer you the following: You can become either a SPONSOR or a PATRON of our farm.
OPTION ONE - ANIMAL SPONSOR: You choose an animal (please visit: www.meetthebrentstones.com) and make a monthly donation of 15 USD (or 180 USD annually). You will receive a digital sponsorship certificate and we will place a sign with your name and your chosen animal's name inside our barn and on our website (unless you do not want that).
OPTION TWO - GENERAL SPONSOR: For any amount you choose to donate, you will become a general sponsor of our farm. We will place a sign with your name inside our barn and on our website (unless you do not want that).
OPTION THREE - PATRON: For a one-time donation of 250 USD, you become one of our farm's patrons. You receive a digital certificate and a sign with your name will be placed inside the barn and on our website (unless you don't want that).
OPTION FOUR - LOYAL PATRON: For a monthly donation of 30 USD (or 360 USD annually), you become a Loyal Patron of our farm for as long as you continue your annual donation. You receive a digital certificate and a sign with your name will be placed inside the barn and on our website (unless you don't want that).
We are currently working on a little film that will show you the changes on our property that we were already able to accomplish during the past 18 months. We will post the link here as an update.
For more information about Wyman, please visit: www.wymanbrent.com
For more information about Andrea, please visit:
www.aj-images.com
Glenny showing other kids our sheep and how to feed them
We are a German American family of three living at the Baltic Sea in Northern Germany. We are Andrea, Wyman and little Glenny (5). I (Andrea) set up this gofundme page a while ago because of my husband's medical debt.
We had been living on the edge for a while ever since we decided to move back to the farm I grew up on as a child. We did that after our son Glenn was born in 2013. We made this choice, because our son had a chance to stay close to his German grandparents that way. We wanted to give him (and especially my mother) that experience. After three years, we wanted to move to the USA or at least to some bigger city where job chances after my graduation would have been much better. But then, first my husband and my mother got sick. I put my studies on hold to take care of my husband, our son and my mother. I also worked from home as a translator, editor, social media manager and in graphic design for some extra little income.
My husband is self-employed, lives in Germany, but works for a company based in the USA (online). For our health care provider, it makes a big difference if someone is self-employed or a freelancer; then it makes a difference whether someone works within Germany or outside of Germany. My husband ended up being put in the wrong category and was given incorrect monthly dues. Almost two years later, they realized their mistake, but they demanded the remaining amount of almost 2 years from us - all at once. Without the help of a lawyer, we would have lost our health care insurance. The lawyer managed to negotiate a payback plan. Our family made lots of sacrifices to pay back parts of the debt: I cashed in my personal pension plan, we delayed dental work, worked as much extra as we could, and my husband keeps postponing his 6-weeks hospital stay, because we cannot afford the 6 weeks without his income.
My husband turns 56 on November 26 and was diagnosed with an incurable lung disease at age 53: emphysema. He never smoked, but he was exposed to a lot of secondhand smoke while growing up. His symptoms are weight loss, weakness, fainting and pain in all kinds of parts of his body, because the lack of oxygen takes a lot of energy out of his system. He recently developed heart problems, but is still in stage 2 out of 4. The doctors gave him about 10 more years to live when he was diagnosed in 2016. He dedicated most of his life to volunteer work. He founded the first Jewish public library in Lithuania since 1943 in 2011. Even the Prime Minister spoke at the opening. The next photo shows Wyman with our son inside the library in Vilnius in front of the plaque that was put up there to honor my husband and his work.
Last year, my mother died and we did not know whether to stay or leave. At the same time, a young fellow named Mirco wanted to open a little horse riding school for kids on our property, so we rented the necessary space out to him. Our son Glenn loves Mirco, has taken riding lessons and really developed greatly because of all the different children visiting our farm and because of taking care of the animals.
I graduated this year, but my job chances are not good in the area we live in. I either stay away from my family for months at a time (which I did twice already) or we try to use the potential of our property. Besides the fact that the separation of mother and child is not easy, it simply does not work since Wyman does not have the energy to work full time and take care of our son.
We needed a plan: This March, we founded an association that allowed us to welcome children (kindergarten groups, birthday kids, children from low-income families) and seniors who otherwise have no or very little chance to spend time with animals. Kids from low income family can visit us for free or for a little donation. I did some further education in the field of Natural and Environmental Pedagogics to offer different programs. Once we can move into the bigger house, we want to start a B&B. Our property definitely has the potential, it "just" needs a lot of work.
