BIKE UPDATE…COMPLETELY HUMBLED!!!

I don’t even know how or where to begin to explain what has transpired over the last 48 hours with the bike situation. I sit here COMPLETELY humbled with tears in my eyes…overwhelmed with love and gratitude.

As you all know we have been pushing for weeks now to win Dakota a therapy bike from the Great Bike Giveaway!! I learned about this event from a blog reader/internet friend. ;) At the time she told me about it it had just happened and was a whole year away from happening again. So I put my email in to get notified of the next one and started surfing the web for used or cheaper bikes that maybe we could afford. They were hard to come by since they are few and far between. Back in February I got the email that the giveaway was about to happen again since it is a yearly thing and I jumped for joy thinking…we HAVE to win this for Dakota!!!
I put on my competitive shoes and went to work (I wear them a lot! ;)) I spread the word on my blog, facebook, instagram, texting to ANYONE and EVERYONE I could think of!! And man…I am still in awe at the amount of people that jumped in and went to work right alongside of me. My mom started passing out fliers everywhere she went, my grandma is the emailing and facebook queen, people went from computer to computer on their college campus to vote, my friends have shared and shared and shared, people who I don’t even  know personally have been campaigning from England to Canada to Australia to here for Dakota, and I can’t even count the number of times it was shared on facebook!! I am so overwhelmed by the love of so many who want more then ever to see Dakota win this bike!! I get so many texts a day wondering what place he is in…it is so so so sweet!!!

I want to SINCERELY thank EACH and EVERY one of you for your love and efforts in ours and Dakota’s behalf!!! It has touched our hearts TREMENDOUSLY and thank you is just not even enough!!! Without each and every one of you who has taken the time to vote and share we would never have even had a chance at this!!! As I sit here at this computer with 2 days left of this competition he has 28,252 votes!!!! Who would have thought we would ever get that high? Not me!!! I was so happy when we hit 1,000!!!



For those of you who have been following closely…he has been  neck and neck with a cute boy named Tristan who I think must have just as big of fan club as Dakota. I never dreamed it would be this hard but it makes me smile to see how much this has meant to so many!!

Well a couple days ago I got a phone call from some of my friends back in AZ whom I haven’t even spoken to in a little while. What they had to say knocked me right off of my chair and brought tears to my eyes.

They don’t want their names mentioned because that is what kind of people they are…but they have asked me to step back from trying to win this competition because they want to get Dakota this bike…not just to help him but to guarantee that cute Tristan will get his bike.They told me as they see more and more kids added to the competition each day they would love to be able to see each kid get a bike but they obviously can’t do that. But by helping Dakota get a bike it guarantees that another kid will for sure win a bike and that other kids will have a better chance.

All they want me to do now is to get each one of you to go and vote for any kid that doesn't have 50 votes yet…so that they are guaranteed an opportunity to get into the raffle to win one of the other bikes. The kindness and genuine care that they have for not just Dakota but all these kids literally has blown me away!!!

I can’t even describe in words the conversations that I have had with them. Of course I denied their VERY generous offer because we didn't enter into this competition for someone else to fork out money for us to have a bike. We were okay with asking people to take 2 seconds to vote for Dakota but not okay for asking for people's money. Both Zach and I struggle with being at the receiving end. It is WAY more fun to be on the giving end. But after two long conversations with both of them and a lot of thought about it…I truly believe that our loving Heavenly Father has blessed them to be in this position to be able to do this for Dakota because He knew what kind of hearts they have. As they sincerely turned to Him in prayer with this desire to want to do this in their heart…He answered them with a yes and ever since they have been “laser focused” (those are their words)on getting Dakota this bike!! It took Zach and I a couple days to soak it all in and humble ourselves to be able to say yes to something so so big!!

The only reason we decided we could…is because if any of you could have listened in on our conversation…you would have felt of this sweet couples sincerity and desire to want to give generously of what they have been blessed with and I know if Zach and I were in the same position to do this for someone else we wouldn’t skip a beat and we would be THRILLED to do this for someone else and would want more then ever for them to say yes! I truly have witnessed a marvelous thing and recognize a loving Heavenly Father’s hand in this. I know that each one of us truly are instruments in His hands and if we are willing to listen and allow Him to guide our lives as this sweet, incredible, and amazing friends of mine have…I know He will be able to use each and every one of us to do SO much good in the world! And it isn’t always about giving money. Sometimes he needs us to just be there for someone else to listen to, hug, or cry with. Sometimes he needs us to serve and just show someone else we love them!! I hope that every person that reads this will be able as touched by this incredible example as we have and become better human beings because of it!!

Matthew 25:40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

I still can't even believe this!! I don't even know how to begin to thank them for this!! I just hope that one day Zach and I can continue to pay it forward!!!

So to find and vote for the kids not yet in the raffle go to this link. If a kids box is grey and not green it means they haven’t quite hit 50 yet. Click on their box and nominate them. Again…I can’t thank you all enough for EVERYTHING you have done to get Dakota SO many votes! Thank you thank you!!!!!