{"id":5273,"date":"2018-04-03T12:33:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T17:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/?p=5273"},"modified":"2018-04-03T12:43:28","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T17:43:28","slug":"love-at-first-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/?p=5273","title":{"rendered":"Love At First Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 9, 2015, I woke up to an email that started like this:<\/p>\n

Congratulations! You have been matched in I Run 4!<\/b><\/p>\n

Holy Cow!\u00a0 I was soooo excited!!!\u00a0 After an 8 month wait, I was finally going to get a buddy through the IRun4 Michael program!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.whoirun4.com\/<\/p>\n

Then the panic set in.\u00a0 What if they didn’t like me?\u00a0 What if I was too silly (I do enjoy sharing jokes~lots of jokes~on social media).\u00a0 What if I wasn’t a good enough runner?\u00a0 What if I was too old!\u00a0 What if….what if….what if….<\/p>\n

Then my buddy’s mom emailed me my first pic of my new buddy, Aiden,\u00a0 and it was love at first sight.\u00a0 I instantly loved this little boy with all my heart and knew immediately my running was going to change.\u00a0 It was all going to be for him because he deserves my absolute best.<\/p>\n

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Look at this sweetie!\u00a0 How can you help but love him!?!<\/p>\n

Back when we were matched, April 9, 2015, Aiden was 3.5 years old.\u00a0 He was the cutest little guy ever!\u00a0 *He still IS!*<\/p>\n

Here we are, heading towards celebrating our 3 year Matchaversary next Monday!\u00a0 Seems impossible that we’ve been buddies three whole years.\u00a0 The time has flown yet so much has happened!<\/p>\n

I’ve learned in these 3 years that my buddy is a fighter.\u00a0 He has fought some serious battles to live.\u00a0 He is determined!\u00a0 He is tenacious! He wants to live!<\/p>\n

He’s had some serious medical issues during these years and has conquered them all!<\/p>\n

BOOM!!!<\/p>\n

He has fun!<\/p>\n

He loves to swing!!!\u00a0 That’s practically at the tippy top of his list of favorite things to do.<\/p>\n

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He loves to swim! He can kick his legs and enjoy that water like nobody I’ve ever seen enjoy the pool~plus, he looks pretty spiffy doing it!<\/p>\n

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He dresses up for Halloween.\u00a0 He’s been a penguin and this one year, he was a doctor.\u00a0 “Paging Dr. Smith!”<\/p>\n

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He loves to go to the fair and see the animals.<\/p>\n

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He loves baseball and the past two summers has played for the BlueJays!\u00a0 His very first game, he hit a grand slam.\u00a0 BOOM!!!\u00a0 Way to play, Aiden!<\/p>\n

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He was the 2017 MVP for the Miracle League of Michigan!<\/p>\n

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He loves riding the mechanical horse and airplane at the store.\u00a0 Those things are fun!\u00a0 I don’t blame him.<\/p>\n

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He has a smile that lights up any room.<\/p>\n

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He’s started school.\u00a0 Hard to believe my buddy’s in school already!!!\u00a0 He’s growing up so fast!<\/p>\n

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He’s a HUGE Michigan fan!\u00a0 I’ve learned to cheer, #GoBlue and he’s learned to cheer, #HailState.<\/p>\n

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Now he’s a big boy~7 years old this fall!<\/p>\n

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We met in June, 2016.\u00a0 We’re going to be meeting again next month~May 2018.<\/p>\n

Here’s our pic from 2016. I can’t wait to see how much he’s grown!<\/p>\n

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Love you tons, Aiden!!!\u00a0 You are the best~est buddy ever.\u00a0 I’ve told you that at least a zillion times but I want to make sure you don’t forget.\u00a0 Can’t wait to see you in a few weeks!<\/p>\n

Happy Matchaversary!!!<\/p>\n

Love, Mel<\/p>\n

#IRun4Aiden<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 9, 2015, I woke up to an email that started like this: Congratulations! You have been matched in I Run 4! Holy Cow!\u00a0 I was soooo excited!!!\u00a0 After an 8 month wait, I was finally going to get a buddy through the IRun4 Michael program! https:\/\/www.whoirun4.com\/ Then the panic set in.\u00a0 What if they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,6,8,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5273"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5290,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5273\/revisions\/5290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}