Mahan Health Emergency Fund
Donation protected
So as not to bury the lead, this GoFundMe has been established to try and raise funds to offset the cost of food, gas, lodging, and loss of income for our family as we seek out medical treatment at Riley Hospital for the next 8 to 12 weeks for my stepdaughter. We have decided to remain private about the details for her protection given her age and the nature of social media.
Adam will need to be off work for supervision and transportation, and will need a place to stay in Indianapolis for as long as treatment takes. The Ronald Mcdonald and St Vincent House are not options due to covid, and no alternatives other than hotels with some medical discounts have materialized after calling realtors, friends, family, coworkers, hospital social workers, college campus housing agencies, and trustees offices. The lodging alone will cost nearly $3000, which does not consider Adam's loss of income during this period and travel and food expenses. So, those are the highlights, and Adam and I felt it was time to lay down our reservations (it's hard to ask anyone for help when others need so much right now) and see if there is some way to make this happen.
Some closest to me have looked at this scene from my life with empathy, pity, or dismay. Noone could blame them. After all, in the year of The Great Plague, this newlywed couple has seen their share of misfortune and cruel irony. Having to cancel and rework wedding plans in the last minute due to gathering and travel restrictions, buying their home and facing a broken water heater, sump pump, heater, and air conditioner after a basement flood less than 2 months in with the ink on the deed still wet. Medical concerns leaving me out of work on the mend for two months, while Adam tries to keep his chin up and the house running as I travel hours away each week for treatment. And then just as the holiday season approaches and the water calms, with the couple meekly lifting their heads up from THE WORK of figuring this first year of married quarantine life out, they find themselves blindsided by a tsunami wall of medical, financial, and emotional hardship that eclipses all the rest. How awful. Poor Mahans. This year...what is happening?
From where I'm sitting, I see things differently. I mean don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be reaching out for any support possible unless I was straight out of options and terrified. It's just that, man guys, I would take this heartache any day over the loss of blessings that accompany them. I've been given a soul mate by my heavenly father to love and cherish. So what if the sickness and for worse come before the health and for better? We've found our way into our forever home, a privilege in this world I don't discredit. We are both relatively healthy in a time when so many are not. We have toilet paper and batteries and milk and bread. The lights are on. We are blessed and I will praise God for these blessings flowing over us every day.
If I'm humbly honest, the greatest blessing of this year for me wasn't one I expected to bowl me over, amaze and frustrate and scare and satisfy me so fully. I became a step mother. I became part of The Mahan Family, part of the parental tribe pledged to a vibrant, hilarious, intelligent, stubborn little girl who is so uniquely herself and somehow feels like she was always a part of me, always meant to be, forever will be my greatest joy. And she needs help desperately.
Nothing I can share here while protecting her privacy and young exposure to the online community will suffice to explain the urgency of care that she requires, the scarcity of its supply in Indiana, or the need for this to happen like yesterday. I trust that you trust me enough to hear the authenticity behind what I can share and ask that you only offer what you can, if you can, when you can. I have never done this before, but I will do anything to make this next step in our treatment plan happen. And I have full faith that God will find a way.
-Heidi
Adam will need to be off work for supervision and transportation, and will need a place to stay in Indianapolis for as long as treatment takes. The Ronald Mcdonald and St Vincent House are not options due to covid, and no alternatives other than hotels with some medical discounts have materialized after calling realtors, friends, family, coworkers, hospital social workers, college campus housing agencies, and trustees offices. The lodging alone will cost nearly $3000, which does not consider Adam's loss of income during this period and travel and food expenses. So, those are the highlights, and Adam and I felt it was time to lay down our reservations (it's hard to ask anyone for help when others need so much right now) and see if there is some way to make this happen.
Some closest to me have looked at this scene from my life with empathy, pity, or dismay. Noone could blame them. After all, in the year of The Great Plague, this newlywed couple has seen their share of misfortune and cruel irony. Having to cancel and rework wedding plans in the last minute due to gathering and travel restrictions, buying their home and facing a broken water heater, sump pump, heater, and air conditioner after a basement flood less than 2 months in with the ink on the deed still wet. Medical concerns leaving me out of work on the mend for two months, while Adam tries to keep his chin up and the house running as I travel hours away each week for treatment. And then just as the holiday season approaches and the water calms, with the couple meekly lifting their heads up from THE WORK of figuring this first year of married quarantine life out, they find themselves blindsided by a tsunami wall of medical, financial, and emotional hardship that eclipses all the rest. How awful. Poor Mahans. This year...what is happening?
From where I'm sitting, I see things differently. I mean don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be reaching out for any support possible unless I was straight out of options and terrified. It's just that, man guys, I would take this heartache any day over the loss of blessings that accompany them. I've been given a soul mate by my heavenly father to love and cherish. So what if the sickness and for worse come before the health and for better? We've found our way into our forever home, a privilege in this world I don't discredit. We are both relatively healthy in a time when so many are not. We have toilet paper and batteries and milk and bread. The lights are on. We are blessed and I will praise God for these blessings flowing over us every day.
If I'm humbly honest, the greatest blessing of this year for me wasn't one I expected to bowl me over, amaze and frustrate and scare and satisfy me so fully. I became a step mother. I became part of The Mahan Family, part of the parental tribe pledged to a vibrant, hilarious, intelligent, stubborn little girl who is so uniquely herself and somehow feels like she was always a part of me, always meant to be, forever will be my greatest joy. And she needs help desperately.
Nothing I can share here while protecting her privacy and young exposure to the online community will suffice to explain the urgency of care that she requires, the scarcity of its supply in Indiana, or the need for this to happen like yesterday. I trust that you trust me enough to hear the authenticity behind what I can share and ask that you only offer what you can, if you can, when you can. I have never done this before, but I will do anything to make this next step in our treatment plan happen. And I have full faith that God will find a way.
-Heidi
Organizer
Heidi Mahan
Organizer
Tippecanoe, IN