Emma's Wish to Walk

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

Emma is a 5-year-old identical twin. She loves Daniel Tiger, puzzles, sorting and stacking, 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 half.

In August 2021, sadly Emma’s tumor began to grow again and she had to restart chemotherapy. We’ve had some bumps along the way and right now she will likely be on treatment through February 2022. 

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 someones hand, or attempting a few steps, but she has some ways to go before she is a fully independent walker.

Earlier this year, we took a chance and signed Emma up to do a 3-week physical therapy intensive and weren't sure what to expect. We had tried lots of different therapies before and spent thousands of dollars, but I never felt that any of it, was well, *it* for her. However, during the second week of the intensive we really saw things start to click for Emma and she was taking off! She loves the therapists there and they have the skills and resources to help her get walking!

She is currently finishing up her second intensive session and making great progress, 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 another intensive session this summer prior to starting kindergarten, and enough for one more at the end of this year.

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

It's hard to ask for help, but you’ve all helped find two sessions in 2021 and we are working to find two more sessions in summer 2022.

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