When Sergio lost the ability to walk we also lost the the ability to share certain activities as a couple.

This year as I was running up and down bleachers to prepare to make my fourth trip to the highest peak in the Rocky National Park I became saddened that Sergio couldn’t join me. Longs Peak was one of my greatest accomplishments and it is one of the few that I haven’t been able to share with my husband.  I start to travel up this 14,000 foot mountain, at midnight, with only the light attached to my head as my guide. My way up takes me through hours and hours of timber lead by hours and hours of boulders. My fastest time 12 hours. A wheelchair could never travel any of this terrain. Oh how i wished it could. How I wished my biggest fan could see it.  He cheers me on and encourages me to climb, even though he cannot.

Most hobbies we have in common.  We are attached to each other, enough so that we drive our family members crazy with our unwillingness to be apart. It is hard for us to be away from each other but in the last six years I started to mark items off my bucket list.  Some of the goals I had in mind had to be done without my husband.  I had written down a list of activities that included obstacles that a wheelchair cannot overcome.  I still find ways to include Sergio and always seek his blessing when I want to do something that he cannot do with me.

Sergio and I have overcome so many obstacles and we have experienced so many blessings.

This year as i prepare my legs to do what my husbands cannot I am a little emotional.  I don’t usually let these things get to me, but it isn’t only the fact that he can’t do it with me but also about him not having the opportunity to see this mountain with his own eyes.

As I have these thoughts it makes me want to push towards.  It takes me to a place of inner strength.  It makes me go to fight mode. To fight to get though my bucket list but to also fight to help my husband see all that is beautiful in this world. I can now start to reflect in all the activities that by God’s Grace we are able to enjoy together.  How Sergio’s life could have been taken but he is alive and well.  I smile at all of our accomplishments, and at all the future has in store for us.

Maybe his wheelchair cannot go up the mountain but I will pave a way for it to go around.

Sergio and I will enjoy taking more walks and rolls together ( hand in hand if we so chose), we will enjoy, swimming, dancing, camping, fishing, DIY projects, dates and many many more dates.

 Most import we will enjoying loving each other to the fullest.

 Sergio may not get the opportunity to see Longs Peak with his own eyes but he will see it through mine.  Yes, wheelchairs can climb mountains through the eyes of their loved ones.

I encourage you to take a long look at your bucket list.  This year make a point to mark one item off of it.  If it is a tough one to accomplish do it in honor of someone.  As you prepare to conquer think of them and that will give you the strength to Keep Rolling On!