My name is Laurie Stevens and I’d like to tell you about myself and my kids. I live in Marion, Ohio. My kids were both born in south Florida, but we moved back to Ohio from Florida in 2006 after I had lived there for 13 years. We moved to Marion, instead of my hometown of Marysville to help take care of my grandma, who was 94 but recently passed away. I had left my job to care for grandma 24/7 after my uncle who cared for her passed away. I’ve had the amazing privilege of raising two beautiful kids. My daughter Sara, who is now 24, and my son Logan, who would’ve been 18 in March of 2020. I was a single parent most of their life. Sara’s dad and I divorced when Sara was two and Logan’s dad died on his motorcycle when Logan was 11 months old. I hope that the love, comfort, and friendship that I share with all of you will touch your hearts as much as others have touched our family hearts through this time in our lives. I want to thank www.itsalovelylife.com for helping me get this website started. They are a wonderful group of people! Check out their page and the training tools they offer for you to start websites!
WHY I AM STARTING THIS BLOG
On July 15th, 2018, our whole world turned upside down. Logan, my son, was coming home from church that night after being there the whole day for the last of youth vacation Bible school. Our church is Bible Baptist Church in Marysville, which is about 40 minutes from home. My mom and a lot of my family live there. Just three weeks before this night he had decided to go to church camp again this year and I couldn’t have been happier. My kids grew up going to church, but for the last two years or so Logan had strayed away from family, school, church and responsibilities. He did a total 360 degree turn at church camp this year when he reaffirmed his salvation with Jesus Christ. After camp, he totally changed in a wonderful way. He was always spending time with family again, helping me around the house, having meals with me at work, and at church every time the doors were open. On July 15th, at about 8:05 p.m., Logan was driving him and his friend Hezekiah home from church. We think he might’ve dozed off, because Hezi did as well. Logan clipped a mailbox on his side of the road. He strayed into the other lane and then overcorrected to get back in his lane a witness said. Logan lost control of his car because of overcorrecting and slammed into a tree, which hit him right at his drivers door. He was pronounced dead at the scene, but Hezi was taken to the hospital. Hezi’s dad showed up at my door and said the boys had been in an accident. We rushed to the hospital and this is where I found out that Logan didn’t make it and was still at the accident site. It took them a few hours to get him out of the car where they then evidently took him to the coroners office in Toledo. I told the police that told me he was gone that I wanted and needed to see my son. He said “no you don’t Laurie”. Although I argued and begged with him he said it was best I didn’t see him that way. Hezekiah left the hospital with a concussion. I still say Logan turned the wheels on the car just right to protect his friend. The police said speeding wasn’t a factor in the accident. It was this day where half of my heart was gone. It went with my son.
So many things have happened since that horrific day. The most important thing is the fact that I know my son is in heaven and I will be with him again some day. I wasn’t happy with God because he allowed this to happen, but I had to have faith and trust him, which was very hard to do at first. But God didn’t kill my son, evil did. It broke my heart to see my daughter broken hearted through all of this as well and the worst part was, I didn’t even know how to console her, because I didn’t even know what to say or do myself, let alone help someone else through it.
Since his death I have had so many blessings happen. A wonderful friend of mine started a Go Fund Me page the very same day of the accident and within 24 hours they had raised enough money to almost cover the whole cost of Logan’s funeral. And a beautiful standing room only funeral it was, it was overwhelming. I had the chance to speak at Logan’s school just a couple months after his death right before their homecoming. Logan had switched from Harding High School to River Valley high school his sophomore year because he wanted to play more baseball. Harding, like many schools had coaches that played favoritism and didn’t play him much, but when he started at RV he played every game all the time. He had played baseball since he was four years old. He loved basketball, but never tried out for the team because he thought he was too short. His friends from both schools had started a fundraiser and made T-shirts that said “Stand Together”. These T-shirts had both school emblems on them and Logan’s date of death in Roman Numerals. For the first time, these two rival schools had united. Friends and family joined on the football field (Logan didn’t even play football) and paid tribute to my son before their senior night game. With the profit from the T-shirt fundraiser I started the Logan Steven’s Memorial Scholarship Fund (through the Marion Community Foundation if you would like to donate to it). The first recipient of the first 2020 scholarship happened to be a friend of his which was a beautiful thing! (No, I didn’t make the decision on who got it). I’ve spoken at prisons as well and I’m hoping to continue speaking at schools if invited. I do show pictures of the accident and the car so it really makes an impact on the kids. I decided to start this blog to try and help others who have lost a child or a loved one, find comfort hopefully and try to find purpose in it all. I want to share the gospel as well, because without God, I don’t know if I would’ve made it through this to be able to tell #LOGANSSTORY on Facebook as well. I would also like to allow parents, through my blog, to be able to support each other. I am very happy you are reading LOGANSSTORY and I hope this blog can make a difference in your life or someone you know that might be struggling with a loss.
Sincerely and God Bless,
Laurie Stevens and family
MY FAMILY
MY SON LOGAN
Logan was an amazing son! He played hockey for 4 1/2 years, ran cross country, played the trombone, and played baseball since he was four years old. He was the type of kid that would always be there for his friends. He actually got in trouble a couple times sticking up for friends, but we will talk about that later! He hadn’t even been able to decide his plans for the future, but he was over the charts in school and even though he didn’t care to do work in school, he was in mostly advanced classes! He loved friends, baseball, basketball, hockey, video games, shoes and fostering dogs with me. He someday wanted to own a shoe store that included a gym in it so people could test out the shoes before they bought them. One day I hope to pursue this dream for him. (Sorry Adidas, and everyone else, he was a NIKE fan!) He loved his sister and I so much, his family and God.
MY DAUGHTER SARA AND SON IN LAW STERLING
My daughter is now, and always has been, an amazing young lady! She excelled in grades and classes. In high school she was in track, swimming, tennis, marching band, choir, teen institute and National Honor Society among other things. She graduated high school with honors and got a full scholarship to a college in Florida and is now living out her dream as a marine mammal trainer and marine biologist! She also got married to an amazing young man. They have an awesome fur baby Pit named Dixie. Sterling is an amazing husband and son in law who does our country proud by serving in the military! He also comes from a big family who are all absolutely amazing! I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to add to our family!
MY BIG FAMILY
My family is way too large to post ALL of their pictures here so here’s a picture from a few years back we surprised my mom with (we have alot more little ones since then!). My mom is the backbone of our family and has definitely already got her angel wings waiting for her! And when I say family, FAMILY to us is whomever you share your life with and is welcomed in your door!!
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