Our sweet Martilee Mae is 13 and has Rett Syndrome .  Although she is nonverbal, her smile and the sparkle in her eyes speak volumes. She has very little purposeful hand use, suffers from seizures and has scoliosis.

This past couple of months have been rough for Martilee and our whole family. We moved from South Dakota to Iowa and did not even have a chance to settle in and unpack before Martilee developed pneumonia. Altogether, she spent over three weeks in the hospital; most of that time in the PICU. She is at home now, off of oxygen and will hopefully start back to school this week.

Tomorrow Martilee has X-Rays to check the progression of her scoliosis. We know that we will be scheduling spinal fusion surgery soon. It is frightening, but something that needs to be done.

Asking for help is difficult and humbling, but something we have decided we need to do. Martilee now weighs over 70 lbs. and is almost as tall as her mama. We are still lifting her in and out of our van and then lifting her chair into the back of the van. She has outgrown her carseat and I have injured my shoulder.

If you know us at all, you might know that we drive our vehicles until they can't drive any more. Our "old" van is a 2005 with 180,000 miles. Our "good" van is also a 2005 with 140,000 miles.  We are humbly asking for help to raise funds for a wheelchair van so we can continue "Moving Martilee Mae."

Thank you so much for your love and support.