What if one day, you woke up and your world was in total darkness.  It happened that fast to an Ozarks man.  Now he's willing to go to the other side of the planet to get his life back.  
    
He's the first in the world to have the procedure, but if it works he won't be the first Missourian to make history.

In the tiny town of Garrison, Missouri, Carl Stevens was an outdoorsman, a logger and drove a fertilizer truck.  

"Here's a photo of Carl when he was in the hospital hooked to the machines," says Carl's wife of 21 years, Vickie.

Carl acquired Strep B Pneumonia and spent a month in the hospital.  Doctors hoped a two day induced coma would cure him, but 18 days later he woke up blind.  

"You just wake up and your life's totally gone as you know it," Carl says.

"I had to go from a three day a week job to becoming a main breadwinner.  I had to take care of all the vehicle maintenance, the house, everything," Vickie adds.

Carl has spent the last three years learning to feel his way around his property, raising dogs to earn a living, navigating the kitchen in the dark and learning braille.  He even chops wood and hunts, helping friends navigate the woods he's so familiar with.

But Carl's not satisfied to spend the rest of his life blind.  On Christmas Day, he'll travel to China to get umbilical stem cells that he hopes will help bring his optic nerve back to life.  

"I understand I probably won't have 20/20 vision, but if I can go there and they can give me enough sight that I can see my wife's and kids' face I'll be eternally grateful." says Carl.

Vickie Stevens will not travel with Carl to China.  She'll stay home to fight the battle of HER life, breast cancer.  

Being apart for over a month won't be easy, but the Stevens' have faith, in part, because of a little girl in Webb City, Missouri.

"I heard your interview with Rylea Barlett and when I heard her say she could see your sunglasses on your face I barely slept at all that night for thinking that some day I might at least see that good." remembers Carl.

The couple says they're willing to do anything they have to do to to get Carl's sight back and a new chance at a more normal life.

"I told Vickie here a while back if she can get through chemo and I can get back from China and have a little eyesight it would just be marvelous to have what other people call a normal life again.  It would be unbelievable." says Carl.

I joked that maybe vision was overrated, since Carl can still cut down trees, chop wood, walk three miles a day and guide friends on hunting trips.  But he disagreed.
    
Rylea was born with optic nerve hypoplaisa, a spokesman for Stem Cells China says she's the first person ever to receive stem cells for her condition.  Carl will be the first person to get the treatment for his condition and there's no guarantee it will work.  The Stevens' have dipped into savings and held fundraisers to come up with the $40,000 to go to China.

To find out more about the procedures, you can visit Stem Cells China's website .  To learn more about Rylea's story, you can go to her website or click here to see the story I did with her.  There's also another Missouri boy, Austin Anderson, that is currently raising money to go to China.  Head to his website, Hope for Austin , to learn more about him.