Saturday Morning Stroll

This weekend Gabe's GEMs cheerful stepped out in support of our little guy. We hardly needed to put one foot in front of the other as we blew through the route. Never mind the clouds, chill, and WIND - the weather was no more unpredictable as the daily ups and downs of living with SB.  We've learned to make the best of it and look for the silver linings.  

And make the best of it we did...

In an effort to raise awareness for all those living with Spina Bifida, as well as to raise funds to support our community, the first West MI Stroll N Roll was a great success.  According to our amazing organizers, Leigh & Emily, initial counts show the event raised over $20,000!

Thank you to all of you who continue to walk along side our family and our new"extended family."

Gabe's GEMs

In honor of the new community of friends we have found in the last year, the children and adults living with SB, all that the West MI Spina Bifida Association is doing for families like ours, and in honor of Gabe's 1st Birthday we invite you to stroll and celebrate life with us!

Join The GEMs as we walk, talk, and have a great time celebrating your support for our family during the last year and all of our Glimpses of Everyday Miracles:)

When: October 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM
Where: Millenium Park 1415 Maynard Ave SW Grand Rapids, MI

As we build our team we will be designing a simple t-shirt for those who will be strolling with us. I will let you know when they are available if you are interested.


The Stroll ‘N Roll is a family friendly event being held to raise awareness about Spina Bifida and to celebrate those living with it. The goal of this event is to create teams that will collect donations for the West Michigan Spina Bifida Association. All proceeds are used for programs and services for people living with Spina Bifida.

For those of you who would normally attend Gabe's birthday party and bring a gift we would like you to consider making a donation to our stroll and roll team instead. You have already been especially generous with our family this year, so we want to be clear that no donation is required or expected for your participation. Whether or not you would like to donate to the team we would LOVE to have your company during our stroll.

Credit card donations will be accepted through WePay.


For more information about the event: http://wmspinabifida.org/strollnroll/Home.html

The Great Gabe Escape Thank You

A year ago today we met with a specialist who confirmed what our doctor expected. We left his office with a new itinerary; we were destined for Spina Bifida. That same day you all began praying for our little traveler by name. Over the last year you have helped us put the wind back in our sails, the chugga chugga in our choo choo...okay, I'll stop.

While this is a journey Gabe will never get away from we are committed to taking every highway that might build on his potential. We will follow any road signs that encourage Gabe’s self determination. And at each rest stop we hope to leave a new sign pointing others to Him who deserves the glory for Gabe’s success.

We have already learned there are detours and even road blocks, but also interesting new sites to explore, beautiful fellow travelers, unexpected treasures, and amazing discoveries to make along the way!

Thank you all for sharing your time, your prayers, and your financial resources to help lighten our load. We can not thank you enough for your continued love for our family!

Thank you to Dan and Amanda for all of the time and thought they put into planning this event.  Everyone needs the kind of friends they are to us - those who will think outside of the box, those who look for opportunities to bless others, those who quietly clean up the messes instead of just pointing them out, those who are really real, those who make doing life together simple & fun.  We love you long time;)

{photo credit}

The "Fine Print" Thank Yous:

Food Donations:

Request Foods

Big Apple Bagel

Jimmy Johns

Shelby

Angie

Prize Donations (and winners):

{frames by Bloem and Grow}

Holiday Inn Express Holland (Kelly and Ryan & Kara and Scott)

Hampton Inn Holland (Sarah and Doug)

Lake MI Cottage (Gary and Diane)

Into the Woods (Nancy Rummel)

The Shack (Scott and Rachel)

Lia Sophia (Laura and Chuck)

West MI Whitecaps (Scott and Rachel)

Hudsonville Ice Cream (Jill and Marty)

McGuires of Cadillac (Sean and Amy)

Winding Creek Golf Course (Judy Cochran)

Ravines Golf Course (Jeremy and Annie)

Riverfront Cabin (Steph and Jeff)

Tupper Kids Party on the Go (Amy and Pete)

Hairbow-tique Bow Holder (Laura and Chuck)

Generous Donors:
Anderson
Bush
Ergang
Hamlin
Hostetler
Boerma
Frimodig
Rees
Price
Reitzel
Blackwell
Hopkins
Miller
Precourt
Ergang
Nyboer
Gorter
Volkers
Lokey
Kooyer
Bloemers
Cochran
Fuller
Conway
Hoekstra
Wojcik
Elderidge
Gavigan
Smith
Bateman
Schweri
Toole
Meyering
Coffey
Carlson
DeVries
Grzybowski
Henkel
Wagner
Bartlett
Balczak
VanderBoome
Kammeraad
Ergang
Klifman
Ergang
Riggle
Apothecar
Landes
Romero
Bloemers
Klifman
Rummler
Doren
Klifman
Eriks
Brouwer
Johnson
Gray
Martin
Speelman
Kapenga
Cordes
Brott
Heneveld
Kapenga
Smith
Foote
Heneveld
Goff
McBride
Henry
Snyder
Phothisan
Morasco
Van De Brake

The Great Gabe Escape

We are looking forward to celebrating friendship, hope, progress, generosity…

{love}

{support}

{and baby gabe}

…at tonight’s Great Gabe Escape!

