Where do we go from here?

Here we are 8 years later, Seth is 10 years old! We have seen families come and go, and watched families fall apart, filled with pain, wanting people who have not been through this to understand what their families go through,and wishing the parent who was not their at the time of the accident could live one minute in the mind of the parent who was, know the shame that parent feels, know the heartache they live with, hoping each day for a miracle! Hoping people are not judging them as parents because this was an accident like any other accident a child has! The guilt they live with and how much work it is being the  parent taking care of the child 24/7 trying so hard to find the one thing that works to help their child have the best life they can give them! If you are reading this thinking "they should have been watching their child better", then know that in a second your life could change just like these families! An accident is an accident, teach your child to ride a bike and they get hit by a car or fall and get injured, where were you when it happened?Did you make them wear a helmet at all times! Any toy a child can ride on can be so dangerous and deadly.Did you teach your child how to drive and they got into an accident because they were not paying attention, where were you when it happened! Were you one of the lucky ones who had something happen and it wasn't so bad?

Not only are the parents in pain and their hearts are broken forever but their other children suffer in their lives as well, divorces happen, families fall apart, and yet I watch my daughter and all of the other families move on and take control of their lives and try everything that they can to make a better life for their children!

They make it look so easy, they look like they are doing fine, but the pain of that day, the pain of seeing your family fall apart, the pain of seeing your child, that beautiful child that was for a short time doing all the normal things children do, and one second, changed all of that for a lifetime!

I was their that day with my daughter and Seth, we felt so secure with the floaties on him, we were distracted for a few minutes, but felt so secure in the thought that nothing like this could ever happen to us! We had no idea what "near drowning" even meant!  

Read the stories about the kids! How the accidents happened, and know maybe it won't be a near drowning, or any accident at all, but don't ever think it could never happen to you, and it only happens to bad parents.

http://www.hugs4ndc.com/Meetthechildren.html 

If you could one day know the pain of something happening to your child, the child you love so much, the child you would never ever let harm come to, the child you would take a bullet for, the one who you could always kiss the pain away from a fall, or scratch on the knee, and then in one second your heart is broken forever because you truely thought your child was always protected by you and something so horrible happens that you can never change, you can't make better and forever as much as you seem to be ok, the pain is there, the heartache is there, the guilt is there! But you go on, and you work everyday to make life the best it can be for you and your children!

We all pray no parent, no family, ever has to know what this life is like for our families! But we know, the odds, and we know more families will be joining this group, and the comfort for us is that we can help them through it all! Make it easier, and maybe help a family heal from it instead of fall apart!

If your child is born with something wrong you can always blame someone else for that! But when your child has an accident that causes a brain injury or some other kind of disability, you don't have anyone else to blame, you have to look to yourself and say "if only!"

You can make a choice, pick yourself up and keep on going, doing the very best you can, and forgive yourself, or give up!

These parents choose to keep going, doing the best they can, and being a better parent because of it!

We hope that you will choose to help these families in any small or large way you can! Here are just a few things these families need! We can not help them without you!

God Bless You!

This video is brought to you by

Julie Stafford