Sunday, April 11, 2010 was an absolutly beautiful day. The sun was out and the weather was warm. We had nothing planned except for baseball practice that afternoon. Keith was at work and the kids and I spent the day just "hanging out"! Keith came home and changed clothes then got Riley ready and off they went to the ballpark. We made the decision before he left that since the kids did not have school on Monday, we would make this movie and pizza night. This would consist of everyone in their p.j.'s and sleeping bags out in the den and a great movie to watch together. After they left I jumped in the shower. When I got out I heard police sirens that stopped right outside our house, which happens to be the entrance to our neighborhood. I looked outside and saw one police car, then two, then three and next the fire and rescue trucks from our area and then another police car. They were all heading in the direction of several homes where my daughters friends live. We jumped in the car and headed that way. As we made it to the end of the street, our lives along with everyones in our community, city and state changed forever. We saw the rescue workers working on someone in a front yard and I told the kids that someone may have had a heart attack or over did their yard work and got over heated. We stopped and asked some friends of ours what happened. A 2 year old girl had been hit accidentally by a car in a neighbors driveway. I told the kids we needed to go home and get out of the way. It was worse than I thought and we did not need to be there. We left in front of the ambulance that carried this precious child to the nearest hospital where she was pronounced dead. Abigail Dahlen was playing outside and wandered into the neighbors driveway. The 18 year old boy that lived there was in the family car and backed out. He never saw her. This poor boy is devestated. Needless to say the Dahlen family is greiving terribly.
I know it is not for us to question why things happen. And it is very common for people to say that people die once they have served their purpose here on earth. However, does that make it any easier? We were not directly associated with this family. They lived a block away. We saw them in the area and attended a backyard vacation bible school with them. But to say we knew them would not be true. We only knew of them. But this tragic accident has hit us as if they were close family friends. As a mother, I can not imagine the loss this mother feels. I also can not imagine the feeling of the boys mother to watch her son suffer for something that was totaly out of his control. Both families are suffering in their own way.
I told my own children once, that they were not mine to keep. They were on loan from the Lord. The bible says "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward, Psalms 127:3-5 .He gave them to me to take care of and when the time comes that he wants them back, they will go and there is nothing I can do. I am borrowing His precious jewels and I must take very good care of them. I have to return them the way they came to me, PERFECT! It is a blessing to be given children and a blessing for them to go back home. I want nothing more than for my children to lead a healthy, happy life. Well that is not entirely true, I do want something more. I want for them, one day, to be blessed enough to see our Lord. I would hate to lose my child as this mother has lost hers, but I would hope I could find comfort in knowing that one day I would see her again.
Another mother who lost a child to soon wrote on her blog recently and I read it. Her son drown in the family pool. She said her sons life did not end in that pool that night, it began. I thought about this for a while and smiled because yes, our lives have not begun, not really. We are here to earn our life, our eternal life. So I guess you could say, in the two years Abigail graced this earth she earned her way back home. If you look at it that way you have to think it is amazing! As a mother, I pray everyday and ask the Lord to PLEASE bring my babies home safe to me. It is a selfish prayer but I do pray it. I pray it for myself not for them. I am the one that does not want to lose them. However Jesus said "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Mathew 19:14.
This will one day be bearable for these families but I do not believe it will be easier. Life will continue to go on around them and eventually for the sake of their other children, they to will have to go on. But on the heart of every person that knows them, loves them or has just heard of them, this little angel Abigail has a special place on everyones heart. She will never be far from everyones hearts and minds. I will continue to help in any way I can but the one thing i know for sure that I can do, that will help them is pray.
