Teddy Bear Drive for Sandy Hook Survivors and Grieving Families

I'm not really able to put my feelings into words at this time. What words are appropriate when there are parents out there who had their children taken from them with such violent means? There aren't any.

Being in high school in the south suburbs of Denver at the time, I, of course, was acquainted with people who went to Columbine High School. I still can't even write about it, and I wasn't there. It's making my head hurt just to try to find the right words to write here. This isn't going to be a well-written post, but bear with me. People amaze me every day. The strength of the survivors inspire me. After everything they endure, to find the good in the world again... It's a powerful thing.

**Skip this paragraph if you can't deal with specifics from Sandy Hook.**
Just know that for every person who does a terrible thing, there are people out there doing good. A young man killed children. But there were good people who helped save lives that day. A principal and school therapist lunged at the shooter to stop him. They died trying to stop him. In that time, he let off shots. That gave one teacher, the teacher whose door was closest to the entrance, enough time to lock her classroom door. When the shooter found that door locked, he moved on. A special education teacher used her body to shield her students and died. Another teacher stuffed her young children in a closet. When the shooter entered the room, she lied and told him they were at gym. He shot her. There were real heroes that day. They didn't save everyone, but their good deeds and heroic actions give me hope.

Today, a friend who is a survivor posted on Facebook about a charity drive led by fellow Columbine Massacre survivors. She shared that little acts of kindness helped her to see the good in people again. She said she still has a teddy bear that was given to her after the shooting. Many students were given bears and kept theirs after all this time.

Those survivors are organizing a teddy bear drive. You can find details for the drive at this website:
https://www.phoenix999.org/teddy-bear-drive/

They write:
When our tragedy happened, many kind strangers sent us teddy bears for comfort. We still have those bears. They brought us hope.  They continue to bring us comfort and a reminder that there is so much good in the world.
We want to help provide the children and families of Sandy Hook some of the same hope and comfort we received.

If you are in a position to, please consider donating a bear to their teddy bear drive.

My thoughts and sympathy are with all of the parents and siblings and survivors from Sandy Hook. These were babies. All the photos of the deceased--I look at their smiling mouths filled with baby teeth... it's too much. I don't know how the families and community are going to move on. But I think back to those Columbine survivors, and I know good will prevail there, too.

Another Tragedy Near Home

By this late morning hour, most people have heard about the shooting during the midnight premiere showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora.  I've been trying to process the information all morning.  We may never have the answers to my questions, but I can't help wondering why this young man shot up the theater.  He killed a dozen people, injured dozens more, and his victims included babies, kids, and teenagers.  I ache to know a motive, to hear his demented reasoning.  I ache for the families who lost loved ones and are left imagining the fear and pain of friends and family members who were in that theater with the gunman.

All these news stories are saying there's no link between this man and terrorists, but that doesn't mean his rampage wasn't a form of terrorism.  It most certainly was.

I've lived in Colorado for fifteen years now.  I went to high school in Englewood when the Columbine massacre happened in Littleton, and I lived just a couple miles away from the Deer Creek Middle School shooting that happened last year.  It scares me to think of the risk of sending my kids to school here.  The shooters made me afraid of public places, and that is terrorism.  Two years ago, a man tried to set a bomb off at the mall near my house.  In the wee hours of the morning today, that gunman opened fire at a mall theater across town.

It made me realize that terrorism doesn't just occur abroad.  It's not something that just people in the Middle East have to deal with.  I hear of stories of people blowing themselves up in places like Israel, and I think how scary it is--but it's far away from me and seems like a different world.  Yet, how are these shootings and bombings that different?  The truth is, we have to deal with it here, at home, in America, at the hands of other Americans.

How can I protect my kids when these massacres are random?  The answer is: I can't.  I don't want to lock my kids up at home and teach them to live in fear.

I am so sorry for all the people affected by the tragedy this morning.  I hope everyone can eventually find healing.  Hug your little ones a little tighter today, as we are all reminded how fragile our lives are.

Love & Peace to all my readers.

Mall Play Area

Andrew's work closed early today to give the employees a head start on the long, holiday weekend. We wanted to get out and do something fun without spending money and without suffering in the extreme heat. So, we decided to scope out the free play area at the Southwest Plaza Mall. Yes, that's the one that had the bombing a few months back. For some reason, those types of domestic terrorist type things seem to be fairly prevalent around here. There was just a bombing at the Colorado Mills Mall (also near our home) last week. Thankfully, no one was hurt there, either. We've lived in this area for two years now, and there have been two mall bombings as well as a school shooting at Deer Creek Middle School. I guess that really isn't important to this blog, but I have to admit that I was a little nervous going to the mall. I think that's because we basically never go to a mall. It's the first thing I thought of when we went.

Thankfully, all was peaceful, and we ended up having a lot of fun. The play area is for little kids (maximum height of 42") and there were only babies when we arrived. The activities were perfect for Oliver. He climbed and crawled and pointed out all the animals.

At one point, a sibling trio arrived. The youngest was probably 9 and the oldest was probably 13. I didn't feel right telling them to leave when there parents probably expected them to be there, but I also felt ticked off as these kids played a game of tag and jumped around with their shoes on (also against the rules). They enjoyed trying to leap over all the kiddy obstacles, and it just made us uncomfortable to let Oliver wander. We left, but it definitely wasn't a waste. Oliver got a good half hour of play time in.

On the way out, he even got to see dogs! I don't support the mall pet stores, but I don't find the harm in looking. Oliver loved the puppies, of course.I loved the play area so much that I'm going to add it to my mental list of places to go when Oliver and I have cabin fever. Good times!