A very happy Mother’s Day indeed!!

Happy Mother’s Day 

Candy and I could not be happier with how well Walkers recovery is going. This week he has made great strides with improved breathing, no more oxygen needed, kidney is working full stream ahead, tomorrow removing his dialysis catheter (no more dialysis wooo hooo), and looking to be discharged late afternoon tomorrow. He will be staying with his mom at the Gabriel house on the Mayo campus for at least the next 3-4 months where they will be cooking most meals in-house and going to Mayo outpatient clinic multiple times a day. 

My heart is full today with Love ❤️ for my wife, Walkers Mom, Candy. Having watched and participated intimately in this journey of her management our sons extreme illness, I can tell you that Walker most certainly would not be where he is today without her. The daily traumatic changes in his health for a solid 3 years have been incredible to witness. The stress on Candy, on myself and Laura, not to mention the rest of his immediate family has been hard to say the least. In retrospect, the only glue that has held us together is love.

Love for our child, love for each other, all of us wrapped up gracefully and tenderly by the astounding, sustaining LOVE of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and God, the Father of all that is and ever will be, and the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. Wherever there is true love God is in the midst working on behalf of those that love him, worship him, and follow his precepts. Any Christian person or family that has survived extended trauma like this and lived to tell about it can relate and would echo the fact that the only thing that helped sustain their sanity in tact was their love, their reliance, on the hope that is the risen Christ that dwells presently in their life.

All we know is that God gave us a huge gift in the community that has surrounded us throughout this journey. The first line of defense being Walker’s greater family in Orlando, whom almost all were there the day he arrived at AdventHealth by trauma chopper in March of 2019, that rallied to our side in every way possible giving us the backbone to stay strong. Without their love and support and prayers we would not be as healthy and happy and as positive of our future to come. And immediately our church family, FPCO, and our school community, the amazing Geneva School, joined forces with our family and friends to supply countless prayers, family meals for months, and donated to our GoFundMe to keep us moving forward financially. Creating a beautiful spirit of Christian fellowship that poured out in so many, many ways over the many months that turned into the years that we fought to keep Walker alive. Thank you is woefully insufficient to thank all of you that have contributed your time, energy, prayers, and finances in support of our family.

One of the pulmonary rehab nurses in learning Walker would be discharged tomorrow asked Him today if he knew of some of the things he could do to help his breathing and he piped up immediately and said, “Oh don’t worry, my Mom is a bad ass nurse”. And that she is. While there is lots of rehab work ahead for both Walker and his Mom, it’s a joyful process now to rise in healing each day till one day in a year or so down the road Walker will sprout wings again and fly from the nest. Till that day comes his Mom and Dad and all his family will be there for him giving him everything we have to make the flight of Walker 3.0 a success.

God bless you Moms today

Thank you The McKnights 

Please see www.givetaxfree.org in support of Walkers Transplant story