Oh, The Cute!

Two of our incredibly crafty friends have contributed hand made lovelies to Gabe's Great Escape giveaways.  Connie, from Hairbow-Tique has put together a fantastically girly hair bow holder and five unique bows to be given as prizes at the event.

Kate, from Bloem and Grow, has been busy putting together frames to hold the prize certificates that will be given to each of the Great Escape winners.  It may have turned in to a bigger project than she imagined at first as we continue to add great new getaways to the list!

We are so thankful to these friends for adding their creative touch to the event!

7, 8, 9!

I can't believe that our little guy is days away from being 8 months old!  You would think by now, after 4 kids, I would have figured out how to slow time down a bit.  No luck! 

Anyway, how is your luck?  There is still plenty of time to enter the Great Gabe Escape giveaways.  While we are close to maxing out the capacity at Into the Woods with the RSVPs we have collected so far, there is always room for more tickets in the drawing and you need not be present to win. 

Here are the two (actually 3) more examples of of the getaways you could be entered to win.

 {there are 2 of these to be given}

{this is also the lovely venue for the dinner portion of our event}

Lucky or not, we are crazy blessed...

...by our friends who have organized this event

...by the generous sponsors who have provided the giveaways

...by the many family members and friends who have already made donations in support of Gabe's therapy efforts!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

With the schedule the "big" kids are keeping, Mr. Gabe is going to be no stranger to the T-Ball bleachers for the next two months.   We sure hope he loves the outdoor air, sunshine, and cheering.

He is hoping that someone else will also enjoy a ball game with this Great Gabe Escape giveaway package!

Sleepover Options

 {photo credit: The Shack}

{photo credit: vrbo}

These are two more of the amazing getaways included in The Great Gabe Escape giveaway!

18 Holes

{2 More Great Escape Giveaways}

Eye, Eye, Ice Cream

This morning Gabe had his first appointment with a pediatric opthamologist.  After his recent evaluation with Early On there was some concern that perhaps he had a vision problem.  This momma is pretty sure it was more about wanting the big, noisy, colorful toy than the small pieces of rice. Anyway...they wanted to rule out a vision difficulty before moving forward with occupational therapy.

I am all about ruling out obstacles for Gabe so today we saw the specialist.  What is amazing is that in a short amount of time they are able to get very specific information about his optic nerves, eye muscle strength, and vision.  Since he is still dealing with cerebral spinal fluid in his ventricles there is a chance the extra pressure could damage the nerves and muscles.  However, at this point we were thrilled to hear that Gabe's eyes checked out perfectly.  This is one specialist we will not need to see again for a year.  Yay!

In celebration, we thought we should share a sneak peek at just one of the many Great Gabe Escape packages available to win in our upcoming fundraising giveaway!  Over the next few weeks we will look forward to previewing the rest of them for you as well.

The Great Gabe Escape

We are so excited  to begin sharing, with all of our loyal Gabe supporters, a creative idea our friends have put into motion.  Dan and Amanda Kapenga, are going to be hosting a benefit event for our little man at Into the Woods Retreat!  "The Great Gabe Escape" will include a lovely meal, photography sessions for guests, and the chance to win one of several great getaways.  We will be giving away overnight stays to local hotels, a weekend at a Lake Michigan cottage, a weekend at a cozy Up North cabin, and a private tour of Hudsonville Ice Cream ending with a year's worth of ice cream! All of the escapes have been generously donated in Gabe's honor. 

We are blown away.  Humbled.  Totally excited about what's to come! 

More specific details are available.  Even if you are not able to attend in person on the 1st, there are opportunities for you to be involved.  Leave us a note here with your contact details and we will send you the information if you are interested. 

Sneak Peek

                                                          {the great gabe e.s.c.a.p.e}

Thanks to some amazing friends, with giant hearts, we have something big in the works.  We are looking forward to sharing the details and the fun very soon!