Hello friends and family. This Christmas season it’s been on our hearts to bless a family in need, a family who has been through so much in the last two years.

Amanda Fohey is a loving wife to Adam, and a mother to two beautiful girls, Aria and Ella. She and her husband Adam are both nurses, they work hard for their family and live in the cutest house in Columbia, MO. They are wonderful parents and spend many of their days doing fun art projects together as a family.

On May 23, 2022, Amanda went to the emergency room with stroke-like symptoms. Her whole right side was numb. Hours spent in the ER and an overnight stay in the hospital lead to the conclusion that she was having a ‘migraine’ and sent home.

Amanda and Adam went on their anniversary vacation to Colorado. On their vacation, she struggled more and more. She couldn’t even complete the hikes they had planned for their trip. She continued to decline and by the time they got home from vacation she couldn’t hold her own neck up and was struggling to swallow. They pacified it with a high dose of steroids which temporarily made her feel better. Mid June Amanda got a severe headache, so severe she went to the emergency room again, she lost her ability to write and ended up losing consciousness. They ran more tests, did another MRI and she was admitted. They couldn’t find anything still. The doctor concluded it must be in her head and sent her home with no answers. She still couldn’t walk right. The walking kept declining through the rest of the year and it was an ongoing battle with the doctors trying to prove to them that there was more going on with Amanda than they thought. By November she was struggling to use her hands.

in June 2023, a year and a month after this all began, Amanda and Adam decided to go to Mayo Clinic for more answers. While she still didn’t receive an official diagnosis, they were able to give her a solid treatment plan and concluded that it was just some kind of unknown neurological event. Amanda followed the treatment plan and she was getting much better with her walking and using her hands and was able to work again. She continued like this having no issues until she got sick. When she physically got sick it was like her brain took a hit again too, with symptoms returning.

On top of all of this, they found a large cyst on her ovary, which she had to have surgery to remove the cyst, her tubes, and an ovary. The surgery also caused her to have more setbacks. This time it was her left side which was affected. Her balance was completely off, she suffered severe brain fog, and of course defeat. She had just gotten better following her treatment plan from Mayo, and she had to basically start it all over. All the while having to be a mother, a good wife, and a nurse.

Amanda is beyond amazing. Her outlook on life, her relationship with God, her hope and positivity, is just astounding. Despite the unknowns, waking up not knowing what the day holds- if she’s going to get worse, what new neurological symptom will pop up next, she continues to hold her head high and make the best of everything. She has a cane and a knee scooter for now, but she is really needing an electric scooter, which we are hoping to provide for her this Christmas season. Her workplace has the worst parking arrangement, where even the handicap spots are a far walk to get inside to her department. With her walking mostly being affected, this is really limiting to how many hours she’s able to work through. An electric scooter would help her immensely. Along with that is all of the medical bills. She and Adam work hard and make a decent living, but it just seems as soon as they could get some bills paid off, something else would happen and more kept piling on. Which leaves them little room for fun things or vacations or anything like that. It would be so nice to relieve some of that financial burden for such a deserving family.

Afterall, that’s what Christmas is all about. If you could find it in your hearts to donate any amount at all, this family deserves it. ♥️