Jona's Journey, Adoption & ABA Therapy
Donation protected
Help us keep Jona Happy, Healthy and Safe
Our grandson Jona was born on April 24th, 2018. He was born prematurely.
Shortly after he was born we (Elisabeth and Jacob Nuesser) became emergency legal guardians. His biological parents were unable to care for him and we then became his permanent legal guardians. Our family mantra from the very beginning of this journey was to keep Jona "Happy, Healthy and Safe." Jona has thrived since being in our care. He has had 2 surgeries before the age of 2 of which both of them we oversaw and nursed him back to full recovery. Jona loves cars, running outside and spending time with our son Jase in the bouncy house.
Quickly, it became clear that the best course of action to keep Jona "Happy, Healthy, and Safe" would be for us to legally adopt him. This decision was made solely to protect Jona, and set in motion a 2 year legal battle adoption case. This case was highly emotional, it was extremely intense, and it was expensive. We paid for our own attorney as well as an impartial court appointed attorney for Jona. This case was considered a contested adoption and it's one of the most challenging cases in family law. On August 13th, 2020 we successfully completed our 2-year legal battle to adopt our grandson George Jona Nuesser. This day will forever be held in our hearts as a beautiful moment for our family.
Jona has been receiving DT, OT, Speech, and behavioral therapies for a year and a half now. These therapies started off in person, but shifted to zoom during the pandemic. What this meant was we spent a large portion of our day getting training from the therapists so we could apply these therapies with Jona. Elisabeth did all this while also being out of work due to the pandemic. Shortly after Jona turned two years old he was diagnosed with severe autism spectrum disorder. We were told his case is severe due to his strong sensory needs and also him being non-verbal. At this time he only communicates using sign language. We continued to advocate for Jona and it was recommended by his doctor we seek ABA therapy. After much research, we found a highly recommended ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) therapy facility. ABA therapists charge $152 per hour and Jona was medically recommended to receive 40 hours a week. ABA therapy is highly effective treatment for individuals on the spectrum. Research has shown when starting this therapy as early as possible the outcome can be life-changing. Jona is currently 4 weeks into his therapy and is doing amazing. ABA therapy is a long term commitment, often several years, to be truly effective. While insurance does cover some of these costs, the high insurance premiums guarantee that we will be maxing out our out of pocket insurance costs every year for the foreseeable future, to the total of 10K per year.
As you can see from reading our story we have significant financial challenges ahead of us. The combination of paying off these legal bills while also tackling the ever-growing medical bills for Jona's ABA treatment is overwhelming. When they say "it takes a village" to raise a child it has never been more apparent for our family than now. It is our hope and desire that this crowdfunding effort can assist us and relieve some of these financial burdens we are carrying so that we can continue to give Jona the best possible future.
Please help us to continue our mantra to keep this beautiful boy:
"Happy, Healthy, and Safe"
We know that COVID-19 has affected the world and it may be difficult to donate. We honor and respect that fact and just hope, if nothing else, you can please share our story. Thank you for the consideration.
Our grandson Jona was born on April 24th, 2018. He was born prematurely.
Shortly after he was born we (Elisabeth and Jacob Nuesser) became emergency legal guardians. His biological parents were unable to care for him and we then became his permanent legal guardians. Our family mantra from the very beginning of this journey was to keep Jona "Happy, Healthy and Safe." Jona has thrived since being in our care. He has had 2 surgeries before the age of 2 of which both of them we oversaw and nursed him back to full recovery. Jona loves cars, running outside and spending time with our son Jase in the bouncy house.
Quickly, it became clear that the best course of action to keep Jona "Happy, Healthy, and Safe" would be for us to legally adopt him. This decision was made solely to protect Jona, and set in motion a 2 year legal battle adoption case. This case was highly emotional, it was extremely intense, and it was expensive. We paid for our own attorney as well as an impartial court appointed attorney for Jona. This case was considered a contested adoption and it's one of the most challenging cases in family law. On August 13th, 2020 we successfully completed our 2-year legal battle to adopt our grandson George Jona Nuesser. This day will forever be held in our hearts as a beautiful moment for our family.
Jona has been receiving DT, OT, Speech, and behavioral therapies for a year and a half now. These therapies started off in person, but shifted to zoom during the pandemic. What this meant was we spent a large portion of our day getting training from the therapists so we could apply these therapies with Jona. Elisabeth did all this while also being out of work due to the pandemic. Shortly after Jona turned two years old he was diagnosed with severe autism spectrum disorder. We were told his case is severe due to his strong sensory needs and also him being non-verbal. At this time he only communicates using sign language. We continued to advocate for Jona and it was recommended by his doctor we seek ABA therapy. After much research, we found a highly recommended ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) therapy facility. ABA therapists charge $152 per hour and Jona was medically recommended to receive 40 hours a week. ABA therapy is highly effective treatment for individuals on the spectrum. Research has shown when starting this therapy as early as possible the outcome can be life-changing. Jona is currently 4 weeks into his therapy and is doing amazing. ABA therapy is a long term commitment, often several years, to be truly effective. While insurance does cover some of these costs, the high insurance premiums guarantee that we will be maxing out our out of pocket insurance costs every year for the foreseeable future, to the total of 10K per year.
As you can see from reading our story we have significant financial challenges ahead of us. The combination of paying off these legal bills while also tackling the ever-growing medical bills for Jona's ABA treatment is overwhelming. When they say "it takes a village" to raise a child it has never been more apparent for our family than now. It is our hope and desire that this crowdfunding effort can assist us and relieve some of these financial burdens we are carrying so that we can continue to give Jona the best possible future.
Please help us to continue our mantra to keep this beautiful boy:
"Happy, Healthy, and Safe"
We know that COVID-19 has affected the world and it may be difficult to donate. We honor and respect that fact and just hope, if nothing else, you can please share our story. Thank you for the consideration.
Organizer
Jacob Nuesser
Organizer
Naperville, IL