Supporting Maya: Love in Action

Hi there,

My name is Carly Anderson, and I am the legal guardian of an 11 year old with Dup 15q, Maya. This is a genetic abnormality that is a duplication of a portion of chromosome 15 and has affected her with level 3 autism and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, which is a very severe epilepsy syndrome, along with other disabilities including hypotonia, developmental delay, and gross and fine motor delays. Maya's mother Corrine was my high school English teacher and was one of those teachers that makes a lifelong mark on a student. Maya was born the year after I graduated, and I always stayed in touch. In 2020, I began to help care for Maya while her mother was either in the hospital or just needed some respite. In 2022, Corrine passed away after a long fight with terminal cancer, synovial sarcoma. Throughout her life and motherhood with raising a special needs child, she was a fierce, strong, and the most loving mother and advocate. When she passed, Maya went to live with her aunt and uncle. After a year and a half, they were unable to continue to care for her and were terminating their guardianship, and Maya was going to go off to the state....

Maya was staying with me at the time I received a text with this information, and from that second on, I fought to become her legal guardian. The text arrived on June 27th, court was on July 24th, and Maya was legally mine on August 1st, 2024.

I am 29 and a Registered Behavior Technician at a public elementary school. Maya and I have created a wonderful little family together, and we love doing activities and going on adventures. Working in a public school, I do not have a steady income over the summer. I do everything I can to give Maya the opportunities she deserves as every other child does; however, she has a very strict medical diet, and we are at Boston Children's Hospital every three weeks. These financial barriers make it difficult to pay bills in the summer months. I would be so grateful to have any assistance with creating a savings account for us to lean back on over the summer.