Help Emma Go Places
Donation protected
Happy greetings kind people!
(I know you are a kind person if you are even taking the time to read this.)
My name is Dana. I am one of the many people that counts it a blessing to know the Ford family. Mark and Alissa are genuine, loving friends. They are servants of everyone they love: God, eachother, their daughters Emma and Sara, family, friends and anyone in need around them.
To me they are an inspiration of perserverance, grit and compassion. They are resiliant and shoulder the burden of life's challenges while remaining open and ready to share in the pain of someone else. I have witnessed them striving, sometimes struggling, to meet the unpredictable needs of their children.
Their first born, Emma Grace was born 10 weeks early at 2 pounds 1 ounce. She spent the first 300 days of her life in the hospital struggling to live. By the time she took her first trip home, she had already endured too much to fit into a Lifetime movie.
Ultimately Emma was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP).
So, the Ford's have spent the last ten years in the batter's box at CP Stadium, trying to maintain a focused, permanent stance, ready for whatever CP throws at them next, praying they will be able to hit it out of the park.
In fact, that's a great analogy because they can really only focus on the pitch that's winding up. CP makes no promises or predictions about what's coming next.
When Emma was a newborn, survival was the goal. Over the course of a decade of emergencies, surgeries, around the clock nursing care and countless prayers, many other milestones have been painstakenly achieved: Emma's heart was helped to pump well on its own, her lungs were helped to breath on their own, and she was helped to be able to eat on her own. And today I write to you with an important and exciting opportunity to help Emma acheive a milestone in her life that was once only dreamed about.
We are going to help her move on her own.
Up until now, Emma could walk short distances with the help of a specialty walker or be pushed around in a manual wheelchair. Then last year she worked hard for more independence and passed her "driver's test" for an electric wheelchair. This new chair means that Emma can do things like raise and lower herself to wash her own hands and reach objects on coutertops. It means she can decide to go somewhere and get there on her own!
(And CP throws the pitch!)
The new wheelchair weighs 300 pounds (without Emma in it). So if the Ford's would like Emma to use that chair anywhere but home, they need a van big enough to bring it along and a lift to get it in and out. (A 300 pound wheelchair is not the sort of thing you fold up and toss in the trunk unless you're besties with a Wookie)
(The Ford's swing)
Well let's run down to the Bargain-Ramped-Van lot and pick ourselves up a sweet ride!
(and...it's a miss)
Apparently it doesnt work like that.
These types of vans are total work horses. They last around 20 years, get 25 miles to the gallon, and can continue to meet Emma's evolving needs as she grows. They are built to be modified, which is good, because a lift needs to be put into the Ford-mobile. But all of this freedom for Emma comes with a hefty price tag:
About $50,000 for the van
and another $25,000 for the lift
So Emma's independence has a $75,000 price tag.
(Whoa! That was a scortcher of a pitch CP!)
Enter Designated Hitters: you and me.
Everyone deserves the ability to move. Especially that little sunshiny ball of enthusiasm, Emma. And I know that Mark and Alissa are willing to sacrifce whatever it takes for their children. I have watched them live it. They are truly willing to have less so that their kids may have more. That is one of the many reasons I want to bless their family. So I am going to!
And I humbly ask you to join me.
Every dollar raised will get the Ford's closer to a kind of freedom so many of us don't even think to inventory in our gratitude to God.
If you are unable to give, please pass the campaign along.
If you are able to give, please do it! And then pass it along ;)
(Swing! ... and it's a...)
(I know you are a kind person if you are even taking the time to read this.)
My name is Dana. I am one of the many people that counts it a blessing to know the Ford family. Mark and Alissa are genuine, loving friends. They are servants of everyone they love: God, eachother, their daughters Emma and Sara, family, friends and anyone in need around them.
To me they are an inspiration of perserverance, grit and compassion. They are resiliant and shoulder the burden of life's challenges while remaining open and ready to share in the pain of someone else. I have witnessed them striving, sometimes struggling, to meet the unpredictable needs of their children.
Their first born, Emma Grace was born 10 weeks early at 2 pounds 1 ounce. She spent the first 300 days of her life in the hospital struggling to live. By the time she took her first trip home, she had already endured too much to fit into a Lifetime movie.
Ultimately Emma was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP).
So, the Ford's have spent the last ten years in the batter's box at CP Stadium, trying to maintain a focused, permanent stance, ready for whatever CP throws at them next, praying they will be able to hit it out of the park.
In fact, that's a great analogy because they can really only focus on the pitch that's winding up. CP makes no promises or predictions about what's coming next.
When Emma was a newborn, survival was the goal. Over the course of a decade of emergencies, surgeries, around the clock nursing care and countless prayers, many other milestones have been painstakenly achieved: Emma's heart was helped to pump well on its own, her lungs were helped to breath on their own, and she was helped to be able to eat on her own. And today I write to you with an important and exciting opportunity to help Emma acheive a milestone in her life that was once only dreamed about.
We are going to help her move on her own.
Up until now, Emma could walk short distances with the help of a specialty walker or be pushed around in a manual wheelchair. Then last year she worked hard for more independence and passed her "driver's test" for an electric wheelchair. This new chair means that Emma can do things like raise and lower herself to wash her own hands and reach objects on coutertops. It means she can decide to go somewhere and get there on her own!
(And CP throws the pitch!)
The new wheelchair weighs 300 pounds (without Emma in it). So if the Ford's would like Emma to use that chair anywhere but home, they need a van big enough to bring it along and a lift to get it in and out. (A 300 pound wheelchair is not the sort of thing you fold up and toss in the trunk unless you're besties with a Wookie)
(The Ford's swing)
Well let's run down to the Bargain-Ramped-Van lot and pick ourselves up a sweet ride!
(and...it's a miss)
Apparently it doesnt work like that.
These types of vans are total work horses. They last around 20 years, get 25 miles to the gallon, and can continue to meet Emma's evolving needs as she grows. They are built to be modified, which is good, because a lift needs to be put into the Ford-mobile. But all of this freedom for Emma comes with a hefty price tag:
About $50,000 for the van
and another $25,000 for the lift
So Emma's independence has a $75,000 price tag.
(Whoa! That was a scortcher of a pitch CP!)
Enter Designated Hitters: you and me.
Everyone deserves the ability to move. Especially that little sunshiny ball of enthusiasm, Emma. And I know that Mark and Alissa are willing to sacrifce whatever it takes for their children. I have watched them live it. They are truly willing to have less so that their kids may have more. That is one of the many reasons I want to bless their family. So I am going to!
And I humbly ask you to join me.
Every dollar raised will get the Ford's closer to a kind of freedom so many of us don't even think to inventory in our gratitude to God.
If you are unable to give, please pass the campaign along.
If you are able to give, please do it! And then pass it along ;)
(Swing! ... and it's a...)
Organizer and beneficiary
Dana Stenson
Organizer
Irvine, CA
Mark Ford
Beneficiary