If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It

My Family is gearing up for something big.

We are going to walk across the US to raise funds to buy our children a home!

And we have a little under six months to prepare.

Since we have announced our big walk I have walked 75.09 recorded miles.

Each days I try to walk at least three hours.

There have been mornings where I get all three hours in one walk, but since I have started homeschooling the kids, I have been breaking it up in to two walks. Two hours in the morning, and then another hour in the evening.

My evening walks I walk barefooted.

My walks have become very special to me.

I listen to motivational audio books or TedTalks, or sometimes my James Taylor station on Pandora. And I always use my Charity Miles App to donate to Every Mother Counts in memory of sweet Elijah (our son who passed away from SUIDS in September 2015).

It is my quiet time.

It is my time to reflect.

It is my time to be thankful...yes thankful.

Even though our family is homeless, we have our hotel rooms with beds, showers, food, and most importantly we are all together.

A home would be amazing for our children, and that is why we are doing this walk--for them.

It may sound crazy to you, but after you have lost everything (including the greatest loss of all our son Elijah), then you learn how little you need out of life.

But the kids need a homebase. They need a place to build memories and to love and grow together. They need a yard to run and play. And most of all, they need to know that no matter how bad it got, their mom and dad loved them and never gave up on them. They are our reasons for walking.

And they will be coming too!

Not walking so much, but we will have "car support" along the way.

My husband and I will switch off driving and walking and the kids will ride along doing school work and hopefully absorbing the scenery. (And occasionally complaining about being bored I'm sure).

We will be able to show them the beauty of The U.S. and along the way we will do little acts of kindness in memory of their brother. (And hopefully spreading some sort of awareness about homelessness in America. I mean it is a pretty big statement that we are chosing to walk across country out of desperation to get a home for our children).

We will also be cheating a little at times driving to the nearest hotels after our scheduled "walk times" so that the kids don't have to sleep in a tent on the side of the highway, or in the middle of the desert. As much as I am ready for that, no one else in the family seems to be ;)

We have a little over six months at this point, so I haven't started on an exact route, but we are going to be walking from Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fl all the way to Disneyland California.

Why those two places?

They are easy to find landmarks, and the fact that a man who lived out his dreams was the inspiration and creator to both of these icons.

I am hoping to be able to talk to some hotel chains to see if we can get some discounts along the way. I just got a job with Order Up, which is a huge step for me after losing Elijah, so I am hoping after catching up on bills and paying for our current hotel stays, to be able to save a little bit of money to help with the trip as well.

But we are really counting on the kindness of others at this point. I know it is out there. I know we can do this. We just can't give up.

Thanks for taking the time to read my update.

Check out our gofundme page here: www.gofundme.com/walkinghome17

And follow our story with the hashtag #walkinghome17

Be KIND,

Kelly Airhart