{"id":2517,"date":"2016-09-13T19:18:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T19:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=2517"},"modified":"2016-09-13T19:18:08","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T19:18:08","slug":"hed-like-to-be-a-pepper-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=2517","title":{"rendered":"He’d like to be a Pepper too!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, I call my college aged son.\u00a0 I think it goes without saying, but I will say it anyways. I miss him. <\/em><\/strong>To play down how much I miss him, I always end the phone call with some snarky bit of wisdom akin to \u201cSawyer, just in case you didn\u2019t know I have not changed my number.\u201d\u00a0 Otherwise, I might end the call in tears begging him to come home.\u00a0 This of course, would be purely for my own benefit and definitely not his, because he is making a life for himself and establishing how he wants to be a powerful force for change in the world.\u00a0 And while he is much like his paternal grandmother who isn\u2019t much of telephone conversationalist, our chats are brief. Outside of that, when talking with him, I would say he errs on the side of understatement<\/strong> of how much good he has brought to the world so far.<\/p>\n

Well, not his momma! I will gladly wear the hyperbole banner<\/em> . . . because I can. I\u2019m the mom!<\/p>\n

There are things on social media that blow me away \u2013 like the Olympic moms\u2019 commercials and other inspirational videos, but then there are the ones that make me shake my head. Usually they are in the \u201cAre you sure you realized that you hit post?\u201d category because I wonder what their mothers are thinking when and if they see it.<\/p>\n

I know I was in that category last week, when I saw my sister-in-law liked a post on said college boy\u2019s page.\u00a0 What I read simply took my breath away.<\/p>\n

In a really GOOD way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

My son, my version of the Boy Wonder, is vying for a full tuition prize through a contest with the Dr. Pepper\/Seven Up Corporation. In the competition, he has to describe how he would change the world.<\/p>\n

FIND A CURE TO AD USING PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

First and foremost I don’t know what kind of future I can have other than one devoted to helping others. When I was a young kid I was severely injured and spent many months in the hospital. This experience has given me the drive to devote my life to using medicine to help improve the lives of others. Specifically by researching ways to combat AD. ~Sawyer S<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MELT. MY. MOMMA. HEART.<\/p>\n

I am sure my son was limited on space, but one can never discount his proclivity to understating the story.\u00a0 So let me fill in the details.<\/p>\n

In 2008, three of our four children were riding home on the school bus when the bus was hit.\u00a0 In the aftermath of the crash, four children died (including our oldest son) and fourteen others were injured.\u00a0 One of the seriously wounded was our Sawyer.\u00a0 The crash left him with a head injury, bruised lungs, a lacerated spleen, a shattered left femur, a broken and dislocated right hip, and severe nerve damage.\u00a0 That year alone he spent twelve weeks in and out of the hospital before he was well enough to attend the last five days of the school year . . . using a wheelchair because he was unable to walk for several years afterwards. He never complained and when they wouldn\u2019t let him play football for the next 3 years, he took up guitar to keep himself busy.\u00a0 He has endured more than most adults and is still a beacon of positivity.<\/p>\n

Prior to the bus crash, we had been adopted, so to speak, by a sweet gentleman and grandpa in our church.\u00a0 This gentleman designed and made elaborate woodworking creations.\u00a0 When the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby rolled around, Sawyer asked Grandpa if he would help him and his dad with his car.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just say, I am not sure who was more proud of that winning car, Sawyer or Grandpa! When the bus crash happened, Grandpa was distraught over how he could help our family and asked his son and daughter-in-law to arrange to pay for the hotel room that we stayed in for the nine days we were there.\u00a0 In the next year, Grandpa started to slowly fade away from us as Alzheimer\u2019s disease \u2013 that cruel and wretched disease stole most, but definitely not all, of the amazingness of the man who loved us as his own. And in the final days, Sawyer never missed a chance to visit him.<\/p>\n

So there is the AD piece, but let me tell you about my son.<\/p>\n

When he says that he cannot imagine a life not devoted to serving others. This isn\u2019t just lip service.\u00a0 He means every word.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t forgotten a single kindness extended to us or to him specifically since that awful day 8 years ago.\u00a0 He has used every opportunity to give back and to serve as much as possible (even after having had over 30 surgical procedures since that awful day).\u00a0 I know I\u2019m his mom, but I would be following in his footsteps, if I didn\u2019t use the word inspirational<\/em><\/strong> in the same breath as I use to speak his name. Some of my favorites of his kindnesses are inviting a special needs student to attend the prom with him and his date, writing letters and personally inviting every single responding unit to the bus crash (there were over 30) to attend his graduation, and taking time in the hall ways at school to high-five, hug, or \u201cwrestle\u201d around with elementary students. Once he enamored a whole passel of children at the community gardens so the parents could finish up harvesting.\u00a0 There sat a big group of children mesmerized by the wonders of my Boy Wonder.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m his mom.\u00a0 I can boast.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 But remember I started with he\u2019s not perfect, he doesn\u2019t always call his mother, and I am not sure that elementary teachers enjoyed seeing him in the halls due to the melee that often ensued.<\/p>\n

But now you see a piece of his heart and his love for serving others.<\/p>\n

Then there is the aptness of the corporation sponsoring this contest.\u00a0 About a week after the funeral services for our other son, we were trapped in a fog of grief, medical treatments, and generally being overwhelmed.\u00a0 Add to this the nerve damage that Sawyer endured, we had a young man who writhed in excruciating pain 24 hours a day. Exhausted was the understatement of the century.\u00a0 Thankfully, we live among amazing friends and neighbors who kept a vigilant watch over how to best help us.\u00a0 One such evening, a neighbor popped over to check in on us.\u00a0 She asked numerous times if there was anything she could do \u2013 right then – to help us.\u00a0 What I lack in the trivialization department, I more than make up for in \u201cI can do it myself\u201d pride.\u00a0 Several times, I assured her that we were fine.\u00a0 As she got to the door, stepping into her winter boots and parka, she implored one last time, and just as I was about to stop her, my – at the time – little guy spoke up.<\/p>\n

I could sure use a Dr. Pepper.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As Paul Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.<\/p>\n

And Dr. Pepper he had! I should probably apologize to the truck driver because I think she perhaps hijacked a delivery truck. It was a moment that I have never forgotten.\u00a0 Of all the things, he could have asked for to bring comfort, it was a Dr. Pepper.<\/p>\n

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I am including this picture – just in case he has forgotten what I look like. I am the one in sunglasses.<\/p><\/div>\n

But in all seriousness, even on his moving back to college day, he proudly wore the shirt from the night he danced all night<\/em> to support two little boys who require extensive medical care and he hates dancing.<\/p>\n

This sweet boy of mine needs your help.\u00a0 Please go to the link below and vote for him and ask your friends and neighbors and Boy Wonders to vote too. Help him to shine his light and use his potential to truly find a cure for the disease that took away one adopted grandpa so that no one else has to endure that pain.\u00a0 And like the commercial from my youth used to say, I am pretty sure my son would love to \u201cbe a Pepper too!\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.drpeppertuition.com\/profile\/Sawyer-S-8<\/a><\/p>\n

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Every week, I call my college aged son.\u00a0 I think it goes without saying, but I will say it anyways. I miss him. To play down how much I miss him, I always end the phone call with some snarky bit of wisdom akin to \u201cSawyer, just in case you didn\u2019t know I have not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[1452,1448,735,1453,1339,1454,1455,1088,274,313,627],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}