Yesterday, I learned that Susanne and Craig's 2-year-old son nearly drowned in a friend's pool. Craig gave him CPR to keep him alive while the ambulance came. After being life-flighted to a hospital, they are sitting with him while he's on a ventilator and not responding. Now off sedation, he's starting to show signs of brain trauma.Motherhood can bring all types of emotion that you can't even fathom experiencing. The deepest love, the most mind-blowing frustration. But she's seeing a side of motherhood I can't comprehend. I have so much grief for her, for Craig, for what they must be feeling. This absolutely beautiful, kind, wonderful family must be shredded with pain right now.
Today in a soccer game, Jack ended up at the bottom of a pile of children. He was kicked in the face by another child's fall...hard. His face is so swollen on one side that his eye can't open. I took this picture with a webcam, because I don't have my real camera this weekend in Williamsburg. It looks a bit better in this picture than in real life.
Seeing Jack's face almost unrecognizably deformed is sending a primal chill down my core. Right now, it's just a swollen face and likely a killer-bruise on its way. But how many parents have had their child's entire life change course in that same length of moment - falling in a pool, a car accident, so many things that can change the shape of a life. I don't normally feel so struck by the negative possibilities in life. But today life is feeling particularly fragile, particularly precious.
