Judy Vorfeld’s Office Support Services

Jessica is Amazing, Hilarious, Bright, Brave, and the light of my life. She is also a four-year-old little girl who was born with Down Syndrome, Visual Impairment, Hypotonia, and Severe Congenital Heart Defects. Jessica has faced several obstacles, but there are many more to come in her life. We would do anything to make these impending challenges easier for her to overcome. With your help Jessica could receive a service dog from 4 Paws for Ability to assist her.

One thing that a service dog could help Jessica with is Mobility. Jessica has Hypotonia, which means she has extremely low muscle tone that inhibits her strength and ability to walk. Jessica needs to walk in order for her to build strength. Therefore, a wheelchair would be counterproductive to her development, but it is difficult for her to walk any distance without becoming weak. Jessica’s heart conditions also play a role in her weakness.

Jessica is mostly non-verbal, which is very frustrating for her; she knows what she wants but cannot tell you. A service dog could help her communicate and prevent unnecessary stress in some cases.

When Jessica was 15-months-old she had to have life-saving open heart surgery to repair her severly deformed heart. It was a grueling time for all of us, but Jessica has pulled through miraculously. She will need further surgeries in the future, but we will not know the extent until the time comes. Think of how much easier her recovery will be with a companion dog by her side to help her through when the time arrives.

Jessica also likes to wander away from our home as well as her school classroom. Her service dog will be able to track her and help keep her safe.

As Jessica gets older it becomes harder and harder to prevent her wandering, she seems to figure out all the locks and gates!

Jessica also attends weekly sessions for Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy in which she works very hard at trying to live a regular life.

A service dog is not a cure-all for Jessica, but anything that would help make life a little easier for her is worth everything to us. It is very expensive to train a service dog to help Jessica, anything you can do to help us would be more appreciated then we can tell you!

4 Paws For Ability, Inc. is a non-profit agency taking the ‘dis’ out of disABILITY! For more information contact Karen: Mailing Address: 253 Dayton Ave. Xenia, Ohio 45385 e-mail:karen4paws@aol.com Phone: (937) 374-0385 - Training Center Address: 207 Dayton Ave. Xenia, Ohio 45385. To make a donation please visit www.4pawsforability.org under special instructions type “In honor of Jessica Luberger.”

And please click here to go to Jessica’s personal website!

Note: I highly endorse 4 Paws for Ability as a source for extremely well-trained service dogs. The organization is sound and its goals exceptional. Judy Vorfeld.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Animals, Disabilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.