If Wyman wasn't American, getting a loan would have been an option. The requirements (an American taking a loan from a German bank) got a lot tougher after 9-11, and again: our health care debt is not helping during this application process.
In October of 2018 everything changed. Our renter Mirco suddenly left us with his horse riding school despite a contract lasting for more than 4 years from now. Things are not as simple as they may sound: Although his decision to leave was a voluntary one at first, it later turned out to be a necessary move (due to local authorities). We don't want to go into details, but things were not handled with honesty and we found us in need to hire a lawyer.
The result of all the lies and betrayal is that we have lost a friend whom we considered a family member, our son lost his "big brother", his identity as the "pony farm boy" and potentially the horse riding lessons on his beloved ponies. We lost almost all of our sponsors because they are Mirco's customers and took sides. More than that, we lost the joy and happiness coming from children that had filled our property for almost two years. Although many attempts for a peaceful solution have been done by us, the other side chose a more public way to handle things. We were and weirdly still are hoping for a peaceful solution after all. A potential continuing cooperation that was once discussed seems impossible now. After having advertised his business from the very beginning bringing him quite a number of new customers, we sadly do not see that favor in return. We gave Mirco and his partner our family dog (she loves them) assuming we'd still be part of our dog's life. Everything hurts us personally, emotionally and financially. We now need to aim at a completely new group of potential customers and try to finance our lawyers while providing for all of our animals which originally were taken in together with Mirco.
We are not only on the edge as far as finances go, but also as far as strength goes. Our son developed psychological problems because of the instability and stress that emerged from all of this. Each one of us is supposed to go into a treatment at a health resort, but we are too busy trying to save our farm. Most animals were saved from slaughter, came from shelters or were given to us because they lived in poor conditions. We found an agreement with the health care provider to pay back the debt gradually, but it leaves zero room for further investments. Still, taking a loan is impossible. On the contrary, we had to use up our son's college funds for paying for some of the repair work and the lawyers. We have a business plan, we are not dreamers without a sense for reality. We worked together with professionals to develop this business plan, but we need to get somewhat back on our feet.
Me and my brother (early 1980s) on the farmMe with my son Glenny on the farm (2018)If you want to become part of our visitor farm, then please consider a donation. It would help us to get rid of Wyman's medical debt and to get back on our feet by being able to get out of this vicious circle. We still have Wyman's full-time job and an income from my freelance work as editor, social media manager and translator. Our goal is to save our home and our animals and to enable Wyman to go to the hospital for 6 weeks (without payment) as suggested by his doctors. We are trying to live the life our son loves and needs so much for at least as long as his father is still around.
A kid having fun with his father on our farmIndependently from the fact that you can donate any amount at any time, we would like to offer you the following: You can become either a SPONSOR or a PATRON of our farm.
OPTION ONE - ANIMAL SPONSOR: You choose an animal (please visit: www.meetthebrentstones.com) and make a monthly donation of 15 USD (or 180 USD annually). You will receive a digital sponsorship certificate and we will place a sign with your name and your chosen animal's name inside our barn and on our website (unless you do not want that).
OPTION TWO - GENERAL SPONSOR: For any amount you choose to donate, you will become a general sponsor of our farm. We will place a sign with your name inside our barn and on our website (unless you do not want that).
OPTION THREE - PATRON: For a one-time donation of 250 USD, you become one of our farm's patrons. You receive a digital certificate and a sign with your name will be placed inside the barn and on our website (unless you don't want that).
OPTION FOUR - LOYAL PATRON: For a monthly donation of 30 USD (or 360 USD annually), you become a Loyal Patron of our farm for as long as you continue your annual donation. You receive a digital certificate and a sign with your name will be placed inside the barn and on our website (unless you don't want that).
We are currently working on a little film that will show you the changes on our property that we were already able to accomplish during the past 18 months. We will post the link here as an update.
For more information about Wyman, please visit: www.wymanbrent.com
For more information about Andrea, please visit:
www.aj-images.com
Glenny showing other kids our sheep and how to feed themOrganizer
Wyman Brent
Organizer
Schönkirchen
