I am a horrible person for not writing about this sooner. I have thought about it literally a thousand times and every time I try to sit and write about it, I know that no amount of words will ever do justice to what my heart wants to say.
Jay and I are blessed with the BEST friends in the whole world. I have always been a pretty private person and don’t let a lot of people to close to me. I have an amazing small group of friends that have done so much for me that I doubt I could ever repay them in any meaningful way. I wish that they each could peek into my heart to know how I feel about them and know that I would do anything I possibly could for them in a heartbeat. I know life is crazy and my days are consumed by all things Nathan, but I am here for you all too.
Back in May we had a fundraiser for Nathan. However, you would have to start that off backing it up to the August prior where I sat on my oldest girlfriends couch and we threw around ideas of what we could do. It lead to a couple more get together’s and more conversations. It lead to conversations I was not even privy to. It lead to a wonderful graphic designer who designed Nathan’s logo out of the goodness of her own heart. It lead to old friends and new friends coming together all to help our son. I would like to think that all along the way, it touched people’s heart as they learned a little more about our little boy and helped spread awareness about Batten Disease.
I will be the first to admit that I had NO idea the amount of work that went into fundraising. For those of you that have done this understand the amount of work that goes into this. Months and months went into planning for this event. We had the space donated, we had T-shirts made, we offered it online, it was advertised in so many different ways. It was pretty amazing to see it all come together.
I was so nervous the day of, I was afraid that no one would show up. I was wrong, there were easily over a hundred people there, not to mention the ones who were bidding online! We went early after work and helped set up. There were over 100 vendors or people that had donated items. We had anything from fast food items to a safari to Africa. It was unreal. The hours that our friends put in to sending letters about Nathan or making a phone call or driving all over town to get the packages is nothing short of wonderful. I just cannot say enough how much Jay and I appreciated everyone’s time and effort that they put into this. I am still in awe at the graciousness that our friends showed by donating their time and talents to make sure this was a success. And for all of you that came or bid online or even made a donation to our GoFundMe account, THANK YOU! Those two words are not adequate. There is not a word in the dictionary that would ever describe the gratitude we have.
We are so pleased to say that through everything, we raised $29,547.36.
This far surpassed any reasonable expectation we had. We have already been able to remodel Nathan’s bathroom to accommodate his needs with this. He know has a walk in shower, with grab bars and a seat so that he is safe. The entire bathroom has been fit to his needs. He has gone from screaming through bath time to actually enjoying it. It is amazing to see!
From the absolute bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU! A million times over, thank you.
Jay and Stacey
Nathan's Batten Battle 
Awesome….great pics and so very happy for all…Blessings and Prayers
Thank you!