Family of special boy with cerebral palsy needs help with custom bathtub

Anthony is the oldest child of Craig and Michelle Long, who always wanted to have children.

Five years ago they thought they were adopting a healthy baby boy - but Anthony's mother died in childbirth and he was deprived of oxygen for 30 minutes. Doctors didn't think he would even live.

"We cried and it was terrible," said Michelle Long. "And after two weeks, we were like, well, we too him back and they said there was no way he would live six months. And then eight months, and it kept going up."

"He was alive and we have not left his side from that time on," said Craig Long.

It's not easy but these parents love their kids. They also adopted Leah, who is now 3 years old and also has some special needs. She'll be fine, but Anthony needs extra special attention.

"(He has) cerebral palsy, he has no real movement of his arms and his legs," Michelle said. "But we're finding out now as he's getting a little older - he's got a lot going on right here (points to his brain)."

He's smart and he's growing. He is 35 pounds now - with now signs of slowing down. Anthony's parents are working to get him a wheelchair and retrofit their home  so it's accessible, which also means remodeling the bathroom.

It's getting harder and harder to bathe him and Anthony loves his baths.

"So this is actually the piece of equipment for keeping him safe in the bathtub," Craig says, showing off a platform. 

Craig says it barely fits in the tub and he has to remove the shower doors just to get it in there. Then he has to lift Anthony in it, which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the water.

They called a company about remodeling the bathroom but - it's just too expensive.

"They came out they said they could do an oversized tub a little deeper - wider - which would fit perfectly for him but it was $13,000," Craig said. "It was just out of our price range."

So their nephew started a GoFundMe page in hopes of helping them - help Anthony. After all, Craig and Michelle give everything - without asking for anything. They say their kids - are why they're here.

"We just wanted to be parents and that was it," Craig said. "If this is what we had to do, to be parents, well this is what we were asked to do to be parents.

"I think we were meant to do this," Michelle said. "It just took us some time to get there."

"We kind of believe that's why we were unable to have our own kids," Craig said. "We were waiting on them. These two needed us and it was just a matter of time before we were going to get them."

If you would like to donate to help the family, go to the family's GoFundMe page HERE.