Family Builds Wheelchair-Accessible Snow Fort For Their Nine Adopted Children
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Using the best motorized wheelchair can give people access to places they couldn’t go otherwise. A family in Ohio created a magical place for their children with disabilities to play and enjoy the winter weather, including two of their children that use motorized wheelchairs.
The Eichorn family has nine children with special needs, all of them adopted. They told Fox News that while caring for the kids, who range in age from 4 to 19, isn’t easy, it is rewarding, beautiful and amazing.
“We love adoption and kids with special needs,” Gregg Eichhorn said about himself and his wife, Katie.
When Gregg and his sister Sarah Brantley decided to build a snow fort for the kids to play in, they decided to make it wheelchair-accessible for two of the kids, 19-year-old Zahara and 11-year-old Elijah.
The snow fort even includes a snow slide from the top.
Gregg posted pictures of the snow fort on Facebook, then one of the Eichhorns’ friends shared some of the photos on Reddit. The family’s story went viral, with more than 71,000 positive votes.
Eichhorn told People magazine Zahara was very happy and felt special and included, and that Elijah, who is visually impaired, opened his eyes so they knew he was excited as well. He said he and Katie never expected the accessible igloo to get so much attention.
“I keep telling everybody, it’s really no big deal. We were already building a snow fort so when we were doing it I said, ‘Hey, let’s build it so that Elijah and Zahara, my two kids in wheelchairs, could use it as well,’” he told People.
The family’s children have special needs including heart issues, cerebral palsy, vision impairment and more.
Gregg Eichhorn and his sister spent nearly five hours building the snow form with occasional help from some of the kids.
Gregg and Katie want to get the word out about adopting children with special needs and how much their kids have enriched their lives.
“The thing that matters least is genetics,” Gregg Eichhorn said.
