Running for Hope

We joined a group called Hope Kids and it has truly been such a blessing in our lives.  We first heard about it from one of our nurses at Primary Children's.  It is a big organization that helps children and families who have had life-threatening illnesses or accidents.  A lot of the children have cancer, and other really tough things going on.  It really puts things into perspective for me.  Tayton is the only child in the organization who has been burned.  Sometimes I get really discouraged with his airway situation and I get a little depressed at times and just keep wondering why me, why us.  But then we go to these Hope Kid events and I feel so blessed.  I look at other peoples trials with there children and it makes me realize ours isn't so bad.  We still have a long way to go to recover from his burns, especially his airway, but at least he is recovering.  A lot of those children we see don't ever recover and that breaks my heart.

On Saturday we did a 5k for Hope Kids and it was called Running for Hope!  It was such a neat experience, I didn't take too many pictures but we had such a great time.  My mom, dad, my sister-in-law Sara, Tayton, and myself were all on "Team Tayton."  My mom and dad pushed Blakeli and Tanna in the stroller.  The best part is Tayton rode his scooter the entire 5k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is crazy to me that 8 months ago he couldn't even walk up the stairs without stopping to catch his breath.  Sometimes at night I go for a run and Tayton will come with me on his scooter, but he always gets so exhausted and has to come back home.  He was just cruzin on his little scooter and was waiting for us most of the time.  I think this little 5k was just what he needed.  He has always been so competitive and it was fun to see that side come back.

This was Tayton after the race enjoying some popcorn.  They also had bouncy houses, face painting, snow cones, cotton candy, fruit for the healthy people, crispy cream donuts, and just a lot of really fun things going on besides the 5k.  Oh, they also had a 10k, 5k walk, and the mile adventure walk so if you want to join us next year!  We are for sure going to make this an annual event.  Hope Kids raised over $31,000 at this event.  All the money goes directly back to this amazing program.

 Some other exciting news, look who was there at the race!  Tanna was thrilled and loved seeing all the princesses.  They had a raffle at the end of the race and one prize was a one hour Princess Party with Cinderella as the host.  We decided to put some raffle tickets in and guess what, Tanna won!!!!!!!!!!  She is so excited.  I feel like Tayton gets a lot of our time and same with our new baby, and Tanna doesn't get as much time as she deserves.  So I am so happy we can have a day that is going to be all about Tanna and making her feel special because this has been really hard on her.  She had a hard time watching her brother and best friend go through that and lets face it during the first couple of months after the accident, I was not fun to be around.  Tanna has been such a great help to me and is always helping her little sister.  She is such a sweet little girl and I am so excited to have a Princess Party for her.  We can't decide when we are going to have it, but hopefully soon.

We had such a fun time and it was so nice being able to give back to an organization that has given so much to us.  Hope Kids puts on lots of fun activities (that are free of cost to the families,) and believe me with all the medical bills going on, there isn't a lot of extra money for fun activities.  It is so nice though to go to these activities and just relax and enjoy time together as a family.  We are so blessed to have each other and also so blessed to have such an amazing family and support system.  Thank you to all who supported "Team Tayton" and hopefully next year we can get more people to come out to this amazing event!