I was one of the 300 lucky people who attended Steemfest2 in Lisbon, Portugal last year.
Not long after I joined Steemit in June 2017, I read about it for the first time and a voice inside my head told me I HAD to go.
I made a deal with myself: I would go, but no money would come out of my pockets, I would pay for everything with my crypto and Steemit earnings. There were many times in those few months when I thought I wasn't going to make it, but a few lucky twists and turns made it possible for me. I brought my family and a friend (to watch the kids) to Portugal and attended Steemfest2. All paid for with crypto! It was the best thing I'd done for myself in a very long time.
Among so many other great Steemians, I also had the honor of meeting @anomadsoul, but the list is long, there is no way I could mention them all.

The road to Krakow will be tough, but I know I can do this again!

After Steemfest last year, my life changed dramatically in many ways. Good, great and not so great.
My financial situation drastically improved since I dabbled with cryptocurrency, but due to the decrease in value I suffered some losses earlier this year, like so many others. This wouldn't have been an issue if I didn't have to sell at a loss because of some events in my life that weren't planned nor wanted. But that's how it goes right?

I stumble, I fall and crawl right back up to do it all again.

Up until a few weeks ago, things weren't looking the best, but I still was adamant that getting to Steemfest3 wouldn't be a huge issue. Then tragedy hit. My best friend in Holland called me with very bad and sad news. News that no one wants to hear and news I wish on no one. You can read about this here:
https://steemit.com/loss/@misslasvegas/i-had-sad-sad-news-last-night-and-i-need-your-help

There was no doubt, I had to go to Holland to be with her and her family in her time of grief and the only thing that was stopping me was that I didn't have the funds to get there.
So I made the above post and asked for help. And help is what I received. It didn't make the trip to Holland less hard, but it made it possible!

It changed things

Not only did these actions of a few individuals help me to get there, it also restored my faith in humanity as a whole.
Steemit and especially Steemians are some of the best people around and I am truly blessed to be here!

But now there is another obstacle to concur: I first have to pay back those people what I owe them before I can even start to think about going to Steemfest3.

Where there is a will, there WILL be a way.

I hear this everywhere I go. Especially here. It was very true last year and I want to do what it takes to make it happen this year. Since Steemit and my new role as the Dutch Language Moderator for the DaVinci/Utopian.io project are more or less my only stream of income at the moment, it will be hard, but I am not someone who gives up easily.
So whenever I can, I will write my fingers to the bone and with the new translators application window the coming week for Utopian/DaVinci, which will hopefully bring my team from 1 to 5 translators, I still have hope to make it.
I sold most of my cryptocurrency. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. There is nothing left to sell.
But then again, we've seen crazy things happen in the cryptoworld before....Anything can happen.
At the moment, I am literally buying $10 and $15 worth of crypto whenever I can and more or less day trading with that (I have about $50 worth now LOL.
There have been times where I doubled, tripled my money in a day, or better, so who is to say this can't happen again?

Whatever comes in from Steemit will be used to repay those people who showed so much love to me, a woman they don't even know in person. This also showed me that on this platform, truly anything is possible.

I'm typing, trying to teach my kids some homeschool things (haha) in between typing, taking care of the house and animals, checking crypto, trying to save money left, right and center on pretty much anything but what we need, finding stuff to sell, and I will also join any contest there is to try and win the trip to Krakow...Anything goes...

So, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: STEEMFEST here I COME!!!