solidified the dates. We wanted to bring him to D.C. when the Mavericks were in town but that wasn’t until March and we really wanted him to see some football games. It didn’t hurt that Wow Airlines had a nice November sale from Amsterdam as well. (FYI: they were incredibly kind to us when we had to cancel our summer trip because Jenn wasn’t strong enough to make the trip so we wanted to give them our business when it came time to bring Niels to America.)
The Ravens were hosting the Steelers on the 6th, the Browns on the 10th and the Mavericks were playing the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on the 14th. And the Wizards were hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers and Lebron James on the 11th.
We flew Niels in on Nov. 5 to stay 10 days.
***
While we were in Germany on Labor Day weekend, we didn’t talk too much about sports. We didn’t want to tip him off about our intentions in America. We knew he was very, very excited about coming to America. It was, literally, a dream trip for him. He told us that he applied for a passport immediately after he found Jenn on Facebook.
And while we were visiting with his mother and brother in his home, we found out some great information that his brother loves the Lakers and Kobe Bryant.
They also watch the NFL every Sunday night, where the 1 p.m. games come to them at 7 p.m as a dinner, beer and friends endeavor. His brother is also, sadly, a New England Patriots fan. But, these guys love American sports and Niels and Max can name more NBA players then I can!
Later that night, his best female friend (NOT his girlfriend, as he has pointed out many times – Niels is single and available!) who edited his original letter to Jenn and who encouraged him to save her life back in June 2014, outed his love of animals over beers and burgers in Bochum, Germany.
“We haven’t seen Niels this excited since the time that his mother adopted a penguin for him at the zoo,” she told us. He confided that he loves penguins and that is why he wanted to visit the African coast – to walk with the penguins.
When we got back to the room that night – I googled the Maryland Zoo and came to realize those same penguins were featured at a zoo three miles from our home. It’s the largest exhibit in North America. What are the odds of that?
After our dinner with his brother and friends in Bochum, Jenn finally got to give him and his brother the autographed Dirk Nowitzki picture she’d had for two years (and lost amidst a sea of pictures in our storage) and a too-big-to-fit-me Baltimore Ravens cap that Marvin Lewis shipped to me years ago after he took the Cincinnati Bengals job. We explained to him that it’s unacceptable that anyone who saved Jenn’s life should be a Steelers fan!!!
He agreed to become a Ravens fan.
***
We left Germany after four days, several cities and a Billy Joel concert in Frankfurt on Labor Day weekend. Niels wrote us many times over the next 60 days telling us how excited he was to come to America.
Meanwhile, I went to work trying to make it special and memorable for him.
Clearly, the Baltimore Ravens and John Harbaugh were in on the fun. As was Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. That was the easy part – previous relationships and people who love my wife.
This is the part where I start naming names and thanking the many, many cool people who attempted to make memories for Niels. He saved Jenn’s life twice. That certainly got a lot of folks’ attention.
Ted Leonsis, his son Zach, Hunter Lochmann and the Washington Wizards were the first ones to pledge allegiance to helping us make his trip great and promote our mission to save more lives the DKSM and the bone marrow registry. This is not a surprise. They have quietly been rockstars behind the scenes in their kindness and support of my wife’s battle since March 2014. (Remember this when you cheer for the Wizards, Caps, Mystics or the new AFL team coming to Baltimore next year!)
You have no doubt heard us talk about our local charity, There Goes My Hero. Both of its founders, Erik Sauer and Michele Bresnick Walsh, are bone marrow transplant survivors and they coached my wife through both gruesome battles. All of our Hero swabs are provided by and processed by DKMS – a German group that has been growing the registry and saving lives this century. In Germany, they are a household name. We’re trying to change that in America.
It wasn’t until after I had already booked Niels’ flight from Nov. 5th through the 15th that I started to back check the schedule of the Dallas Mavericks. Because San Francisco was on his bucket list, we considered a three-day stay in the Bay Area and when I checked the sports schedule there, I was amazed to see that the Mavs were actually playing the Golden State Warriors on that Wednesday night. That made it clear we wanted to go to California and then I saw that the Mavs were …
