In 2016 I’m dusting off the keyboard, grabbing a coffee, and giving the old blog another go.  Lots of things have happened to our family since I last put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard (depending on how you look at it). We were lucky enough to experience the National Epilepsy Walk in D.C. twice and on the second trip we were able to raise a little over $2000 to support the Epilepsy Foundation.

Our first trip to D.C. was filled with so much emotion.  I Think I  was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people and often felt as though my attention span was minute due to complete sensory overload.  One of  the  highlights was being able to finally meet some of the friends we’d made through Talk About It.   There were moments of joy as we hugged and shared our excitement, as well as moments of sadness remembering our friends lost to epilepsy.

As we took everything in and headed over to the start line we spotted Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars, Coach Jerry Kill of the Minnesota Gophers, and Philip Gattone the current president and CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation, all of whom are champions of the cause due to their own personal journeys with epilepsy.

I don’t know what I expected, but seeing the sea of purple shirts and knowing each one was fighting the same battle as our little girl brought tears to my eyes.  Words can’t explain how I felt as I explained to Meg all of those purple shirts were people with epilepsy just like her.  Her expression was surprise and her response was disbelief… “REALLY?”

Our walk was also made special because my best friend and her daughter, who is Meg’s best friend, was able to come and walk with us.  As they kicked off the national walk, a band began to play, people were smiling and holding up signs for their loved ones.  Memories and friendships were being made as people snapped photos and marched together as one.

As we followed the motion of the crowd we would break away with small groups and visit different monuments.  It was our first time in Washington D.C. so we wanted to take it all in, so many landmarks and so much history.

We didn’t realize how big the National Mall was and really should’ve worn something other than Converse sneakers. Even though our feet and legs hurt we were able to cross the finish line.

We loved our trip so much we made it back the following year and even designed our own team Meghan t-shirts.  The 2015 walk fell on the same day as the blossom festival so we were able to see all the trees in full bloom.

We’d like to give a huge shout out to all of the people who put the walk together year after year, Ken Lowenburg, Philip Gattone, Greg Grunberg, Jerry Kill, Rick Harrison, all of the hard working volunteers and families that help raise money and make it an enjoyable and memorable experience.