Our trip to California was an amazing, awesome, inspiring, surreal, unbelievable, special, wonderful, emotional, memorable, moving, life-changing event! I'm setting out to reinvent myself this summer on my road trip, but thanks to Blake, I already did! I see more, appreciate more, love more and give more. I'm a better person because of Blake.
We spent our final day in LA souvenir shopping and relaxing. We picked up gifts for his sister, nephew, girlfriend and friend, Jonathan. Our trip to the airport was definitely less harried than a week ago! Pheww. I personally couldn't handle any more stress! We arrived around 7:30 pm in plenty of time for our 9:30 red-eye. I took a gamble booking the red-eye and it paid off! Blake loves the red-eye so much more because he can sleep! We landed in NY around 6am. I got Blake settled back at the nursing home :(, then took a 2 hour train back to CT... from there I proceeded to sleep for the next 15 hours straight!
;)
Here we are modeling our new neck pillows (dork #1 and dork #2). We totally cracked ourselves up taking this picture – it's one of my favorites (Blake might not agree). Blake is sitting in his new power wheelchair, while I'm chillaxin' in his other new chair. The super ultra-light 12 lb titanium manual wheelchair purchased for him through a fundraiser I held with some of my incredible friends this past January.
This next picture, of the plank of wood, is what started this whole wheelchair crusade! That piece of wood was actually fitted onto Blake's old manual chair and used as his "support" for years! I kid you not! I couldn't make this up if I;)
tried. Totally horrifying! His condition was deteriorating (of course). He was desperate. With the help of friends and strangers, we bought Blake his new manual chair. Next on our list was a power chair. Unfortunately, a custom power chair was a bit out of reach due to the cost, but thankfully someone was listening to our prayers and sent us Bill Goldberg. I was meant to meet Bill. Bill was sent to us for a reason. Strange how things happen, isn't it?!
Right now, Blake is riding high with two of the most elite custom chairs on the market. We are blessed to have so many generous, selfless people in our lives. Life is still hard, but it's better. My next step is getting him out of that nursing home. Stay tuned. It will happen. Somehow, someway.
A few things you might not know about Blake!
His dreams: (obviously to walk again, but next on his list...)
1) To participate in the Special Olympics (he just needs to decide on a sport)!
2) To go scuba diving (somewhere warm with blue water)!
Favorite TV Channels:
1) Cartoon Network
2) Animal Planet
3) Discovery Channel
4) History Channel
Interesting fact: Of all the paralyzed victims each year, approx. 90% return to their homes. The other 10% are forced to live in nursing homes or group homes. Out of that 10%, a small fraction are like Blake, no family, no support, no money. Left alone, they will rot and die in the system.
If you're on Facebook and would like a new "friend", say hey to Blake. He'd love to here from you! 
OK, time for more packing! I leave Sunday for my cross country adventure. I will miss Blake, but he knows how much I love him and he knows I will never leave him. Blake, if you ever doubt that, just read this post :).