Thank you so much for taking a moment to learn about our Amazing Ada! 

We are the Kerr Family, and Ada is the third of our four kiddos. We met Ada for the first time at a government building in China in 2019, and we fell in love right away. From the moment we met Ada, we knew that she was remarkable but also that she had a long road ahead of her.  Ada was born with a rare genetic disorder called Stickler Syndrome, and diagnosed shortly before COVID-19 shut much of the world down. This genetic disorder is a connective tissue (cartilage) deficiency, while it can present in a variety of ways some of the most common components are vision issues, hearing issues and early onset arthritis or joint pain. Ada was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum in 2023, after extensive medical review and support at Johns Hopkins.

While Ada has never let this diagnosis hold her back, it did put her in a position to experience significant global delays and other neurological challenges. Unfortunately, one of the most difficult parts of these challenges is that Ada experiences a compulsion for self-injurious behaviors. Ada has had long periods of being free from those behaviors, but they always return. Much of her behavior is focused on hitting points on her head, and generally the only way to stop the hitting is restraints or human connection. Ada loves to be closely connected with someone. She is particularly close with her older sister, and loves cuddling with her mom and dad, and in those moments her self-injury becomes less or non-existent. In the spring of 2023 Ada was accepted to the Maryland School for the Deaf, through their enhanced services program. It has been such a blessing to watch Ada learn and begin to communicate more of her needs through American Sign Language, as she is still largely non-verbal. However, this opportunity also presented new challenges in how independent Ada needed to be, and took her away from those trusted family members who could anticipate many of Ada’s needs.  

In an effort to ensure we were using every resource we could to support Ada and her growth, we decided to apply for a service dog in early 2023 and found 4Paws for Ability to be an outstanding organization with which to work. We hope that with Ada's strong desire for connection, a Service Dog will be the key to increasing Ada's opportunities for independence. We are also hoping that a Service Dog will assist in behavioral disruption and honestly, be a source of protection in case she falls into a situation where a trusted adult isn't there to guide her. 

Ada has always been a kiddo full of joy, and she has the BEST smile! Through all the doctor appointments to first determine and get an actual diagnosis and then determine treatment Ada was remarkable in how she was willing to trust us (people she had just met and who had whisked her away to a totally different country). We feel an incredible responsibility to help Ada be the amazing person we see in her, and believe that a Service Dog could be an important part of her growth. 

We hope that you will be able to meet Ada at some point, so you can experience what an incredible, funny, strong and resilient young lady she is!

Training a service dog to meet our child’s requirements can be very costly. On average it costs between $40,000-60,000 to raise, train, and place a service dog at 4 Paws for Ability. While 4 Paws for Ability fundraises to help cover a significant portion of this cost, families are tasked with raising $20,000 of that amount or $23,000 if receiving a poodle, doodle or papillon. We hope that we can receive assistance from our beloved family and friends to help make our service dog dream a reality.