This last weekend was the Mercedes Marathon and The Bell Center's biggest fundraiser. We had hoped to raise lots of support this year, since Mary Graham will finish there this summer.....we wanted to go big this year, have lots of runners, supporters and donations. Well, our expectations were far exceeded! And WE are not the ones who did it, it was YOU!
We were able to raise over $8600 for Mary Graham's team! But also a good friend of Lee's from Tallahassee, Brent Sparkman, started his own fundraiser in her name and raised almost $5000.
We have been so humbled and blessed and thankful that ALL the children at the Bell Center will benefit from this. I have said before that Mary Graham would not be where she is today if God had not led us there. It is a very special place.
The weekend was a blast! Mary Graham, along with all the other Bell Center children had their own "run" first thing Saturday morning. Then Loftin and Lucy, in honor of their sister, got to run in the bell center siblings run and then did their one mile run with friends from school. Saturday night we had all of Team MG over for a pasta dinner the night before the race. And then Sunday was the true marathon. We had 6 people running the half and two 5 person relay teams. It was overwelming seeing all the people running for different children from The Bell Center and run for Mary Graham. Thank you so much to those of you ran or donated or have just prayed for her journey. We have THE best friends and family, it's overwhelming.
As hard as some of the last three years have been, a path we would have never chosen for her.....had she not been born with her disabilities we would never have experienced these blessings. We have been able to see first hand God turn ashes to beauty. To see the joy in the midst of sorrow.
Below is a video that my sister put together with pics from the weekend. The song is called "All This Time" and its one I have listened to many times while I was running over the last few years. I feel like it is my theme song for our journey with MG. As the words say, "God was there, He was always there.....walking with us all this time." He has and He will.
Bell Center Run 2014 from Jennifer Sheppard on Vimeo.
