At High Hopes, Your Concerns are Our Concerns
The concept of High Hopes originated out of our founder’s personal experiences caring for family members who have special needs.
Growing up, Angela’s step-sister had global developmental delays and complex medical conditions that required extra cares. Caring for these needs, to include running to endless doctor’s appointments, therapy appointments and navigating numerous hospital stays, had a profound impact on the other children in the household. Time is a limited commodity and as is all too often the case in families where one or more child has special needs and the time available to devote to extracurricular activities for other children was extremely limited.
In 2013, the Lewman’s welcomed their first child, a daughter named Abigail. Ten months later, in 2014, they welcomed their son, Joshua and in 2020, the Lewman’s completed their family when they welcomed their daughter Adalyn.
The Lewman’s son, Joshua was born with Trisomy 21 and he had many of the medical complications typically associated with Down Syndrome. At just five days old, Joshua had a bowel perforation requiring emergency surgery and resulting in the need for an ostomy bag for the first six months of his life. Later on, Joshua also required a g-tube in order to maintain his hydration needs. In seeking care for Joshua, the Lewman family encountered many obstacles and quickly learned that their local child care facilities were unwilling or unable to meet their family’s needs.
The birth of a child with a disability is oftentimes a shock for families. The search for suitable child care can cause an additional burden for families as they may to pay a premium for care if it can be found or they may have to consider whether or not one parent will stay at home to care for the needs of their child. We can and must offer better supports for children and families. It is from this belief that the vision for the High Hopes Child Care center was born.