Meet Hannah

Ryker was placed with his foster mother at 4 weeks of age.  In the picture to the left he is 17 months old and is using a new medical bike, purchased with funds supplied by generous ACF donors.  Ryker has Cerebral Palsy and Global Developmental Delay.  Doctors believe he has autism as well and will soon test for this condition.  Ryker's family works tirelessly to address his developmental delays and physical challenges and reached out to ACF for support.  Fortunately, a number of generous contributors provided the funding ACF needed to provide Ryker with a variety of medically required sensory equipment.  This alleviated a substantial burden from his foster parents.  ACF looks forward to hearing that Ryker's adoption is complete so we can celebrate this new, permanent family.

Little Mateo had multicystic kidney disease when he was adopted.  He experienced kidney failure when he was just ten months old. In 2021, Mateo received a kidney transplant and his family experienced numerous expenses beyond the cost of the surgery.  The Ann Children's Fund stepped in and helped Mateo and his family to ensure they could succeed.

Early in James and Jenny W.’s marriage they felt led to adopt, and between 2007 and 2016 the couple adopted four children with various special needs. A loving father, James was a disabled veteran who had served in the Navy for over 14 years. Completely devoted to his family, James suffered substantial medical problems that began in December 2020. The W. family struggled watching their father under the weight of these medical challenges, which also made it difficult for him to work.

In October 2021, James passed away unexpectedly from COVID-19 complications. Jenny, a stay-at-home mom, was left to find a way to make the mortgage payments and pay for the food and medical needs of their family. A good friend of Jenny’s connected her with The Ann Children’s Fund so we could assist her struggling family. Within three days of James’ passing, we were able to provide the family with their next four mortgage payments and remain in contact with this family to help if needed.

I’m a single mom who has adopted three children with special needs. My sons, Julian and Liam, have bleeding disorders and my daughter Anne has a repaired cleft lip and palate and hearing loss. She’s named after my mother who was one of the strongest, most incredible women I’ve ever known. If my daughter grows up to be half the woman she was, I will be delighted. Unfortunately, my mother passed away before I brought my children home, although she did know I planned to adopt internationally and she was looking forward to meeting them.

When I first began the adoption process, I wasn’t considering special needs at all. I just wanted to find my kids and bring them home. I ended up adopting my oldest son from Bulgaria. I was planning to get on the wait list for a child when they sent me a paragraph about a five-year old being added to the special needs list who had Hemophilia. I called my sister (a doctor) and she said "no problem – go get him!" and we did. It turned out to be more than I expected (his medical records had his condition listed as much less severe) and I’m very grateful I didn’t know in advance what to expect. We were hospitalized for several days within a couple of weeks of returning home and again for 8 days after we’d been home six weeks. We’ve often been hospitalized multiple times per year since then, although we’ve now gone nearly a year without being admitted.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount since then – about adoption, about Hemophilia, about Julian himself, about the importance of community. During these years, so many people gave me hope and comfort – non-profits, hospitals, doctors, online communities, churches, friends, family, etc. And it became clear to me how important it was for us to have this network. It can be so incredibly isolating to parent a child with a rare or significant need. Finding someone who understands what you mean when you say "his bloodwork came back X" meant the world to me, as did finding someone who could help me navigate insurance questions, and others who could help me cover the cost of dental work for a kid from a non-fluoride country, etc. So, when Lori called me and told me she wanted to build The Ann Children’s Fund to connect people and resources and fill in any gaps we might see, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to provide the kind of hope and help which have seen me through these years.

In fact, these communities are the reason why I was able to go back and adopt Liam (who has Von Willebrand Disease) and my daughter Anne. I knew that these communities would be there for me and support me just as surely as they had with my first child. And they did. When Liam turned out to have an entirely different bleeding disorder than we expected, and my daughter turned out to have unexpected hearing loss, they came alongside me and helped me.

Now our family is complete, a fact we celebrate three times a year – the anniversary of each day that I brought one of them home and we got to be a family forever. And I’m thrilled to be able to help others find the resources they need to get through whatever they might be facing today or fearing tomorrow, as so many others have done for me along the way.