Our Events Part 3 {scroll down and read "Gage part 2" first. It will make more sense that way.}

Gage came home from the hospital and was recovering nicely. He was suffering from a side effect called "Cerebellar Mutism" which consists of loss of speech, motor skills and balance. He began to attend Physical Therapy twice a week and soon these side effects became less and less. He still loses his balance and has a hard time with some motor skills, but we are confident this will all return to its full capacity.

In the mean time we were busy planning our Run N Roll day. Eight of Gretchen and Troy's friends got on board, my friend Jamie, Cam & Erin, and myself. We began to refer to ourselves as "Team Gage." We spent our days finding sponsors, making phone calls, sending emails, planning meetings, and running around the city.  But these are just "details" what was really happening was Magic.

It seemed like every single day one of us from Team Gage would receive another phone call, message, or email about someone else that heard Gage's story and wanted to help, to donate, to be a part of, to give a hug to,  to show their love, to cry with us, to reach out, to care.
We began to hear stories from complete strangers about how their son is going through leukemia and they want to help..or someone else knew someone that was suffering from cancer..or someone else whose husband had to have a bone marrow transplant, or someone's grand daughter who was born one pound..And every single one of them had had a lot of help from other people and they wanted to "pay it forward."  People's stories, peoples struggles. And and this is where it all became clear. It began to make sense..These people..These complete Strangers...These friends..They were the ones saving US. .  They taught us what matters. They showed us what charity is. They proved to us that  human nature is good. They Changed us. Forever..They taught us that We were all the same. We need each other and
We became connected.
Connected to something bigger out there.
Connected to what matters.
Connected to Reality.
Connected to each other.
We may never see some of these people again..but we will always be connected. We will always love each other. We will always watch out for each other. And we will be more aware because of them.

Our day finally came.  Team Gage was tired, but we were ready..
We started out the day at 6:15 am setting up Murray Park for our Save the Day 5k. We had banners, sponsors,  T-shirts, cookies from Haagermans Bakery, strawberries, apples, and clif bars from Whole Foods, water bottles from Fiji water, energy drinks from H2Ooverdrive, coffee, hot chocolate, tables, chairs, a D.J., cones, caution tape, runners bags, megaphones, microphones, flags, posters, our course mapped out,  everything you can think of..we had it ready to go.
And then the firemen. Gage's firemen..OUR firemen..With their truck, ladder up with American flag waving proudly set as our backdrop to our Start line.

Then they began to arrive..by the ones, the tens, then the hundreds...
The energy and excitement was so thick you could almost taste it. The spirit that was unlike anything I have ever experienced.

And I stood there..
I looked around in AWE. I teared up at the most beautiful, amazing sight I had ever seen. All of those people were there for the same reason. They had felt it too..They KNEW we were all connected..That because of Gage, but also something much bigger, we had all been changed.

Gage led us in the "MARK, GET SET, GO!" and they were off..many high-fived Gage as they ran by him, loving him and thanking him for allowing them to be part of something so great.
We partied, we danced, we gave prizes, we had raffle winners, we laughed, we cried some more, and we CELEBRATED. Celebrated Gage and all that is good in this world.

Then we packed up, left our amazing 5k and continued on to Bonwood Bowl where we would set up for our Silent Auction and a great day of bowling. We had 81 companies that had donated to us..Items consisted anywhere from gift cards to resturants, to week long vacations. We had snowboards, spa treatments, baby items, children's bikes, electric guitars, wall art, makeup, guided river trips, guided hunting trips, wine baskets, children's baskets, anything and everything that you could think of..And it was a complete success!! Every item was bid on, every item was sold.
Every lane in the bowling alley was taken. It was a full house.

The spirit continued on there..At one point I saw my uncle Scott in the cafe where the auction items were set up and he said to me, "the energy here is unbelievable..this is an amazing sight..and then tears streamed down his face, as he said to me, I have never seen anything like this."
He felt it too.

Then in walked Dr. Walker. Gage's surgeon. We were so happy to see him. I asked him If I could embarrass him, to which he replied with a humble voice "no." To which I replied back, "well I'm sorry Dr. Walker, but we just have to."  I took him by the arm and he hesitantly followed..Cameron hushed the bowling alley and we honored that man. For giving Gage his life. For giving US our Gage.  Everyone cheered, people got goosebumps, and their were more tears shed.

The whole day was surreal. It felt like a dream. It was unreal. It was the most amazing thing I have ever had the honor of being a part of.  I will never forget it. I will never forget how hard Team Gage worked, I will never forget how many people reached out. I will never forget the connection we all felt. And I will be changed forever because of it. When I look back on that night talking to my friend Jamie, the helpless feeling that I had, to what it had become,  never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined it. Never would I have thought that I would be a part of something so incredible.
And once again I prayed and Thanked Heavenly Father for giving us this miracle.