Van w/ramp for Jensyn Salvevold
Donation protected
Greetings Friends and Family of Chris and Kristin Salvevold!
I'm setting up a Go FundMe page to raise money to help purchase a van that can be modified to include a wheelchair ramp for my brother Chris's family.
As many of you already know, my brother, Chris, and his wife, Kristin, were blessed with their 8th child just over two years ago. Jensyn was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 5p which impacts her in many ways. Jensyn has weekly medical appointments to see different specialists. In her first two years of life, she has had over 20+ visits to the hospital via ambulance, many of which have resulted in extended stays. Transportation is a major part of Jensyn's life.
I asked Kristin to write up a testimony to detail their specific need. Please prayerfully consider a donation to help the Salvevold family!
Tim Salvevold
I was just at a store the other day and saw the funniest sign. It said, “I’m not needy. I’m wanty.” As a mother of eight, this cracked me up. Of course, I have my periods of “wantiness” as well. This, however, is not one of those times. We do not want our daughter to need a wheelchair. We don’t want her to need handicapped access to buildings and other venues. And, we don’t want a handicapped accessible van. But, we need one and more importantly, Jensyn needs a van that better suits her limitations.
We live in the great state of MN and there are many who take very good care of children with special needs. We were blessed with some necessary assistance when we went down the SN road with our other daughter, Britlyn, several years ago, and fortunately, we knew exactly who to contact once we knew what Jensyn’s journey was starting to look like. Jensyn is on a disability waiver with the county and because of this, there is money available for her to have the needed modifications made for a van to be equipped with a ramp/lift for her chair. However, the county has certain stipulations for the type of vehicle that they will modify. The van has to be three years old or newer and it cannot have more than 50,000 miles. This makes perfect sense when you consider the expense of adding the modification. This does not make sense to a family who would never purchase such a “new” vehicle.
Jensyn is homebound much of the time, and some of that has to do with her medical fragility, but more of it has to do with how much work it is to take her anywhere. She has many appointments each month, and every trip tends to zap her of her energy. It also takes a lot out of us and is helpful if we can take one of her caregivers with us. Until this past July, Jensyn’s only equipment need that we carted around with us was her feeding pump. Since July, she has become more fragile and needs oxygen or the ability to access oxygen at all times. This means that when we take Jensyn somewhere, we have her feeding pump, her oxygen tank, and her pulse oximeter. Each of these machines have tubing that is connected to Jensyn, so we put her into her car seat and fit the machines around her. Without a ramp, we have to muscle her chair into the back of our van manually. Once we get to our destination, we have to unload her chair, add all of her equipment to her chair, and lift Jensyn out of her current car seat to settle her into her chair. We repeat this each time we have to go in and out of a building. It is doable, and we have done it since last spring, but with a Minnesota winter that is sure to be coming, this might soon prove to be an even more difficult task.
A van modification would mean that we could put Jensyn into her medical stroller right away, attach all of her machines, and roll her into the van easily with the ramp. Without a doubt, this would be a game changer for our family, and more importantly, for our little girl.
Some might be wondering what is Jensyn’s story. Jensyn is our eighth child and she was born with a rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 5p. She is tube fed, has seizures, is weak in her respiratory health, and is very developmentally delayed. She just turned two and is unable to hold her head up, to sit, or to do anything a typical two-year-old would be able to do. She has spent much of her first two years in and out of the hospital, but she is such a miracle and a gift to all who know her. To know Jensyn is to absolutely adore her!
I'm setting up a Go FundMe page to raise money to help purchase a van that can be modified to include a wheelchair ramp for my brother Chris's family.
As many of you already know, my brother, Chris, and his wife, Kristin, were blessed with their 8th child just over two years ago. Jensyn was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 5p which impacts her in many ways. Jensyn has weekly medical appointments to see different specialists. In her first two years of life, she has had over 20+ visits to the hospital via ambulance, many of which have resulted in extended stays. Transportation is a major part of Jensyn's life.
I asked Kristin to write up a testimony to detail their specific need. Please prayerfully consider a donation to help the Salvevold family!
Tim Salvevold
I was just at a store the other day and saw the funniest sign. It said, “I’m not needy. I’m wanty.” As a mother of eight, this cracked me up. Of course, I have my periods of “wantiness” as well. This, however, is not one of those times. We do not want our daughter to need a wheelchair. We don’t want her to need handicapped access to buildings and other venues. And, we don’t want a handicapped accessible van. But, we need one and more importantly, Jensyn needs a van that better suits her limitations.
We live in the great state of MN and there are many who take very good care of children with special needs. We were blessed with some necessary assistance when we went down the SN road with our other daughter, Britlyn, several years ago, and fortunately, we knew exactly who to contact once we knew what Jensyn’s journey was starting to look like. Jensyn is on a disability waiver with the county and because of this, there is money available for her to have the needed modifications made for a van to be equipped with a ramp/lift for her chair. However, the county has certain stipulations for the type of vehicle that they will modify. The van has to be three years old or newer and it cannot have more than 50,000 miles. This makes perfect sense when you consider the expense of adding the modification. This does not make sense to a family who would never purchase such a “new” vehicle.
Jensyn is homebound much of the time, and some of that has to do with her medical fragility, but more of it has to do with how much work it is to take her anywhere. She has many appointments each month, and every trip tends to zap her of her energy. It also takes a lot out of us and is helpful if we can take one of her caregivers with us. Until this past July, Jensyn’s only equipment need that we carted around with us was her feeding pump. Since July, she has become more fragile and needs oxygen or the ability to access oxygen at all times. This means that when we take Jensyn somewhere, we have her feeding pump, her oxygen tank, and her pulse oximeter. Each of these machines have tubing that is connected to Jensyn, so we put her into her car seat and fit the machines around her. Without a ramp, we have to muscle her chair into the back of our van manually. Once we get to our destination, we have to unload her chair, add all of her equipment to her chair, and lift Jensyn out of her current car seat to settle her into her chair. We repeat this each time we have to go in and out of a building. It is doable, and we have done it since last spring, but with a Minnesota winter that is sure to be coming, this might soon prove to be an even more difficult task.
A van modification would mean that we could put Jensyn into her medical stroller right away, attach all of her machines, and roll her into the van easily with the ramp. Without a doubt, this would be a game changer for our family, and more importantly, for our little girl.
Some might be wondering what is Jensyn’s story. Jensyn is our eighth child and she was born with a rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 5p. She is tube fed, has seizures, is weak in her respiratory health, and is very developmentally delayed. She just turned two and is unable to hold her head up, to sit, or to do anything a typical two-year-old would be able to do. She has spent much of her first two years in and out of the hospital, but she is such a miracle and a gift to all who know her. To know Jensyn is to absolutely adore her!
Organizer and beneficiary
Tim Salvevold
Organizer
Rogers, MN
Christopher Salvevold
Beneficiary
