Emma's Wish to Walk 2023

Hello! Most of you here likely know our strong girl Emma, but if you've found yourself here and don't, let me tell you about her!

Emma is a 7-year-old identical twin. She loves Daniel Tiger, blueberries, puzzles, Disney, and her family.

One morning when Emma was 17 months old, she would not wake up from her nap and began to vomit. She was rushed to the hospital where a CT scan was done and it was discovered she had a large bleed in her brain--a hemorrhagic stroke near her brainstem. She was in critical condition, and our lives changed that day.

Over the next year, which included 5 brain surgeries, two trips to Boston, and Christmas in the hospital, we would come to find out she had an inoperable brain tumor in her brainstem, which had bled that day. Emma has a juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma, a pediatric brain tumor. She has completed 14 months of chemotherapy and was stable for a year and a half.

In August 2021, sadly Emma’s tumor began to grow again and she had to restart chemotherapy. She has had a rough road since trying to find a new treatment that has been effective on her tumor, but as of her last scan at the end of March 2023, we finally have found success on a new combination of drugs! She will have her next scan in June and we are praying for a continued response from her tumor.

Unfortunately, due to her stroke, she was left with right-sided weakness and a subsequent cerebral palsy diagnosis. Since day one, she has been such a fighter and so strong. She fights every day to be able to walk like her sister and is also learning how to communicate with her AAC device.

If you know Emma personally, you know she does not like to sit still. She is a go go go girl. She doesn't like to crawl and is always trying to navigate her environment by standing, cruising, walking with someone's hand, or attempting a few steps, but she has some ways to go before she is a fully independent walker.

Intensive therapy has been a game changer for Emma and the team of therapists at Believelive Physical Therapy knows Emma so incredibly well and knows how to push her to help her gain as much independence as she can. They even recently did training on type of therapy called DMI that we are excited about Emma being able to do more of to help her reach her goals.

With careful savings and your incredible generosity in the years past, Emma has been able to continue attending these intensive sessions, but it is a marathon for her, not a sprint.

We are asking friends, family, and strangers to help share Emma's story as we hope to fundraise enough money for Emma to do two intensive sessions this summer before starting second grade, and possibly enough for one more at the end of this year.

At this time we have been able to save almost enough money for one session and are currently asking for your help to support her second summer intensive.

Unfortunately, intensive therapy is not covered by insurance, and we have to pay for these sessions ourselves.

As any parent can understand, we want to give our children the world, we want to give Emma every opportunity we can to walk and be independent, but these kinds of things take a village.

We appreciate any donation to help make Emma's wish to walk, a dream come true.