Many know Alex for her beautiful smile and great laugh.  What many of you may not know is she was diagnosed with a rare deletion on her X chromosome at the age of 6 months.  Consequently, the last 5 years have been quite a journey as our family has learned about acceptance, faith, patience and unconditional love.  We have learned about perspective and purpose while recognizing how critical early intervention would be to her future success.   

Alex has global developmental delays and neurological issues that will cause her lifelong challenges.  It was clear early on that she would need a lot of assistance to meet each and every milestone.  From day one, upon learning of Alex's diagnosis, we began to implement a very aggressive program of therapies (physical, occupational, speech, aquatic, music, play etc). Over the years, she has made slow but steady progress and continues to do new things all the time.  Alex has come so much further than we imagined when she was diagnosed and that is absolutely due to our aggressive early intervention plan.  Over the years, we would often talk about how fortunate we were to have good jobs, decent insurance and therefore the ability to provide the essential support our daughter needed.  Unfortunately, not every family is in this position.  Many of these services are extremely expensive and insurance will only cover so much - if anything at all.  There are many organizations that help raise money for research. Unfortunately, that will not help children living with these rare developmental and neurological disorders get the early intervention they need to lead a better life TODAY.  This was the inspiration for Alex's Helping Hands. 

We are looking to raise money that will provide funding to children with special needs for the various aforementioned therapy services.  Each year we will partner with committed organizations that provide these services.  We will offer donations/scholarships to supplement the funding for children in need so that they too can achieve their maximum potential.  

They say that everything happens for a reason and that we do not always know exactly why when we are in the actual moment.  Eventually, we can make sense of it and find the purpose.  Alex's Helping Hands is our purpose.  What we do know is that Alex's condition will NOT define her.  She is here to help make a difference in the lives of other children and this will be the platform to which she will do that.  The power of early intervention is key… SO PLEASE HELP US HELP OTHER FAMILIES PROVIDE THIER CHILDREN WITH THE SERVICES THEY NEED TODAY!  

Thank you for reading our story and helping us to change a child's life!

Samantha and Rob (Alex's Parents)