Chris and Emily Norton: The Seven Longest Yards (LIFE Today)

the following program is sponsored by friends of Life outreach international Chris can you feel touching your leg I couldn't feel a thing and they kept asking these questions over and over again but I'm thinking you know what you're 18 years old bad things happen to other people there's no way that it's gonna happen to me and then they call in for the helicopter and that's when I knew that this is serious after being told he would never walk again Chris and Emily Norton prepare to walk the seven longest yards next on life today [Music] [Music] welcome to like today I'm sure Walsh here with Randy Robertson and we are very excited and honestly very honored to introduce a couple of guests that we have on this program brand new book called the seven longest yards and rather than we tell their story I'm gonna let them do that so please would you help me welcome Chris and Emily Norton well some people I think Sheila might might actually recognize them well yeah you've been on Good Morning America a couple of times I saw you there and I also saw you on one of my favorite programs called say yes to the dress yeah let's start with the obvious Chris that you are sitting here in a wheelchair and I have to honestly tell you I always read books of my guests reading the first chapter I sat and sobbed because I'm a mom of a son who played football to you so would you tell us what happened to you yeah in October 16 2010 18 year-old kid at Luther College Decorah Iowa six game of the season everything's going according to plan as an 18 year old has a earn a business degree meet the girl my dream become all-american athlete and someday you know own a lake house or better yet to grow my dreams family already owns a lake house always better yes but I was just running down the field during the kickoff and I've seen this opening forming and I know that ball carrier is gonna run through that hole and I'm gonna stop him and I'm just gonna drive my shoulder through his legs well I see that opening and I dive to make the tackle but i mistimed might jump just by a split second so instead of getting my head in from the ball care in my head collides right with his legs and an instant I lose all feeling in movement from my neck down I was completely conscious and I'm just telling myself Chris get up but nothing's working no matter how hard I try to push off that ground nothing is working like someone just turned the power off to my body and I just kept waiting thinking that my strength will come back and you know later and I realized that suffered a severe spinal cord injury you thought it was a stinger which can happen in football that the feeling would immediately come back what happened how long did you lay there on the field because we've all had those moments as parents where you everybody in the arena is silent until they make sure that the kids okay what happened to you that day yeah so I'm just laying there yeah the crowd goes silent and it's kind of eerie feeling because the cry was loud it was buzzing we're making this comeback and then also it's just dead silent that I thought I'd treena's run out they check on me they start asking me questions like Chris can you make a face with their hand I tried making a fist nothing works Chris can he feels touching your leg I couldn't feel a thing and they kept asking these questions over and over again but I'm thinking you know what you're 18 years old bad things happen to other people it happens to people that you read about that you watch on television there's no way that it's gonna happen to me and then they call in for the helicopter and that's when I knew that this is serious and so at that point I just closed my eyes I just begin to pray just God whatever you do do not change my plan just let this be a big scare just put this all behind me I just want to be a normal 18 year old kid I want to play football I want to run around but whatever you do just don't change this and I'm watching him till just a small part of this story just the sort of the beginning in many ways you're talking with your hand you're making some motions but I remember reading in book how the doctor came in and gave you a three percent chance and you said what to ever walk again and he said what to ever move again something like that yeah there's a easy misconception that's a three percent chance - wow that's kind of wet easy to go to that assumption but reality is to move or feel any anything it's a three percent chance to scratch an itch on your face to feed yourself how did you become part of that 3% which you clearly are you know I was Brazilian I just said no way not me I'm not gonna accept this I'm gonna do whatever I can to beat this and I went to work day one just nodding my head yes and no and I nodded my head for hours I looked like a giant bobble head just mouthing my head really and I also just like held out to this hope that you know God can take this pain into his purpose I just had this hope but you know so many times I called I was like God how is this part of your plan like what are you doing are you sure you know what you're doing right I just had no idea like what could come from this I was so scared and I you know so many times I just prayed just like guy can give me a glimmer of what's ahead kind just know like how you could use this just so I can make this time of suffering a little bit easier you know obviously you don't get that glimpse ahead you just have to keep going and just stay hopeful one of the interesting things Emily bringing you in is that you guys actually met through a dating app you must give a lot of people out there of hope those dating apps actually do work tell me what stage of your life were you at when you met when you and Chris met yes we were in college when we met and we definitely weren't really searching for a serious relationship where we thought it was gonna be bunch of anything but God had this amazing plan to bring us together and we had this instant connection where it just felt like it was meant to be and there's definitely fears and questions about what it would look like but just trusting God and keeping that faith and just knowing that he had everything I wanted and a man just his perseverance and his attitude and the way that he looked at life and stayed positive there's such a difficult moment with his injury and so I just knew that with him everything would be okay in life if I had him so you didn't the fact that Chris was in a wheelchair that was not at