Near-Drowning Tribe
November 6, 2011 | Updates
Life throws challenges at all of us. And somehow, we have to get through them. There are many tactics we use to battle through our trials. Some of them are simple and others, not so much.
Some of my favorites:
Chocolate
Cheesecake
A nice soft bed at the end of a hard day
Cute boots
Loud and uplifting music on a long drive
Committing with myself to just push through to the end of the day
Tears
Prayers
Scriptures
Church.
But in the end, the best medicine is someone who can truly understand. And in many of our challenges, that someone is hard to come by. I have relied so much on family and friends the last few years. But sometimes, it felt like no one could truly understand. And so, I would turn to my Savior. And I can tell you that He has ALWAYS held comfort for me in those difficult times.
But I do have to say that having someone here, on this earth, in the flesh, who can truly understand the things that I feel, is an incredible gift as well. And a few weeks ago, I spent 4 days with 14 of those people.
We call ourselves “The Near-Drowning Tribe”. We are all mothers of children who have been resuscitated after drowning. All of our children now suffer from anoxic brain damage.
We all live with things like:
Sleepless nightsA myriad of doctors appointmentsG-tubesTrachsOxygenSleep studiesSeizuresMedicationsTherapiesMedical billsFights for equipment
Diapers
FormulaSurgeriesProlonged sicknessesEtc. And…we all live with angels.
Being with these women for 4 days was incredible. And I can hardly wait to see them again next year!
I learn so much from them as we compare therapies and treatments we are trying with our children, share stories and ideas, and laugh and cry together. I could spend months and months at other brain injury conferences and never come away with as much information as I do when I spend a few days with these mothers. They have actual experience with brain injury. They know what works and what doesn’t. They are a vast source of information. And they are each INCREDIBLE.
One of my favorite songs (Coming Home by The Nashville Tribute Band) has the words, “I’ve never seen beautiful…like a journey’s end…when nameless faces become my best friends.” Ever since returning from my trip this year, I can’t listen to those words without tears coming to my eyes. All of the women in our group are of different religions. But we all know that one day, our children will be healed.
The words in that song make me think of the day when we will reach our journey’s end; when our children will stand up and walk towards us. And I know at that moment, I will look out at the faces of these women and know that they have become some of my best friends. They already are :). And I’ve only spent a handful of days with each of them.
What an incredible blessing!
Until next year, my sisters in this journey…
Back Row - Left to Right: Janet (Mom to Travis) , Sue (Mom to Luke), Lindsey (Mom to Santana), Tiffany (Mom to Abby), Kehau (Mom to Caleb), Amy (Mom to Jake) , Me (Mom to Samuel)
Front Row - Left to Right: Annie (Mom to Izzy), Dawn (Mom to Collin), Jill (Mom to Seth), Julie (Mom to Joey), Joanna (Mom to Ethan), Lisa (Mom to Brock), Shauna (Mom to Christian), Erin (Mom to Aidan)
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
