Help for Janelle's Accessible family Van and a Ceiling Lift

This is Janelle's mom, Angela (Jonghyoun) Cheatum.

Our Cheatum family consists of 7 members: Jeremiah, Jonghyoun (Angela), Janelle (14), Jason (13), Jeanne (11), Joshua (9), and Jonathan (5). We are very blessed to have such beautiful children that God has given us and are thankful for them each day in our lives.

Of all our beautiful blessings, Janelle has taught us what it means to love and to be patient throughout 12 years as she was diagnosed with RETT Syndrome in 2012. We are so happy to have her in our lives. However, we are saddened by the hard times that she has to face due to her medical conditions.

She is suffering from so much pain from many seizures, apneas, low muscle tone, bone weakness, mouth dryness, being non-verbal, non-ambulatory, and recently tensed muscle tone. She still smiles and is very loving to us as we talk to her always. She loves her massage time, music, reading books, being surrounded by her siblings, and watching movies with family. She loves riding her bus! She loves going to different places and interacting with people. I have heard many people say that she speaks to their souls. She is a very sweet and joyful girl!

Unfortunately, recently she has more stiff joints and muscles as she enters her teenage years. We need to do more therapies and hospital visits to Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins, which takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes from where we live.

We are here to ask for your help in fundraising for our handicap-accessible van for our family and for a ceiling lift.

Back in 2018, we purchased our handicap-accessible van and now it is broken (the right side airbag is not fixable due to wire complications), and we are at a huge financial loss for our van.

We are still driving our wheelchair-accessible van, but it also gets too tight for our kids in the back seats: there is no legroom for them right behind the wheelchair.

Our insurance would not repair or give the full cost for the broken van, and we have been under a lot of stress since October 2023. The insurance covered a normal rental van for two months, and then we have been paying since January 2024. We received our van back after fixing the door and adjusting the ramp system in March.

However, it is time to change our old van to a new one that has more space and more seats available for our big family. We are financially very challenged for our new van purchase because they cost $139K plus title and taxes with handicap accessibility for our family with 4 other kids. With our old van in broken condition, the van would not be tradable.

We have been trying to get a small-sized van costing about $35,000. However, as Janelle's seizures, apneas, and muscle tone are getting worse these days, we need to have a caregiver with her in the vehicle when we go places and for her medical appointments. Whenever we go places as a whole family, we have been driving two cars, and it can be pretty hard with no support for Janelle in the back seat. The kids have been helping in the back seat to turn off the G-tube pump, but they cannot see or help Janelle since they are so young. I had to pull over to check on Janelle on our long-distance trips when she was having some episodes that required attention.

We had our first family trip to VA in the summer of 2024 in 3 years. It was the first time traveling with oxygen supplies with us. Traveling with two vehicles, there have been times that my husband and I got separated, and I was left to pull over on the side with our van with my little ones alone to check on Janelle. It was so devastating at times.

We need a new van that can have an extra seat for an extra adult for our family. 7 seats total in our van is what we need. And there are not many models available, so the price can be very high. It is a challenging price for a single-income family with 5 kids.

Another reason to fundraise is that we need a ceiling lift. My daughter is getting bigger (98 lbs), and I am small and had a history of cancer. Every day, I fear that I might not be able to get her out of bed as she needs to be.

She cannot be bed-bound since she has so much more desire to go out, drive around, and see things around. She understands a lot about her surroundings. She loves people around her. She loves attention. She is just like any other girl who would like to do something fun like going out to a movie or a park, etc.

Mostly, a ceiling lift costs about $25,000-$30,000, which is not even covered by our insurance or Medicaid for pediatrics. It covers elderly people but not pediatrics.

We really need your help! We appreciate your help greatly!

Love you and thank you!