In Support of Addie

I am asking for assistance on behalf of my daughter, Addie, her father, and myself to help in paying for her to stay at a treatment facility in Montana. She has already been there six months. She is extremely well taken care of by staff and is making great progress, however, insurance has paid all it will and Addie is not yet done with her treatment.

We need $165,000 to cover her care she has had and will have until she is ready to come home. Please read Addie’s narrative below. And remember a time in your life when you made mistakes and felt unworthy of love and compassion. This is where Addie is at emotionally right now and this is her story this far…

On December 30, 2006, a beautiful baby girl was born to a downtrodden woman of Mayan descent in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The woman’s intention after she learned she was pregnant was to put the baby up for adoption, which she did with a small agency out of New Jersey. The Fullwiler couple received the honored and long-awaited call on January 3, 2007. It was the girl they had prepared, prayed, and went into debt for. All of the waiting, paperwork, and going into debt, for just the opportunity, life experience and chance to make a difference in one child’s life by being a parent.

The years went by, each one with a realization that Addie was meant to do something important, but there was always a cloud of frustration, sadness and a longingness about her.

After 3rd grade, each year seemed to be more and more of a struggle for her academically and socially. We thought after finally discovering a diagnosis of dyslexia in 7th grade for Addie and finding her the expensive yet much needed private academic support that that would help to relieve the cloud over her head. It did to an extent, however the years of not being able to keep up in school, always being different academically and socially because she was a brown skinned girl among an endless sea of pale skinned people in the small town we raised her in, had already taken a piece of her away.

Now, it is her sophomore year in high school. She made it to 16 years old, but not without a few battle scars. As with many of us, the trauma of middle school left her with a tough exterior. She had learned to “give it back, as well as she could take it.” As her parents, we knew that sweet soul was still there, just covered up by a hard shell that would not give away any vulnerability and would not tolerate anyone else trying to disrespect her.

This buildup of her “protection” resulted in a year full of a crescendo of problems. What started as innocent high school dating, led to traumatic events, addictive behaviors, school struggles, and finally, legal trouble. Addie was at the bottom and so lost.

At the very height of her problems in March 2023, we, her parents, found a therapeutic boarding school in Montana. It broke everyone’s heart to have to send her there, but the alternative was not an option—juvenile detention. So off to Montana she went and we, her parents, could not see her for the first 4 months. We were lucky that insurance paid for these first four months. However, now insurance is done, and we are thrust into private pay. Even though we have seen her, and seen her progress which is HUGE, the therapists say Addie is not ready to come home yet. The earliest she will be ready is February 2024.

Please, remember your own struggles growing up. Some of you may have needed or wished for a chance such as this at this young age to turn your life around. If you are able, help give Addie the chance that maybe you never got. Help her to regain the life she deserves and the chance to be the success I know she is destined for.