This is Janelle's Mom, Angela (Jonghyoun) Cheatum. 

Our Cheatum family is consisted of 7 members: Jeremiah, Jonghyoun(Angela), Janelle (14), Jason (13), Jeanne (11), Joshua (9) and Jonathan (5). We all are very blessed to have such beautiful children that God has given us and so thankful for them each day in our life. 

Of all our beautiful blessings, Janelle has taught us what it means to love and to be patient throughout 12 years as she was diagnosed for RETT Syndrome in 2012. We are so happy to have her in our life. However, we are sadden by the hard time that she has to face due to her medical conditions. 

She is suffering from so much pain from many seizures, apneas, low muscle tone, bone weakness, mouth dryness, non-verbal, non-ambulatory and recently tensed muscle tone, she still smiles and very loving to us as we talk to her always. She loves her massage time, music, reading books, being surrounded by her siblings, and watching movies with family. She loves riding her bus! She loves going different places and interacting with people. I have heard many people talking to us that she speaks to their souls. She is very sweet and joyful girl! 

Unfortunately, recently she has more stiff joints and muscles as her teenager age comes. We need to do more therapies and hospital visits for Kenney Krigger Institute and Johns Hopkins, which takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes from where we live.

We are here to ask for your help for fundraising for our handicap accessible van for our family and for a ceiling lift.

Back in 2018, we purchased our handicap accessible van and now it is broken, and we are at huge financial loss for our van.

Our insurance would not repair or give the full cost for the broken van that we are under a lot of stress since October, 2023. The insurance has covered for normal rental van for two months and then we have been paying since January, 2024. We received our van back after fixing the door and adjust the ramp system in March.

However, it is time to change our old van to a new one that has big space and more seats available for our big family. We are financially very challenged for our new van purchase because they cost 139K +title and taxes with handicap accessible with 4 other kids for our family. With our old van with broken condition, the van would not be tradable.

We have been trying to get a small size van costing about 35,000 dollars, however, as Janelle's seizures, apneas and muscle tones are getting worse these days that we need to have a caregiver with her in a vehicle when we go for places and for her medical appointments. Whenever we go places as a whole family, we have been driving two cars, and it can be pretty hard with no support for Janelle in the back seat. Kids have been helping in the back seat to turn off G-tube pump. But they cannot see or help Janelle since they are so young. I had to pull over to check on Janelle on our long-distance trip when she was having some episodes that required an attention. 

We had a first family trip to VA in summer, 2024 in 3 years. It was the first time traveling with oxygen supplies with us. Traveling with two vehicles, there have been times that me and my husband got separated and I was left out to pull over on the side with our van with my little ones alone to check on Janelle. It was so devastating at times.

We need a new van that we can have an extra seat for an extra adult for our family. 7 seats total in our van is what we need. And there are not many models available that the price can be very high. It is a challenging price for a single income family with 5 kids. 

Another reason to fundraise is that we need a ceiling lift. My daughter is getting bigger, and I am small and had a history of cancer. Everyday, I fear that I might not be able to get her out of bed as she needs to be.

She cannot be bed bound since she has so much more desire wanting to go out and drive around and like to see things around. She understands a lot about her surroundings. She loves people around her. She loves attentions. She is just like any other girl who would like to do something fun like going out to a movie or a park etc. 

Mostly a ceiling lift costs about 25000-30000 that is not even covered by our insurance nor the Medicaid for pediatrics. It covers for elderly people but not for pediatrics. 

We really need your help! We already spent for our rental van over 3000 dollars, and it has been increasing our concerns for taking Janelle to hospital when I need to take her for emergency. We appreciate your help greatly! 

Love you and thank you!