It has been an interesting month of blogging, researching, emailing, tweeting, and calling upon all of our connections near and far. We have been immersed in our crowdfunding process since our Father's Day launch. We have accomplished so much in this past month. We raised over $16,500, acquired over 600 followers on Facebook, and have hundreds of visitors to our blog. The most important thing we set out to do was to document our journey towards fatherhood. It certainly feels like we're off to a very good start.
Meanwhile, the world keeps spinning and history is being made every day. We want to take a moment not only to document a timeline of events during our crowdfunding campaign this past month, but to acknowledge our awareness of a much bigger picture in the midst of our own struggles and triumphs.
June 20
- Father's Day Launch Party. We shared our video for the first time with friends and raised $4,000.
JUNE 23
- Lizzy Duffy, Digital Producer at OPB, publishes a story about our campaign, "2 Beards Crowdsource for Surrogate Mother."
JUNE 24
- Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apologizes at his death sentence hearing.
June 26
- LOVE WINS! The US Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality. Same-sex couples can now legally marry in every state in the country. Over 26 million people change their Facebook profile pictures into proud displays of LGBTQ rainbow pride.
- President Obama delivers the eulogy at the funeral for South Carolina State Senator Reverend Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims in the Charleston Massacre. He closed his address by leading the assembly in singing "Amazing Grace."
June 27
- Anthony celebrates his 33rd Birthday.
June 28
- Activist Bree Newsome scales a 30-foot flagpole at the South Carolina State House and removes the Confederate battle flag. She was arrested upon returning to the ground and became an internet sensation.
June 29
- The Greek debt crisis worsens as the country misses a payment to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF places Greece in arrears and a referendum is scheduled for July 5 to allow the Greek people to decide if they will accept the bailout terms being offered by their creditors.
JUNE 30
- We are interviewed on OPB's Think Out Loud: Couple Turns to Crowdfunding to Start Family.
July 1
- Most of California and other parts of the Western U.S. are facing "extreme" or "exceptional" drought conditions.
- Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Oregon. Portland crowds counted down the minutes to midnight then lit up joints.
- Cuba and the US agree to reopen embassies in Havana and Washington, DC, marking a major step in the rebuilding of relations between the two countries.
July 5
- Greek voters overwhelmingly reject the bailout terms offered being offered by its international creditors in referendum voting.
- The US Women's team beats Japan in the final of the World Cup soccer tournament.
July 9
- South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, signs a bill ordering the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the State Capitol.
- All Families Surrogacy generously offers to donate $12,000 worth of agency services to our campaign to become dads.
JULY 10
- We release a second video talking about accessibility to services and the financial barriers that many would-be parents face.
July 13
The US Department of Defense announces a plan to allow transgender people to serve openly in the military.
July 14
- NASA's New Horizons probe flies by Pluto, sending back high resolution photos of the dwarf planet for the first time.
- deal is reached by negotiators to limit Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons.
It's been a busy month. Our journey is just beginning. There is so much more still to come.