Help Eliana's family get a trained service dog!

Meet Eliana, our family and journey receiving the greatest, life changing gift for our teen daughter, Eliana!

Eliana was born with a rare genetic profile not found in anyone worldwide. She has multiple medical and health conditions that she                wrestles with daily. Eliana was diagnosed with a rare seizure disorder (LGS https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-epilepsy-syndromes/lennox-gastaut-syndrome-lgs) in elementary school. LGS is a regressive disorder and she has uncontrolled seizures daily. She has heart,              kidney, and skin conditions in addition to two brain disorders (ACC and PMG https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/agenesis-of-corpus-callosum/, https://pmgawareness.org/what-is-polymicrogyria/). Eliana has cerebral palsy, autism, apraxia speech disorder and is legally blind with a cortical vision impairment (CVI).

Eliana is the youngest sibling to two amazing brothers! Her older brother has a special connection with Eliana as they both have overcome and survived medical hardships. At age 4 he was diagnosed with high-risk Pre-B cell ALL leukemia and endured almost 4 years of rigorous  chemotherapy and treatments. He’s now a junior in college studying music and film/video game scoring.

Eliana's other older brother is also the middle child with both siblings having medical issues and disabilities. Being a middle child is tough for many but for Eliana's brother being the middle child meant having to share parent time though multiple crisis situations too. His resiliency is quite outstanding and he is a junior in high school who hopes to change the world by living his dream to become a screenwriter, director and artist. 
 
This is Eliana and her brother baking together when they were younger. Eliana had to spend time in a device that helped her practice standing as she could not stand on her own. 

Our family thought our hardships were maxed out until receiving the crushing news (after a routine mammogram) that I had advanced         stage 3c breast cancer. While juggling the needs of the family I persisted and completed 6 months of chemo, 6 1/2 weeks of daily radiation, multiple surgeries and faces fears of reoccurring cancer ever single year of my survivorship.

We are supported by my amazing partner and co-parent, Keplyn, whose love, dedication and endless support brings much needed strength and unconditional love to us all. We are surrounded by an incredibly supportive and loving family, friends and community. 

As Eliana got older we knew that we wanted to get her a service dog specialized in seizure alerting. We heard about an amazing breeder        who had a litter of bernedoodles bred to be service dogs. We rushed to Bleuberry Hill breeders i(www.bleuberryhill.com) n Detroit and      met the owner Patty, her daughters and the litter. 

Patty shared that she and her girls were so inspired by our family’s tenacity and by our boundless love, that they knew that they wanted to help, but weren’t sure how. And then Eliana and Truffles met!! It was love at first sight! The joy that Truffles brought to Eliana was palpable, and Truffles just adored her, kissing her entire face until we had to peel Truffles off her. There was an instant connection between these        two! We weren't quite ready to take the leap to adopt Truffles as we needed to assess finances and consider all the issues before bringing a puppy into our lives.  After we left we all promised to say in touch. Patty and her daughters surprised us with a follow up call saying that           they all agreed that Truffles HAD to be Eliana’s and they shared they wanted to waive the adoption fees and donate Truffles to be Eliana's   therapy dog!!!! They also promised to help with the fundraiser and finding a trainer, staying on this journey until the end.

We brought Truffles home just after Labor Day and knew with Eliana's speech challenges the "T" sound in Truffles was going to be tough. 
So, we asked Eliana what she wanted her puppy's name to be and she said- "Poppy"!!! Poppy was able to stay with us for special family            bonding time until leaving for 3 month residential service dog training at the end of February. She is getting her service dog training under  the guidance of master trainer Jeremy Dulebohn at Dulebohn Service Dog Training in Ohio ( www.dulebohndogtraining.com). We are              anxiously awaiting to go to Ohio at the end of May to have a weeklong training on working with Poppy post her service dog achievements! 

We are so close to our fundraising goal and ask all touched by our journey to pass on this fundraiser and donate if you can! No amount is         is too small, every dollar makes a difference! We deeply appreciate the support as our medical expenses and daily living needs make taking on more financial expenses tough. Thank you! 
Truffles aka Poppy when we first met!