All because two people fell in love...: Walk like MADD 2013

We all have things we are passionate about... I have learned the past few years that when I am doing something I love, I am so much more happy. We tend to be passionate about the things closest to our hearts and for us, MADD is one of those things. MADD has been a part of Matthews life for 24 years; one stupid man decided to drive drunk and hit his family causing a major accident, killing his brother Ryan (age 7), Aunt and cousin, injuring everyone else very badly. Since then, we've devoted our time to advocating for MADD's mission, not to drink and drive. We volunteer our time, both of us in different ways because truthfully, deep down inside we hope to impact one life, one day while at the same time carrying on Ryan's story. Matthew enjoys public speaking at MADD's victim impact panels, sharing Ryan's story and standing in front of a bunch of people often times getting a "second chance" praying he knocks some sense into them at the expense of his own brothers life (that sounded harsh but its the truth. HE chooses to share how his brother died and how its impacted his life to hopefully keep these people from causing the same accident). I, on the other hand, prefer to devote my time more behind the scenes with MADD and have served as the run chair for Walk like MADD's MADD dash 5k the past 2 years. MADD provides so much more than a walk each year... they counsel families who have lost loved ones, work with laws and lawyers on punishments and new laws related to drinking and driving, advocate year round about making safe choices when drinking for your sake and everyone else's and more importantly stands up year after year for an epidemic that kills so many people hourly.

MADD may not be your thing, you may not want to join our team, donate or walk with us each year, but we appreciate your support SO SO much. This years walk/run was amazing. We had over 500 participants and as of today have raised nearly $45,000 (expected to increase by about $5000) this year. This money will go to victim services, advocacy programs, educational materials and operating costs for the services provided to families on an hourly basis when they loose a loved one to drinking and driving.

We started our day off bright and early, Matthew marked the course and set up water stations with some of the guys while I worked run registration and check in, we met up with our AWESOME team (we hope to get bigger and bigger every year) and walked like MADD at 9:40 (I stayed back and collected chip times from runners this year:))

The tears flowed as I saw so many families walking in memory of their loved ones, making a stance for a cause that so many need to be more aware of and overall, just the sea of people coming together for a great organization. I couldn't help but get emotional seeing our team and the love surrounding Matthew as they proudly walked in honor of his family and community advocacy.

We got home around lunchtime, all took showers and naps and then headed out for little Jenner's first birthday party! Pax was a trooper all morning and deserved a chance to let loose and just play at the party and boy did he ever :) He had a blast! We ended the evening with a trip to home depot and dinner at Whataburger... feeling blessed.

Thank you to EVERYONE who donated to our team and joined our team to Walk like MADD with us. It means more than we can express in words and more importantly, you never know who saw, read, looked into or watched you support MADD and that could have just given them the little nudge to think twice before getting behind the wheel intoxicated. You never know...

6 am wake up call... really mom?

Part of the team... the Royal Homes crew!

Paxton, Cori and Cooper! Our youngest team members!

Love my Lisa and meant so much to have her on our team this year! PS - I look like a cow in this picture... part of it is she is tiny and the other part is well... reality :)