all something that gave you pause it didn't I was really curious about it honestly I just I like to get to know people and get to know who they are and I was very very curious with how positive he was like is this how does he do this how is this possible I'd understand how he how you could do that in that situation so I was very curious and asked a lot of questions about his situation to get to know him and that was really what helped with our connection is just really getting to know him with those things so I was worried before we officially met we were texting and she's like hey how about I just come by your house and I'll just pick you up and you can just put the chair in the back seat and I'm thinking oh no like she drives a little yellow like two-door car and she has no idea what she's getting herself into she has no idea what it takes so I get me an transferred over get my chair par and if my chair would even fit in the size of that vehicle so I'm thinking this is gonna fail huh no I was very naive to it all but we just made it work yeah let me ask let me ask Chris wouldn't you hear her talking because there was a point where you felt like all your dreams in life were shattered but yeah I just heard her say that she met the man that well you know was everything she hoped for them the man who had everything she wanted me how does that make you feel now what you know it makes me I guess proud I guess and just blessed to have someone like Emily in my life and something I discovered I was I was going through my journey you know my identity was wrapped up in my physical ability in my ability to run and walk and how much weights I could lift and like my success on the football field and athletics and I'm like how can I be a man without that physical Cal Adia with that strength that you you think of and I learned that people really value who you are as a person the value out of how you make them feel versus how quickly you can move or how much you can lift and I began to see that in other people that that those other things didn't really matter to them as much as it mattered to me and so I really wanted to make sure that I could add value to other people in other ways and bring joy to them and you can do that without physical ability one of the things I think is amazing is you made a determination that when you graduated from college you wanted to be able to walk across and pick up your diploma what was the process of getting ready for that like because that must have seemed to so many people an impossible dream yeah you know if felt impossible at times not gonna lie but it was just a dream that we just both of us cling on to and that we're gonna figure out a way each and every day just to get a little bit better and put as much time and effort into it to make it into a reality so you know we would put in together four to six hours of training just to try to make this dream - in realization so it was just a lot of time a lot of effort and thankfully I had a great personal trainer one of the things that make you such a perfect couple is that from when you were a little girl you have always had a heart for what's inside of people talk about your love for children who don't have perhaps a happy childhood you did yes I grew up in a great family always had support and love didn't know that there are kids out there who didn't have that but when I was growing up I started mentoring and I met Whitley who ended up going into foster care she had taken away from her mom and I just could not believe that there were kids that I knew that I was mentoring that then did not have that family support and that love that I had so I was just I had a passion and I loved to just be able to help others see that they're special and that they matter and that God has planned and it became my just absolute life goal to just do that because I I could not believe that there are other kids out there who were going through abuse and neglect and living in group homes without a family so I was it was my life purpose son Wow it's amazing they've done pretty well don't you think how many children do you have we have five kids right now so we've adopted five kids we've been foster parents for three years now but seventeen kids at all and it's seven children you know that's unbelievable we absolutely love it it's by far the greatest thing that we've ever done and just to be able to take these kids who have gone through so much and there has such a vulnerable place and they need love and support and something that you know a lot of us are very capable of doing and Wow one of the things that is very that you talk about in the book that's very vulnerable if you talk about your own I don't know whether it just hit you out of nowhere but a real dark night where you were hit with depression and I want you both to talk about that how because I think what people don't understand it doesn't just affect the person who's suffering it affects the person who loves the person who's suffering what was that like for you oh it was super hard so right after college right after the graduation walk actually we were so busy with it just completely focused on doing the graduation walk and I had started seeing some different signs before that where I was starting to feel like I didn't care as much as I used to go I used to take everybody else's stories and the kids that I was trying to help and put on my shoulders and felt like this responsibility like it was my responsibility to do something about it and I didn't really set to God I didn't give it to God and I tried to do it for too long and then I got to a point where I started shutting myself down and I've stopped hearing as much and right after the graduation walk it just hit me and I went through a time where I did not have any hope I didn't think I was gonna ever be me again I went completely away from God it was too hard to face what I was feeling I don't like being vulnerable I don't like it at all and I avoided at every cost which does not get you anywhere that's for sure but a lot of pain and an extra suffering and so I went down that time where everything just was so so hard oh it's not like for you Chris watching that it was tough I didn't understand it at first too so I didn't come at it from a great place okay you're such a motivational person yeah yeah I can fix this and you know that didn't work yeah what did work finally going to church again really yeah so um well I had these views that I had to do it myself I'm extremely independent so I thought I had to do