Heartwalk

The heartwalk used to mean hope to our family.  It used to be about being thankful for all the research that made it possible for us to have Ian.  It was different this year.  It was about determination.  It was about resilience.  It was about proving to Ian that we won't give up the fight.  It was a way to show we haven't forgotten his struggle and how incredibly tough he was.  I suppose I could still say it is about being thankful for the research--we got 16 years longer than we would have because of medical advancements and  those who came (and went) before.

Almost at the finish line with the Ian's Superstar Sign

We had 100 T-shirts and we came home with 8.  We were very pleased and so grateful for good friends.  It was a sea of orange.  The volunteers all being dressed in the UOP orange T-shirts didn't hurt either.

The girls in Young Womens

 A couple more girls came after the photo was taken.  And in primary on Sunday, there were only 3 kids that didn't raise there hands when the primary president asked who had fun walking the day before.  Luckily they were the 3 who weren't there.


The group from Ian's School



It made me so happy to see kid's we didn't even know there walking and remembering Ian, even after not seeing him for over a year.  That may sound stupid, but teenagers have a pretty short attention span these days.

Keith and Chad--Ian's best friend

Even friends that couldn't walk with us made the day special.  When we went out to the car, we found candy messages, superhero symbols and our team logo on the van.  It was a great start to the day.

Johnsons are great!

It was a good day.  Once again, the anticipation and the let down after were worse than the actual event itself.  Except for seeing Ian's 4th grade girlfriend, that was rough.  Seeing her as a high school junior with her whole life ahead of her stung a little bit.  I'd like to think she wasn't just there as a volunteer for her school though, that some part of her was there to remember the day she walked it with Ian several years ago.