I still can't believe everything that's happened in the past 72 hours. I have whiplash from it all.

After I got off the phone with Cincinnati Children's hospital, I was crushed and defeated. A friend asked me "what's your next steps". I had no idea and wanted to cry. I told her my next step was to get a vent peppermint mocha and cry into it.

I did my best to suck up my big feelings, and I got on with my day. It didn't help that I was up at 4am dealing with medical stuff too. So I had an online grocery store pickup and decided to take Odin with me for moral support. I got him a pup cup and laughed at him as he tried to jump into the Starbucks drive thru window. He was blocked immediately and never stood a chance.

Odin was very helpful in lifting my mood. On the way home, I kept thinking and praying about what the next steps were. The only thing that came to mind was a wheelchair van for Mattie. So after talking about it with Michael, we dared to attempt it.

I made a post on Facebook about wanting to do this. Within 5 minutes of that post, I had a phone call from a friend. His son has the same diagnosis as Mattie. His son has had major surgery this fall that was successful. It restored his ability to walk. His son is now back at work, thriving, and happy. This family got a wheelchair van for their child. Thanks to the successful surgery, they no longer need the van. They wanted to sell it to us for an amazing price we couldn't refuse.

They decided to accept a down payment on the van and have given us time to pay off the full amount of the asking price. They felt it was so important that Mattie have this new found independence that they went out of their way to do this for him.

We are able to give them the down payment for the van. And now we are fundraising for the rest of it. We also have a buffer for insurance, taxes, maintenance, and any emergency expenses included in the fundraiser. 

We are so thankful to the Zerges family for this amazing gift of freedom for our son. Thank you for everyone who is helping us make this happen for Mattie with this fundraiser.