From One Child to Many
By Ron Vachon-Vierra
I first became a champion for kids because of my precious daughter, Erin.
She was born after a normal pregnancy and delivery. Everything seemed perfect until she began having uncontrollable seizures at 18 months old.
At one point, we spent 10 days in a medical center. Erin had been seizing every 90 seconds, and the neurologist sat us down and told us we might want to call in our family to say goodbye. There was one medication left to try, but the doctor wasn’t hopeful.
But God had other plans.
The medication worked, the seizures stopped immediately, and we were discharged the next morning. It was nothing short of a miracle, but it was also just the beginning of our journey.
Erin’s Story
As Erin grew, she was diagnosed with multiple learning disabilities. Later, we learned she was on the autism spectrum and had a nonverbal learning disability. This means she doesn’t naturally understand nonverbal communication, like tone of voice, facial expressions, body language, and sarcasm.
Professionals told us Erin would never graduate from high school and would likely need to be institutionalized. But they didn’t know the tenacity of my daughter or what God was doing in our lives.
During her K-12 years in Pennsylvania, we pursued every evaluation and service we could. We went beyond basic educational testing and included comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations that explained how Erin’s brain actually worked. We wanted to understand her strengths and her challenges. She had everything–speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, equine therapy, music therapy, and reading specialists. And it worked!
Erin not only graduated from high school, but she also graduated from Northern Arizona University with a bachelor’s degree and a 3.9 GPA. Today, she lives independently, has a career, and contributes to her community. She is thriving–not because the challenges disappeared–but because she had support, advocacy, and people who refused to accept limiting labels as her destiny.
A Truth We Couldn’t Ignore
This journey exposed a hard truth, however: Erin’s experience was not the norm.
Erin’s services were covered through her Pennsylvania school district, private health insurance, and our own ability to pay out of pocket. My wife Eileen and I had the resources and flexibility to fight for our daughter. Many families do not.
Too many parents are navigating complex education systems while working multiple jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, and being told–explicitly or implicitly–that their child with special needs is asking for too much. Our hearts broke for them.
A Leap of Faith
Ten years ago, I felt God calling me to support these families. We had already relocated to Arizona. Now we felt led to move to Cottonwood and launch Leap of Faith Learning.
Leap of Faith Learning is a nonprofit organization that serves children with learning differences and disabilities across rural northern Arizona, especially those who are in low-income or underserved communities. We provide students with the same level of whole-child care that changed the life of my own daughter–at no cost to their families.
Our work is built on four pillars: assessment, advocacy, and remediation.
- Assessment: We fund comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations so families can finally understand how their child’s brain works. (These evaluations cost thousands of dollars out of pocket and are generally not offered by school districts.)
- Advocacy: After the assessment is complete, we come alongside parents as they present those results to their school district and advocate for their students. We sit at IEP tables with parents and help hold schools accountable with kindness and professionalism.
- Remediation: We provide tutoring, equine therapy, work-study opportunities, and employment readiness training for students. Our goal is to prepare these children for lifelong success.
- Ministry: Leap of Faith Learning is a ministry that shares God’s message of hope for every child’s future and helps them to identify as God’s masterpiece. We minister to the whole family through Bible studies, fellowship dinners where parents can connect, and we train churches across Arizona to become inclusive places where children with special needs are loved and welcomed.
From One Child to Many
Every child deserves the chances my daughter was given, and every family deserves someone to stand beside them. While we are a small organization, we have helped more than 150 children and their families find hope, clarity, and a future.
Looking back, I see that Erin’s journey was never only about our family. God was preparing our hearts for the families we would one day serve. And I am grateful for the privilege of walking beside them.
