45 minutes of sleep was all I had under my belt since Friday morning at 9am, meaning I was on Hour 40 of my sleepless binge. My lack of sleep, however, did nothing to inhibit my enthusiasm (and, quite frankly, probably fueled it as my body overcompensated with enough adrenaline to restart a dead man's heart). Having just finished the most intense cardio work out of my entire life (and that is not an overexaggeration- Power Hour could burn off a full meal at McDonalds) and on the brink of tears merely from pure exhaustion, the Executive Board thought it would be fitting to put me in front of 400 screaming students and have me hold a number for a prolonged period of time. This is the moment I had heard all about from veterans. I was a new this year, and this would the first time I would see the big reveal. I remember just last week when some of us were sitting at a table in the Student Center as folks hustled by, trying to break through the noon-time traffic jam. We could only imagine what our number would be this year. Would we even make $75,000? What would we do if we didn't? Would that mean that we let our Miracle Families down? My heart broke at the thought of our Miracle Families mustering a smile to break the blow of such a disappointing year. All of this rushed through my mind in an instant as I stood on stage, facing the mass of anxious faces. I turned to see our Executive Board nearly breaking each others hands, holding on for dear life. The ladies standing next to me holding the fateful numbers seemed just as anxious as I was. But I knew Dane and Mahir too well to think that they would ever send us up here with an unsatisfactory number. Or did I? I snapped back to reality as Mahir got our attention. Miracle Families sat on the south side of the gym, all huddled together and already sobbing. It is absolutely amazing to know that our support, no matter the number, moves them like it does, because their courage and strength moves us to do what we do every single day. I was training myself to breathe at this point- hee hee hoo, hee hee hoo, pregnancy breaths. "...And the total that we have raised for our families at the MU Children's Hospital is..." Dane looked back and gave us the cue to throw our numbers into the air. Silence. Then an outburst of screams, cries, and pure joy. $125,402.44! I couldn't see the full number put together, but I saw the 1 and nearly dropped to the ground. "Wait, wait, wait, Hey, Hey, Hold up!" Kailyn helped me back to my feet. Tears filled my eyes to the brim and not even my contacts could help me see directly in front of me. "I'm going to need Jessica and Hanna to switch places." I fell into a puddle on the ground. We had raised more that $150K for our kids. We had doubled our fundraising goal. Those numbers didn't stay in the air for more than 5 seconds before they were dropped to the ground and all of the hugs were had. There is literally no way to describe the feeling (mostly because I am fairly certain I blacked out around this point from sheer emotion). Our team cried for a good three hours following the reveal. I hugged randos. I wiped the tears of Miracle Moms and Dads. We had done it.
And I can't wait to do it again.
#MIZFTK14
And I can't wait to do it again.
#MIZFTK14