4 Paws for Levi - Journey to a service dog

So I've been looking into Service Dogs to see if one would be beneficial to Levi. After reading other families' stories of how their SD helped their child, I decided to go for it. I research several agencies. Some did not impress me as much as others. One stated they give free SD to families, but only do so many a year and they only train a dog as a companion for children under 18. I need more than that for Levi. I need a SD who can alert me if Levi is up during the night wandering the house, if he gets out of the house. A SD who can track Levi if he gets away. Which could mean the difference between life and death. Levi could also be attached to the SD to where he would feel like he was walking independently, but the SD would "drop" and keep Levi from running off until someone could get Levi. SDs are also able to help defuse meltdowns, stop self injurious behavior and ease anxiety. All of which would be huge for Levi. So after a lot of research and late night thinking, I decided to go with 4 Paws for Ability. They are in Ohio. The way it works is that we apply (almost have Levi's application finished and ready to send in). Once Levi is approved, we will become volunteers for this Not for Profit and fundraise in the agency's name with all donations being marked "In Honor of Levi Walker". Once $13,000 comes in in Levi's name, a dog will be trained for Levi. The agency may request video of Levi, lots of information about him, anything that will help them train the Dog to be the most beneficial for Levi. The training can take 9-12 months. Levi will be placed in a "Class". Once the Dog is trained, we will go to Ohio with all the other families in our Class for approximately 11 days to bond and train with Levi's SD. We will take the Dog in public (like the mall) to see if I am able to handle him/her appropriately. If so, the Dog will be certified for public access. If not, the SD will be for home only. Of course, we want the SD to be allowed public access so we can do more things out in the community with Levi. At the end of the 11 days, we will have Levi's Service Dog. I am still waiting on the Doctor to fill out his part of the application. Once that is done and I get the application sent in, we will wait for the approval and then get moving on all types of fundraising. Of course, since we are raising money for the agency as volunteers, we have to follow their criteria for fundraising, have flyers approved, etc. So I can't schedule anything at this time, but can get ideas written down and have them ready when the fundraising packet comes to our mailbox. I plan to blog our journey from now to after we get the SD. To show others the process and also to show myself how far we've come when we are united with Levi's SD.