Hello, we are the Johnson Family. Born and raised in Florida and always striving to better the community. This call for help comes from Chris and Kiara parents of 3 beautiful children: Sebastian, Kaiden, and Katarina. Chris is a proud Deputy Sheriff striving to protect and better his community for his family and others. Kiara is a former Corrections Officer who is now a full time stay at home mom caring for and homeschooling these inspiring kids. She also spearheads all therapies for all 3 kiddos, and medical necessities that have come our way, as well as learning how to navigate through the autism spectrum hurdles that are ever changing.

While all 3 of our children have level 3 autism and some medical issues respectively, our middle child, our baby boy Kaiden has the worst of it. Born slightly prematurely, he immediately was deemed failure to thrive and low weight in the middle of Covid in September of 2020. We had a rocky start with a week stay in the hospital to overcome eating/latch issues and jaundice. We thought that that would be it after finally getting home, but the difficulties just kept coming. He was eating but not gaining weight or growing sufficiently. We were told many times of how we needed to do more try more but nothing seemed to help. We have been to numerous specialists in the state of Florida and after 2 years seeing a Gastroenterologist and many tests run, we were given what we thought was the answer to the problem: chronic pancreatic insufficiency. Something the doctor told us was so rare for them to find in anyone pediatric or remotely close to his age. So, on started the medications and dietary plans and supplements. Yet here we are 2 years later being told by the same doctors that they no longer know why he still has not gained adequate weight. In fact, they told a scared mother, who already suffers from anxiety over the wellbeing of her child, that if something didn't get found and change soon to enable him to gain weight and grow properly, that she would be lucky if he survived to see his 5th birthday.

Thanks to some guidance by friends and lots of research and emails to hospitals all over the country our plea for help in the medical field was answered by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia! He now is starting with a whole team of doctors and specialists in many fields to try and discover the answer to this still persistent question of why he isn't healthy and gaining weight. Unfortunately, with living in Central Florida and being on a single income we know that we are going to need help in the way of funds for travel, coverage of medical costs and co-pays, and general assistance getting by with paying bills, if necessary, since the household never stops running whether you are busy and overwhelmed or not. We are hoping to get more answers and structured treatment plans soon, but for now we are going on a scavenger hunt for an answer that I as a parent will be sure that we will do everything in our power to find. If you are able to donate and help, every little bit helps and will be the biggest blessing to our family as we persevere through these uncertain times. As Kiara has adopted the motto in regard to our fight through the good times and the bad: "Per Aspera Ad Astra" ~ * Through adversity/hardships to the stars *