Life House Atlanta

We are grateful to all who came to support Life House Atlanta at the Marietta Wine Market. Once again, thank you to Russell and Karen Heard for a wonderful wine tasting event.

Let's Build a House!

Life House Atlanta is ever so grateful to its sponsors for helping make Fall Breakfast 2024 a life changing event for families in Georgia.

Alloy Personal Training Buckhead
Upstate
Arosa Reno
Chambless Construction LLC.
Choate Construction Company
Construction Company
Homrich Berg
JE Dunn Construction

There is still time! Please consider joining these sponsors in building Georgia's first pediatric respite house for children with medical needs and their families.

Please help us 'Build a House!'

Let's Build a House, and enjoy a glass of wine, too!

Thank you to Russell and Karen Heard for helping local charities, such as ours, raise awareness and funds.

Marietta Wine Market

Sarah Eaves continues to state the need for a pediatric respite house for thousands of families in Georgia who need an extended break from round-the-clock caregiving.

"Life House Atlanta could have brought us closer as a family, reduced the stress and financial pressure on my parents, and allowed us to experience a more balanced and supportive environment during Rachael's life. I wish Life House Atlanta was around when my sister was here."

Please help us build a house!

Below, Sarah Eaves, sister of Rachel, testifies to the strong need for a pediatric respite house. She is an accomplished photographer, and will be the official photographer for Life House Atlanta's 2nd Annual Breakfast at the Georgia Aquarium on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. Thank you, Sarah!

Life House Atlanta could have made a huge difference for my entire family when my sister Rachael was alive. Their respite and palliative care services would have given my parents much-needed breaks from their 24/7 caregiving duties, allowing them to spend more quality time with me and my brother. This would have helped alleviate the isolation we felt and the independence we had to develop at such a young age because they were always working or caring for Rachael. With the support of Life House Atlanta, we could have had more opportunities to hang out with friends and enjoy family activities together, which were rare for us.

Please help us 'Build a House!'

The Life House Atlanta team needs your help to make this event a life-changing one for families in Georgia. We are grateful for all levels of support; sponsorships, individual ticket sales and donations.

Please click on the bio/link for details, and join us to build a house. www.lifehouseatlanta.org

Artwork by Catherine Reed with her mom Mary

Regarding the effect of round-the-clock caregiving on siblings, Rebecca said Rhodes experienced feelings of abandonment when Ellie’s medical and therapy needs necessitated attention from both parents.

Like many parent caregivers, Rebecca and Emily were in perpetual tag-team mode with one managing Ellie's medical and therapy needs, while the other tended to Rhodes.

Overall, quality time with Rhodes was difficult as there was almost no one around trained to care for Ellie.

Respite support would have helped this family tremendously, so please help us build a house!

When sharing her story with Life House Atlanta, Rebecca emphasized the distinction between being a Mom, and being a Mom Caregiver.

[Regarding the prospect of a pediatric respite house] "We as caregivers could rest and really enjoy Ellie as Ellie. Not as her caregivers. I just would want to be her Mom...Just spend every moment with her and not have to think about the next thing, about her meds, and her feeding, and her positioning..."

This is a frequent sentiment expressed among parents in the trenches of round-the-clock caregiving with all consuming needs taking priority day after day. Relentless tasks of caregiving encompass medical, pharmaceutical, and nutritional facets, daily therapeutic exercises, appointments all over the calendar, piles of paperwork and the list goes on. Parent caregivers yearn for the time and space to enjoy their children as children.

It is Life House Atlanta's goal is to provide relief to these families for up to 30 days/nights a year at no cost to them.

Additionally, Life House Atlanta plans to offer 1-2 family suites to parent caregivers who want to stay overnight while their child is being cared for by a professional staff. This will enable families to relieve themselves of caregiving duties, and enjoy quality time with their children.

Much gratitude to Rebecca K***z and Emily Greene for sharing their family story with Life House Atlanta. In a video interview, they testified to the urgent need of a pediatric respite house in the community. Their daughter Ellie was born in Ghana, Africa, with a brain malformation, epilepsy and cerebral palsy due to a prenatal infection. Ellie's medical complexities required round-the-clock caregiving, which was provided by her mothers until she passed away at age 10.

Rebecca and Emily are also parents of 7-year-old Rhodes, and are beyond excited to welcome a new baby to their family in October 2024.

Insights from Rebecca and Emily's interview will be shared in future posts.

Life House Atlanta is so grateful to its Building Committee member Emily Brooks for arranging a fundraiser this past May at Uncle Don's Local Market in St. Simon's Island, GA.

Support from the whole state of Georgia is vital in the journey to 'Build a House' for families with children with extensive medical needs.

Currently, there are seven existing pediatric respite houses in the following states: Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Utah and Washington.

So far, none in the Southeastern U.S.

Life House Atlanta is marked as an 'emerging home' under the national umbrella organization, Children's Respite Homes of America. Its team is working hard to elevate our beautiful state of Georgia into a more hospitable one for families who are providing round-the-clock care with little to no relief in their communities.

We truly appreciate Emily Brooks and Uncle Don's Local Market for spreading community awareness of the need for a pediatric respite house in the Golden Isles of Georgia.

