One of my biggest dreams is to see my son kick a ball; see him pick up a fork and feed himself; see him walk without stumbling or falling; hear him say "I love you" or even his name, or a number... a letter... a color...
Caiden can't do any of those things. He's like a one year old, stuck in a body the size of a three year old. But, he's only two.
I hope that one day he'll resemble whats considered "normal" but I'm not deluded. I very well know he may never do those things. He may never play with other kids, or get out of diapers. He may never get a job, or live on his own. He may never be able to tell me he's hungry, or tired.
If he doesn't, I'm prepared for that. Well... probably not, but I know its a possibility and accepting it now will only help later on. I'm not going to give up on trying to teach him those things though.
Most importantly, I want him to grow up and be happy.
He begins therapy in just over a week, so that one day he might be able to do things other kids do. So he can function without getting overwhelmed and exploding. Unfortunately there was a problem getting him started with speech therapy, so that will take a bit longer. I'll probably see him kick a ball long before he says his first sentence.
But, as a special needs parent, you quickly find out thats perfectly fine. Progress, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant is something to be celebrated.
Right now, I'm not worried about how quickly he'll pick up these new skills. I'm worried if he'll even get the chance to try.
We dont have a way for him to get to a majority of his therapy and various doctors appointments. Our family only has one car, used by my husband to get to work everyday. Unfortunately, he works long hours to provide for us since Caidens needs are such that I'm unable to work.
We need a second car. Solely for Caidens transportation.
Herein lies the problem. We are only in our 20s. We cant finance a car because we have no credit... and we cant build our credit... because we have no credit. We're stuck in that stupid loop.
We started a fundraising page to help us pay for one.
We aren't asking for 20k for a brand new car. We just need something safe and reliable to get Caiden to therapy. The reality is, if we don't find some way to purchase a second car and soon, Caiden may only get a tiny fraction of the therapy he needs because we just wont be able to get him there.
I feel like if it were for a service dog, we'd have gotten at least a little help by now, but we haven't raised a penny. Without this therapy, we wont even know if he'd benefit from a service dog.
It saddens me, that despite everything he's faced and overcome already, he's being held back by this. If my husband worked night shift, or if Caiden were able to be left with a sitter, it would be a different story. However this is what we're dealing with.
We need your help.
Therapy is Caidens ONLY chance of having a normal life. Could you imagine your child starting kindergarten and not being able to speak or feed themselves? Without therapy, that will definitely be Caidens near future.
Even if you can't donate, we are asking that you please share his page and hopefully with enough traffic and people seeing/sharing, we can reach those who can. Every dollar, every penny even, is appreciated and gets Caiden that much closer to therapy.
