Emmaus

Age 9, West Missouri

Meet Emmaus. Emmaus has an infectious laugh, a caring heart, and will dance at any opportunity. She enjoys music ranging from Adele to Billie Eilish and loves being read to and sung to. Starbucks and the zoo are her favorite places, and her favorite animal is the hippo. Emmaus also has Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), and has tumors in her brain, heart, eyes, kidneys and skin. She has a global developmental delay, epilepsy, and autism. She uses a g-tube for liquids, takes medications, and needs one on one care.

Emmaus’ mom Laurisa says: ""Emmaus was 5 when we knew we would need to move to a state with an accessible Medicaid waiver, the one in our state had 10+ years of wait time. Getting onto a Medicaid waiver changed our lives. Before we got on the waiver our finances were never stable due to high insurance deductible and out of pocket maxes. More than once we partially filled a prescription because we could not afford the whole thing. No family should have to chose between groceries or medicine for their child. Decreased funding to our Medicaid waiver would be devastating to our family.”

Submitted by Laurisa, Emmaus’ mom.