this by myself and if I couldn't get through this and I was gonna be in trouble in life if I go through something really hard like I wasn't gonna make it so I had this view that I had to prove to myself that I could do it and that's why I went on for almost three years where I struggled and was so against getting that help I felt like it was gonna show weakness and that I couldn't do it and then all of a sudden I went to church and realized I need Prague I like the whole message was about praying and it just from there we found an amazing church that we've been able to find a call our home Christ fellowship and it's changed everything there is one message that I heard towards the very beginning about some the pastors shared that sometimes he will go through hard times to take parts away that aren't supposed to be there and to prepare you for what God has and keep inside like sometimes people who are very independent go through a time where they realize you have to depend on God and I learned that and I would not be able to do what I do now if I didn't learn that Wow why is the book called the seven longest yards well we set the goal that we're gonna walk seven yards down the aisle over a wedding on April 21st of 2018 seven yards marking the seven-year injury anniversary in three yards further than the graduation walk and and honestly though the the walk that we did down the aisle for a wedding was the easiest part of our journey it is honestly is everything leading up to that which was the challenging most difficult trying times of her life but you know going down that Iowa with her by my side it was just perfect and there's no other person I wanted to be there than Emily and to share the rest of my life with her was so special and it gave us so much peace and I was so motivated I could have walked 14 yards what's your prospect for the future as far as walking more you know I don't know I I still train you know I'm still hopeful for the future but I'm content with where I'm at and interesting enough you know so many people they come up to me and they they pray for my healing and for my walking which I appreciate but honestly when I recognize I think about my own prayers I never prayer for healing or walking that's not what consumes me what I think about is my wife my family my kids and just making an impact on others and that's really what I pray for and because I'm that content with my life that's beautiful one of the things that's really moving is that even while you were still in college you set up a foundation because you realize that some other people maybe didn't have all the help that you do tell us about that yeah so we started the Chris Norton Foundation which yeah in college I started because I realize how unfortunate other people were and their circumstance because I was fortunate enough to be in an stably athlete at an instable a school where at the instant catastrophic insurance policy cover all my medical and rehab costs well hasn't heard of yeah those liberties to have insurance pay for everything because there's people out there who are just as motivated as me if not more but can't afford to do so and so we wanted to change that so that's where we started setting up grants and giving out money for better rehab equipment and then on top of that we're starting on kids a wheelchair camp for kids and families all come for free and they can do archery ziplining horseback riding a bunch of fun games and activities Wow right I mean the super couple right now but it's just the thing that I really love is that you're very honest about the suffering but you're very but you met God in the middle of the suffering and push through and of pouring back into the lives of others one of the most moving videos that you can watch actually online is when four of the little girls you had been fostering tell us about that Sunday service and what you were able to tell those little ones yes we figured out this year that we were going to adopt our four girls that had been with us for a little over a year their siblings that we took in through foster care and it was there was a lot of really hard moments because they wanted to stay with us and their future was so unknown I mean just helping them to get that clarity like you're gonna be here forever was amazing so we set it up where we surprised them in our church on stage and just told him like we are adopting you you're gonna be our family forever and it was such an amazing moment if you wonder why I have no eye makeup left on us because I watched that video this guy's surrounded by girls everywhere oh yeah I know our dogs a female well the book is called the seven longest yards it is that right now and we're going to tell you how to get hold of it too but one of the things that is very much the heart of this couple and it's very much the heart of us here at life is that when God has met us in hard places we want to do exactly the same for some other people did you watch this what is he saying something is pain I'm in a village in and Golan came upon this child this little boy's Augusto and this breaks my heart his little feet are in some of the worst shape I've ever seen and there were many in this village with horrible conditions on their feet but this little guy is he's just scratching they itch so bad they're completely infected he said there's insects that have gotten into his feet I'll be surprised if he doesn't lose this toe and then the disease comes in through their feet it just goes throughout their body it can actually kill them all from going barefoot in conditions that we're in right here I know shoes and smiles is a campaign that we get really excited about and it's fun but this is why it's fun because it saves lives you would think just a pair of shoes is not life-saving but in areas like this in conditions like this it is and we can change it for Augusto we can help him we're going to clean these up and get him a pair of shoes and help him please do what you can help bring shoes to little children like Augusto all over the world you can be a part of something big and something even fun but this is the reason we do it please how is Janice that you just saw she's our mission photographer and we've traveled many many many many miles around the world together but this is one of the projects that we just absolutely love some of the projects we do are desperately hard this is such a joy to be able to put shoes on to the feet of a child who has never worn shoes and you know when I first heard about it I thought well isn't