charity walk thank you

In February, to celebrate Handsome's birthday, we did a charity walk and donated the money to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  I know I have thanked everyone many times for their contributions, but I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you all again. It's so important to me that Handsome's life be remembered. I just don't want him to ever be forgotten and seeing all you come together to celebrate his life and help keep his memory alive meant the world to me! 

Walk 4 Nate

I've been struggling a lot. I lack motivation and energy. Most days, I don't even get dressed, so I apologize for the lack of blogs. I keep telling myself, "tomorrow things will be different." Things aren't different yet and I don't know when they will be. It hurts. It hurts more and more everyday that I have to wake up without my baby boy here. I know everything I feel is normal and that someday I'll be "okay." But for now, I am just doing my best. I hope I can find the words to start blogging again, like I use to. I pray for the motivation to clean and organize my house and share my tips with you all like before. And I hope that sometime soon I can start doing the fun, crafty things, I've always enjoyed doing. Please just bare with me as I try to find myself again and as I try to find joy in a world that lacks a piece of sunshine. 

I've been meaning to share with you the success of Handsome's walk! We hosted the first annual Walk 4 Nate on February 9th, 2013, days after Handsome's second birthday. It was such an amazing feeling to see all these people come out and walk for him, knowing that they cared or that Handsome touched their lives. It was beyond overwhelming, but the best part of it all was being able to donate to The Children's Hospital that took care of Handsome. 

After we walked the trail around the park, we celebrated Handsome's life. We ate blew out candles, ate birthday cake and wrote messages to Handsome on balloons that we released, sending them to Heaven. At the party, we also had an art therapist present. She had art supplies set up at a table for Handsome's party guests to draw pictures for him. It was an absolutely beautiful event. I wish I had the words to explain how much it meant to me. I love each and everyone of you supported us through this. 

Handsome's walk brought in over $2,000 in donations for Vanderbilt's Children's Hospital. Almost doubling the amount we expected to raise. What a perfect birthday present for Handsome! A $2000 donation to the hospital that he called home. 

Walk 4 Nate

We have some good things coming up in memory of Handsome! Two of my amazing friends, put together a charity walk in Handsome's name to raise funds for the hospital that treated him. We are so excited to see this walk come together. It means so much to my family to see that people aren't forgetting about him and more importantly that people are interested in helping other children like him. 

We plan on having a birthday party at the event for Handsome. We see no reason not to continue celebrating his birthday. There will be a bouncy house for the kids. Cake! Beverages! Balloons! I know Handsome would be proud of our efforts to keep his legacy alive and to help others. I know he's smiling down on us, grateful we are doing this for him! 

If you are interested in helping us out with the walk and giving back to the hospital that gave us so much, you can register to walk at active.com. All proceeds from the event are going to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital to help them to purchase state-of-the-art medical equipment, recruit the top pediatric specialist, and conduct research for finding cures for childhood diseases. Please join us! 

And invite your friends! If you aren't local and would like to get a group of people together to walk around your neighborhood, you can create a team upon registration and ask your friends and family to join your team. The team leader of the team with the most walkers will receive a free Team Nathan t-shirt!