Our Children

I had an unusual experience yesterday, one that made me take stock of my life and what is important. I have 4 beautiful children ages 9 to 20. As an adult we can get busy and forget to take the time to cherish the few short years we get to mentor these beautiful souls.

Yesterday morning I took my 3rd child, my eleven year old David, to the state soccer tournament. It was cold and a few snowflakes were falling as the boys went through their 8 am warm-ups. I was getting my self ready with my chair, camera gear etc. when I heard people calling me from the team side of the field. Not sure what they wanted with me I began to saunter over to the team bench and was directed to the corner of the field where I saw one of the coaches on the ground motioning for me to come over. I realized that there was a boy on the ground at his feet.

In an instant I knew who the boy was. It was David. My heart leaped because I also knew what had happened. When I got to them, David was shaking and his lips were blue. His eyes were rolled back and he was unresponsive. I no longer felt the biting cold of the morning as I tried to comfort my boy. David has had seizures three times before but this was the first time I actually witnessed the seizure. I wasn't panicked, but worried. I knew that he would get through it. I just held him and someone brought a blanket to keep him warm. In a few minutes he quit shaking and a few minutes later his eyes opened in a way that I could tell he was again aware of his environment. He was weak and would only utter the most basic responses to questions.

A seizure takes all his energy, his game day was over before the game started. But the awesome thing was the people around who offered care, concern and help. One parent was a nurse and she stayed with David until we were ready to drive away.

While David was going through this my whole world was centered on him. Not on feeling cold, or getting pictures, or any other care. I have been thinking about how I need to give more of that care and more focus of my life onto the lives of my children. I'm grateful that David is here. I have more days to love him and photograph him and to enjoy his special and unique character. I hope we can all remember to focus our lives on the people we love first.