Arthritis Resources

At our first visit with our rheumatologist, he helped us connect to the Arthritis Foundation and told us about the amazing resources that they had to offer. Within a few weeks, we had a large package delivered to our door that was filled with goodies for Lily and tons of resources for us to learn more about JIA. The Arthritis Foundation gave us our first bit of power in this new journey. They gave us resources and helped to connect us with other families like us!

We also learned about the Jingle Bell Run that the Arthritis Foundation hosts every year to fundraise for research to fight this disease. We signed up and formed our team "Lily's Elves". We were blown away at the support we received from our family and friends. THIS was a way to fight back! We may not be able to control Lily's disease, but we can try to raise money so that researchers can continue to learn more about it and look for new ways to fight it. The Jingle Bell Run has since become a very important event to our family every year! It's a day that we celebrate how far Lily has come in this journey and how strong she continues to be. She was so blessed to be asked to be the youth honoree at the Fredericksburg Jingle Bell Run in 2014 and at the Richmond run in 2017. Every year, we hope we can continue to raise as much as possible to do our part! In 2017, our team helped raise over $5,000! We hope to raise even more this year!

The Arthritis Foundation has given back to us in so many ways. Other than the Jingle Bell Run, they have hosted many JIA family days that we've been able to attend with other families. They advocate on behalf of our children. They also host a Juvenile Arthritis Conference every summer for JIA families. We were so lucky this year to be provided a scholarship from the Arthritis Foundation to attend the conference this summer in Washington D.C. It was a life changing experience. For the first time in five years, we were literally surrounded by hundreds of people who had some version of our same story to share. All of their struggles were our struggles. It was an unbelievable experience to able to meet someone and just automatically understand them. I remember walking through the streets of D.C. and seeing other families with their conference shirts on and thinking, "they are one of us". Another amazing part of the conference is that the kids get to spend time in their own sessions while the parents spend time in informational sessions. They offer support for the caregivers, the JIA kid, and the siblings. Everyone feels the love! We all were so sad when the weekend was over. If it wasn't for the Arthritis Foundation, we would have never had this amazing experience that left us knowing that we really are not alone. We hope to attend many more of these conferences in the future!

The staff at our local Arthritis Foundation have come to feel like family. They work so hard to support us and our children. We will continue to partner with them to do all that we can to advocate for children like Lily! Please click the links below to check out their amazing resources!