By the way, Uncle Don's Market's Buffalo Chicken Dip and Cowboy Con Queso are exceptionally delicious! When in St. Simon's, please stop by Uncle Don's to pick up savory food and a great bottle of wine from its impressive selection!

While raising funds to 'Build a House,' Life House Atlanta is taking steps to provide respite to families with children who need daily caregiving.

First is a partnership with North Cobb Civitan to provide a week-long summer camp experience for a camper with special needs.

While this camper enjoys a funfilled week at Camp Big Heart at Fort Valley, Georgia, his family will benefit from rest and self care.

Life House Atlanta is looking forward to bringing more respite opportunities to the community.

For two decades, Lanise Shortell, RN, CHPPN, CPLC, has compassionately served in pediatric hospice and palliative care. A personal experience with bereavement in early childhood laid the groundwork for Lanise’s calling to provide grief management expertise to domestic and international MD Residency and Fellowship programs.

Lanise serves on the faculty of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation, and in this role, she travels around the world, and works with different cultures on ways to infuse ancient wisdom into modern training programs.

A board member of Life House Atlanta since 2020, Lanise is a strong advocate for Georgia’s children facing life limiting illness and their families. She is poised to meet the urgent need for grief support during pediatric hospice and afterwards, and is dedicated to creating connections between families experiencing community isolation due to round-the-clock caregiving for children with complex medical conditions.

Quote Lanise, “Life House Atlanta is an answered prayer of many, and will have generational impact on our community.”

Life House Atlanta is very excited about its 2nd Annual Breakfast! Please stay tuned for more information.

The Ryan House in Arizona is a model of what we want to bring to Georgia.

Emile Picard, a member of Life House Atlanta's Building Committee, traveled to Arizona with his adult son. During their vacation, they took the time to tour the Ryan House in Phoenix with its founder, Jonathan Cottor.

Emile saw first hand how Arizona's families are served by this uniquely designed home-away-from-home that provides palliative care to children with medical complexities.

A virtual tour is available on Ryan House's site (www.ryanhouse.org).

Emile and the Life House Atlanta team are working hard to make this a reality for families in Georgia!

Ryan House

Mothers need support. Special needs mothers need an army.

The Life House Atlanta team is holding Jagger and his family in our hearts.

As we are cuddling with Jagger in his final moments we wanted to come up with something to show him how much he is loved and cared about all over the country/around the world.

So we are going to need everyone’s help on this one.
Would love for this to go somewhat viral, please share online everywhere you can and participate if you can.

Jagger’s favorite color has always been red, likely because it was the only color he could really see but we would love for everyone to wear or hold something red tomorrow Friday April 19th , take a pic of video and post it online.
Feel free to post it as a comment on this post or/and tag Moves like Jagger on your post/picture/video.
And if you don’t want to wait until tomorrow and do it today, it’s of course fine too.

We would love to see our Facebook go red and see some unity (in this divided world) in honor of Jagger even if just for a day.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers and for wearing red

Play Pickleball to Build a House' was a smashing success with an abundance of enthusiasm among the players.

Life House Atlanta is grateful to all players, and volunteers.

Pictures will be posted soon!

Life House Atlanta is so grateful for the incredible raffle prizes received from generous sponsors!
There is still time to register to play, and/or buy raffle tickets! https://givedirect.org/life-house-atlanta/pickleball/

There will be a fabulous spread of delicious food from Chicken Salad Chick, and everyone will go home with a jar of Doux South Pickles.
Please join us on the pickleball courts!

Thank you to the following for their support:
PCKL

Tangerine Paddle

Play It Again Sports - Kennesaw, GA
Adanel Studio

Life House Atlanta is grateful to Doux South for its support in our upcoming Pickleball Fundraiser!

Their products are available on Amazon!

Please come play pickleball to build a house!

https://givedirect.org/life-house-atlanta/pickleball/

Life House Atlanta is grateful to Chicken Salad Chick for its support in our upcoming Pickleball Fundraiser!

Please come play pickleball to build a house!

SIGN UP:
https://givedirect.org/life-house-atlanta/pickleball/

Please join the Life House Atlanta team on the pickleball courts to raise funds to build a pediatric respite house for these families!

With limited options for respite, it is challenging for parent caregivers to get out and enjoy recreational activities in the community.

This is a great opportunity for families to help other families!

https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgivedirect.org%2Flife-house-atlanta%2Fpickleball%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cclaire.m.cotton%40mail-service-3-mx.vanderbilt.edu%7Ca8fde9059f974b74e8f508dc3c5789c1%7Cba5a7f39e3be4ab3b45067fa80faecad%7C0%7C0%7C638451593917487217%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=at71t2DbiS0E4a5xQT1xZAU2OtczPm4ZMUs6hy%2B0%2FBs%3D&reserved=0

https://givedirect.org/life-house-atlanta/pickleball/

Play Pickleball to Build a House!

The Life House Atlanta team is excited to announce its plans for a pickleball fundraiser!

Saturday, March 23
Kennesaw Recreation Center (a wonderful facility with nine indoor pickleball courts)

Orientation and Rules at 8:30 a.m.
Play begins at 9 a.m.

Food and beverages will be provided!
Raffle Prizes, too!

All skill levels welcome as the pickleball event will be organized into three levels: Beginners, Intermediate and Experienced.

Please join us on the pickleball courts!