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It was a normal morning, and the doorbell started ringing.

Went to the front door, and noticed it was my neighbor.

And she said, your kids have been in an accident.

The doctor comes out, and he said

that she has suffered a devastating brain injury.

I know what devastating means.

We had the funeral for Sasha on Saturday,

and then our total concentration was on Tristan's health.

They were in the monitoring the bleed of Tristan's brain

and told us if it didn't quit, he

was going to have to do surgery.

He does have a blood clot there, and I'm probably

going to have to remove part of the brain,

and that area of the brain controls the left side.

And there's a very, very good possibility

that he'll be paralyzed and at the minimum,

may we not have any purposeful movement on the left side.

And after getting the news we had about Sasha,

I think I told him, I don't care.

If you can save his life, I'll carry him

wherever he needs to go.

We were 3 and 1/2 weeks into the induced coma,

and they took him off the ventilator one time.

He was trying to talk to him.

And it was sure a blessing when you hear his voice

for the first time.

You still have that doubt until you hear him speak,

and it was a great joy.

Whenever I first woke up from my coma, I woke up

and I was in pain.

My whole right side of my brain is completely dead,

like, there's nothing there.

And with that, it broke me down because I

was thinking what am I going to do with just

my left side of my brain?

I mean, it's not very functional.

I really never moved.

I would never be able to walk again they told me.

I might not be able to play sports again.

I was scared that I wasn't going to be

the same kid I was going back.

I was scared that I might have to be in a wheelchair.

Whenever my parents told me that my sister died,

I had this feeling already that she was gone.

Growing up, Sasha-- she was my pretty much idol

as I was in sports.

I wore the same number as her.

Sasha was always at my practices.

She wanted the best for me in my life.

She always pushed me to be the best,

and when I didn't want to, she got on me for it.

She gave me the drive.

She was there with me.

Any time that she could go, she wouldn't miss an event.

I'll never forget those moments.

And I totally trusted in God, and I told God what he decides

is I'm going to be happy with my life.

The first thing they did was tell us,

we're going to go get the rehab ladies,

and then we're going to get him up and let

him walk this afternoon.

And I'm thinking, he's from 69 pounds to 53 pounds.

You can wrap your fingers around his ankles,

and they're going to get him up on the side of the bed

and try to get him to walk.

That was my thoughts.

And they did.

Wasn't a beautiful walk, but it was a walk.

Whenever I got up out of the bed

and I walked down that hallway, I

got it in my heart and my mind that whatever I set my mind

to do, I'm going to do it.

And I'm going to do it the best I can,

and that I'm never going to give up.

I had to learn everything over again.

How to write and read.

They had these puzzles with shapes,

so I had to put, like, circles where

the circle was, or like the square where the square was.

How to tie my shoe and I struggled with that a lot.

It frustrated me to realize that I

couldn't do that like I used to, so I really practiced at it.

Being able to tie your shoes and being able to button

a shirt don't mean you're going to be able to go back and play

sports.

And Tristan had played at a really high level, especially

in the baseball field.

And he worked extremely hard.

The doctors told me I would never do it again,

but I believed in God.

I was on a walk that-- because it was a sunny day.

And Tristan goes, I'll just go with you mom.

So we went to the track, and he took off running.

I was walking behind him, and I thought, oh, my gosh.

There's some talent there.

She's like, well, you're going to go out for track

and see if you like it.

My very first race, there was 40 or 50 guys in the 800,

and I took off.

EMILY OWENS: He was like in the middle of the pack,

and before I knew it, I was on the phone with Doug saying,

you're not going to believe this.

Tristan's leading.

TRISTAN OWENS: I was like, man, I really like this.

This is fun.

I enjoy running.

He ended up getting second that day.

In that moment, I realized that was

what I was going to do with my life was

I was going to be a runner.

I was going to be a distance runner.

DOUG OWENS: We enrolled him in a competitive track club.

TRISTAN OWENS: We were the conference champions.

We won every track event.

DOUG OWENS: The spring of his freshman year,

he was the 3,200 meter state champion.

He went on in his high school career

to win three more state championships, three more state

runner ups, and never finished a single race at the state

meet that he wasn't on the podium.

And today, he is a freshman in college

on a full track and field cross-country scholarship.

That makes his dad feel awesome.

The really thing that encouraged me the most

was, like, getting up out of the hospital bed

and be able to do all that stuff.

And I go back to that a lot.

The doctors told me I shouldn't be able to walk,

that I should be paralyzed.

I just think God was with me the whole the time.

And every race that I run, that God's always with me.

We found out through some research

that the neurosurgeon that had done Tristan's surgery

is considered to be one of the top neurosurgeons

in the nation, and he explained to us

that medical science could probably

explain some of the regeneration that Tristan had,

but Tristan really is a miracle.

The reason I run is I do it for me,

but I also do it for my sister, Sasha.

I made custom shoes, and they're pink and black.

I know that she was with me every step of the way,

and she'll be proud of me no matter what I did.

Christ does strengthen me every day,

and He leads me into the path I'm taking.

DOUG OWENS: For Tristan's career,

he's won over 275 medals, and he's just getting started.

No matter what you're going to do with your life,

that you never want to give up on God.

That there's always a brighter side then the dark sides

that you're going through.

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