that just a fun thing it is way more as Janice explained to you in that piece when children are walking over these hard surfaces and they get cuts in their feet and then they get diseases and it's it literally is a matter of life and death and I can't even imagine what it's like for a child to never in their life had a pair of shoes now you might think wow it's a little early coming with Christmas shoes and smiles but the reason is that we need to be able to get help in now so that we can get all the shoes or that we have partners on the ground waiting for these Christmas shoes to be delivered so we can put them on the feet of little children and make sure that they have a life and you know Randy over the years so far we have helped two million children Annette amazed I know but for this Christmas we have a new goal 150 thousand pairs of shoes for 150,000 children so what we want to do and we can do it if you will partner with us each pair of shoes runs an average of 3 dollars and 60 cents each that means 10 pairs of shoes shoes for 10 children is $36 one hundred and eighty dollars will give shoes to 50 children and then the surgeries where we go in and correct the cleft palate and give that child child not only a reason to smile but the ability to smile five hundred dollars on average with the surgeons we have around the world so we have some big goals but we have some very achievable goals if you'll just go the phone or go online right now and partner with us we can make this Christmas very special for some children give them something they've never had before and at the same time prevent some diseases that could harm them or potentially kill them so won't you put some smiles on some children's faces this Christmas season won't you put some shoes on their feet I hope you don't give the best you can reach out with us with arms of love around the world and give these children shoes and smiles poverty is a killer and because of it children needlessly suffer not only from a lack of food and clean water but also from a lack of things we often take for granted like a simple pair of shoes far too many children living in extreme poverty have never owned a new pair of shoes and while that may seem minor in light of all their needs walking with bare feet puts them at risk of life-threatening infections and disease that could lead to crippling consequences and even death by responding today you can help immediately secure and begin shipping Christmas shoes to 150,000 children around the world just in time for the holidays your gift of $36 will help provide 10 pairs of shoes a gift of 72 dollars will provide 20 pair and a gift of 180 dollars will help provide 50 pairs of Christmas shoes for children in need as a thank you for your gift of support be sure to request this beautifully crafted green crystal shoe ornament a treasure to display at each Christmas with your gift of $100 or more you may also request this keepsake box set of life's Christmas shoe ornaments finally please consider a gift of $1000 or more to help provide over 275 pairs of shoes or two children with corrective cleft palate surgeries and you may request a beautiful safe in the Shepherds arms bronze sculpture please call write or make your gift online today [Music] as we travel around the world one thing we've noticed is the condition of the feet of so many children we see children all over the world running around barefoot in some terrible conditions and it's not just unsightly it's unhealthy and potentially deadly as we give shoes which is a wonderful Christmas gift keep in mind that we are actually giving them a chance for better health potentially even saving lives we are protecting them from some really debilitating diseases things like hookworm several things that can happen in their feet these protect them just like the smiles when we go in and correct a cleft palate we're not just giving them a cosmetic change we're actually improving their health everything that we do is to improve the health of others physically and spiritually so go to the phone or go online now give the best gift you can as we give Christmas shoes and smiles thank you so much don't you think it'd be great if every single Christian family watching this part of life determines this Christmas we're gonna do something for another child I mean honestly we don't need any more ugly sweaters really doing and for any gift at all we'll send you this lovely we shoe this is our new one for this year then you can put on your Christmas tree and what a great thing to do for your kids as well to do as a family sick you know we're gonna cut back a tiny bit on what we do with each other because we're gonna we're gonna make some children's dreams really come true this Christmas I think is wine opportunity it's a wonderful opportunity and today I want you to make the best gift you can and ask for this book by Chris Emily Norton the 7 longest yards any gift you just request it and we would love to send it to you but Sheila I love the subtitle of this book our love story of pushing the limits while leaning on each other yeah beautiful I really want to thank you both so much for just for the mark you're making in the world not just through the way you push through your injury and not just through the way that you've opened up your heart but just the way as a couple you're making an impact in this world and it's in children's lives and we're just aren't we grateful to them I mean you're just amazing thank you remember you can also check out chris's foundation you can go online or find out about that foundation and get involved you know you can put so much you can do so thank you so much for being with us to Randy and myself god bless you and we'll see you next time [Applause] [Music] tomorrow Bible teacher Margaret Feinberg wants you to taste and see as she goes on a journey to unearth God's perspective on a life today is made possible by the supporters of Life outreach International your gift will be used exclusively for the exempt purposes of life the ministry features specific outreaches as examples of the programs it supports and conducts gifts are considered to be without restriction as to use unless explicitly stipulated by the donor the ministry is a member of the EC FA you

Channel: lifetodaytv

Views: 21,176

Keywords: life today, james, robison, christian, television, tv, interview, Emily Norton, chris norton, longest yards, yes to the dress

Id: J8ZoKLpquxo

Length: 28min 45sec (1725 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 01 2019