Help Us Reach Our Goal!

Our family, Joshua, Parker, and myself, has been directly affected by food allergies. As many of you know, Parker has many food allergies, some of them life-threatening. She has been hospitalized twice - once for anaphalytic shock due to eating barley and another time over night to receive a blood transfusion because of an upper GI bleed due to taking Children's Ibuprofen (NSAID.)

Her food allergies are: milk, egg, soy, wheat, barley, rye, peanuts, and treenuts, and ibuprofen (which isn't a food but does get ingested.) It's heartbreaking, as a parent, to have to be on guard around food 24/7 since it's such a big part of our social life and family life. Just going to a friend or family member's house is stressful due to how sensitive she is to some foods (she is touch-sensitive to milk - if you have any remnants on your hands or lips and you touch her or kiss her, she will get hives from the protein transfer from your skin to hers.) Telling a friend or family member they can't touch her or kiss her because of the food they have eaten is hard enough and trying to get Parker to understand why she can't get a kiss from a favorite relative is even more heart breaking.

She doesn't know what pizza is or cheese, a sandwich, ice cream, birthday cake - so many things we all take for granted every day and she can't even be around them. Going to restaurants is limited to just Red Robin, and we bring her own food, so she doesn't even get to eat out. We just can't take a chance of cross contamination so we only trust ourselves to make her food.

That said, she is one of the happiest little girls I've ever seen! She loves to play in the water (ANY water, ANY where!), color in her coloring books (or the walls...), she loves Elmo, Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, watching Disney DVD's, chewing ice (OUCH!), playing with her toys and stuffed animals, and being around her family, friends, and other little kids her own age. She is such a blessing to Joshua and me - I just don't know what we would do without her in our lives or what we did before she became part of our family.

We are participating in the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network's (FAAN's) Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure. The event will raise funds to find a cure for food allergy and to educate others.

FAAN's mission is to raise public awareness, to provide advocacy and education, and to advance research on behalf of all those affected by food allergies and anaphylaxis.

Please support our fundraising efforts with a donation. Your tax-deductible gift will make a difference in the lives of the estimated 12 million Americans with food allergies and their families. You can make your secure credit card donation by selecting the Support Me button.

Any amount helps us reach our fundraising goal. We greatly appreciate your support!

Thank you so much for your continuted support as we navigate our way though this new way of life. Hopefully, one day soon, Parker will be allergy free and this will all be in our past!