If there was a hiking trail to explore, her mom, Heather, carried her on her back. If the family spent the day at the beach, Addie was there. Camping trips, neighborhood walks, afternoons outside, wherever life was happening, Addie was part of it. She was never meant to watch the world from the sidelines.

Addie was born with an extraordinarily rare genetic condition known as a 3P14.1 deletion. Her earliest years were filled with heart surgeries, epilepsy, feeding tubes, developmental disabilities, and hospitalizations. More than once, doctors prepared her family for birthdays she might never celebrate.

But her mom refused to believe those predictions were the whole story.

Instead, she focused on the life her daughter could build. She carried Addie through seasons that many families never have to imagine, celebrating every milestone while making sure she remained part of every adventure. 

Somewhere along the way, though, Heather noticed something she couldn't fix with determination alone.

"When she was little, I could strap her to myself, and there wasn't much of the world she couldn't be part of," Heather said. "As she got bigger, the world started to get smaller."

But smaller didn’t work for Addie.

Heather laughs that Addie has never struggled to express an opinion. At nineteen, she wakes up asking for her swimsuit because she has already decided the day should include water. She loves Taylor Swift, insists on choosing the family's playlist, and uses her communication device with remarkable confidence to tell everyone exactly what she has planned.

She collects little treasures wherever she goes, loves spending time with her sisters, and has enough personality to keep her entire family smiling.

Heather describes her as the perfect balance of sweet and spicy, and she believes that determination has carried Addie farther than anyone ever imagined.

That determination has already rewritten so much of Addie's story.

Around her tenth birthday, Heather realized she had stopped measuring her daughter's life against the timelines she had been given.

"I started to think she has her own plan," she said. "Maybe these predictions don't have to dictate how we approach things."

Today, Addie spends her days much like any curious nineteen-year-old would. She attends adaptive horseback riding and art classes, supervises Heather's backyard garden, loves getting outside whenever the California weather cooperates, and never misses the opportunity to spend time with people.

One of her favorite places is Target because, once Heather gets her through the parking lot, Addie gets to decide where to go. She chooses the aisles, stops whenever something catches her eye, and enjoys the freedom of exploring until fatigue reminds her it's time for a break.

Those moments matter because there are so few places where Addie gets to lead.

Outside the smooth floors of Target, her manual wheelchair struggles with grass, gravel, dirt trails, and uneven sidewalks. Heather still pushes, carries, lifts, and adapts however she needs to because making memories together has never been optional. Still, she knows there is a difference between bringing Addie somewhere and giving her the freedom to explore it herself.

There is a favorite house in their neighborhood that Addie always asks to stop and admire during their walks. She loves watching the neighborhood kids race through the cul-de-sac on bikes and scooters. She knows every corner of the family's acre of property, but she has never been able to simply wander across it on her own.

"I think about what if she could just roll down there by herself," Heather said. "What if she had the independence to drive herself down to that house and stop where she wanted to look, and then decide where she wanted to go?"

That dream is about to become reality.

Thanks to the Chive community, Addie received a Bailey Built all-terrain power wheelchair that will allow her to navigate grass, dirt paths, parks, beaches, and her own backyard with an independence she has never experienced before. The total impact is $14,425.

For nineteen years, Heather has done everything she could to keep Addie's world from growing smaller. She found another way when the path became difficult, carried her when she had to, and refused to let a diagnosis decide what her daughter's life would look like.

Because of your generosity, she won't have to do that alone anymore.

Every Chive Charities grant is about more than meeting a medical need. It's about preserving possibility. It's about helping families continue saying "yes" to adventures, experiences, and everyday moments that might otherwise slip out of reach.

Heather describes Addie as the perfect balance of "a little sweet and a little spicy." Thanks to this incredible community, her world isn't getting smaller anymore. Sometimes, it will be a little sweet. Sometimes, it will be a little spicy. But for the first time in a long time, it will be as big as Addie wants it to be.

And that's the sweetest part of all. DONATE HERE.