Hi! My name is Samantha Kershisnik and I want to help raise funds for my cousin Ashley and her 4 children. She is a single mom with a very high needs eldest son named Samuel who requires around the clock nursing care. She also has two young children diagnosed with AuDHD.

Samuel has to have 24/7 monitoring due to seizures, dystonia, and cardiac/respiratory issues, among other things, so, he cannot safely travel with all four children for multiple days over multiple states without a nurse.

Ashley had planned to make this trip home for our family reunion for the first time ever this year. She hasn’t been home since Samuel was born due to the difficult nature that traveling poses. And unfortunately after she had already made their travel plans and purchased an Airbnb that fit Samuel’s specific needs (which was a feat in and of itself self) her nursing care center denied their trip.

She has found a nurse who is willing to travel to Arkansas familiar with Samuel. But the expense will be completely out of pocket.

She is a 911 operator and pays for literally everything for her and her children's needs alone. Without a traveling nurse for Samuel this trip will be nearly impossible.

After much convincing she has allowed me to put up a GoFund Me for her and the kids so that they can come to Arkansas with the professional care that Samuel requires.

Here is a private note with more details about their family from Ashley:

Several months ago, when we began planning our trip to Arkansas, we started the process to get Samuel’s nursing staff approved to go with us. The nurse going with us has a reciprocal license that will allow her to practice in all states we are staying, but our nursing agency still denied our request this week.

Without a nurse to help cover night shifts and busy times with Samuel, it will leave one adult watching all four children, at times, so the other can sleep. That is an almost impossible task on the best of days.

Samuel has to have 24/7 monitoring due to seizures, dystonia, and cardiac/respiratory issues, among other things, so, we cannot safely travel with all four children for multiple days over multiple states without a nurse.

Silas is Autistic and has ADHD, so he is an extremely active 5 year old who gets into everything. The major point of concern is that Silas is an eloper - he can escape just about anything, and must have someone with him at all times. Audrey is Autistic and ADHD. That little girl is full to the brim with spice and love - she will rule one day. We don’t call her The Future Madam Empress of the Universe for nothing. And Caleb is just into everything, like every 18 month old on the planet. It’s a lot to handle all at once.

Our nurse is going to come with us, so we will be paying her out of pocket. She has lovingly offered to work for half of her hourly rate, and she truly deserves so much more. For those who get to come visit us and meet the kids, you will love meeting her too. She’s the best!

Her schedule will be 16hr/day for 10 days, as we are breaking up the drive into 2 days each way.

All of our travel expenses are planned for - we just want to make sure our nurse truly gets paid what she deserves. If anyone is willing to help us raise this money so we can have a nurse with us to safely visit our family, we would be forever grateful. This will be the first time most in the family have met any of the children.