One man's life touches so many others...

It breaks my heart every time I hear about something like this happening...

Last night my 12 year old brother rode the city bus up to his middle school basketball practice along with four of his teammates. When the bus dropped them off, two of the boys ran across the road in front of the parked bus and the boy in front was hit by a car that was driving down the road. The driver did not see the boy and so did not even put on his brakes. The impact was so strong that the boy was knocked out of his shoes. My little brother was standing on the sidewalk when it happened and could hear the impact and see his friend's body land. The boy was in critical condition and was flown to intensive care, but passed away this morning. It is heart breaking in so many ways....a twelve year old boy who had so much life left to live... a mother and three sisters who lost one of the most important people in their life...the driver of the car who, despite the fact that he had no way of seeing the boy coming, will have to live with the guilt for the rest of his life... my little brother and the other boys who had to witness this and will probably never forget.

I did not personally know the boy, but I knew who he was and had seen him play basketball games with my little brother. I talked to my mom about it today and heard all the details and about all the aftereffects. A facebook group was started for him after the accident happened last night, and after he passed away today a memorial blog was started for everyone to share memories and for people to know how they could help the family. I read many of the comments and it was amazing to see how many people it has affected. I am reminded of a quote from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life":

"One man's life touches so many others, when he's not there, it leaves an awfully big hole"

Hearing of all the tears that were shed at the middle school today and reading the comments on both facebook and the memorial blog from family, friends, teammates, teachers, classmates and more is definite proof of the truthfulness of this quote. Everyone had something to share and there were many fond memories of the boy being cheerful, sweet, and fun. As my little brother wrote on the blog: "Logan was a great kid, always smilling. It was even said that he was laughing right before the accident."

Hearing of something like this reminds me how fragile life is, and so unpredictable. There is no way to know when someone's life will suddenly be ended. As cliche as this may sound, it makes me want to always live my life to the fullest. You also can never know when the life of a loved one will be taken away, and so I repeat my strong belief that we must always make sure that people know how much they mean to us, before it's too late.

From God's Arms, To My Arms, To Yours...

This is a little late, but I have been busy and have been wanting to write this blog ever since it happened to me, but now I am finally getting the chance....

Last Monday there was an adoption conference at UVU that was open to students and the public. There were a big variety of classes available as well as a key note speaker. One of my teachers decided that instead of holding class that day, he wanted us to attend one of the classes or listen to the speaker. Well the key note speaker was Michael McLean, whom I really like, so I went to that. For those of you that don't know, Michael McLean is a LDS singer and songwriter who has been making music for the last 25 years. He is most well known for The Forgotten Carols. If you want to know more about him, his website is: http://www.michaelmcleanmusic.com.

So I went into the small theater where he was going to be speaking and it turns out I got to sit about five rows back from him. I was close enough to him that I could hear him interacting with people before the show and I could see that he had a fun, expressive, and kind personality.

After being introduced, he went on to the stage and sat down at the piano. I was excited that I'd get to hear him perform a song, but it turns out that he stayed at the piano for the entire hour that he was speaking. What followed was a very moving performance complete with stories, insights and songs.

The primary form of adoption that he was focusing on was the situations in which a single girl is pregnant and through an extremely difficult process decides to give her unborn child to a married couple that cannot have children of their own. I have never had any kind of personal experience with this kind of adoption, but it is something that I am passionate about. I have read a lot of stories about it and believe strongly in the idea. It is easy to watch from the outside and condemn those birth mothers who are struggling with the decision, because logically it is a very clear decision to give her child to a married couple. But for the person in that situation it is far from being about logic and what makes the most sense, especially after you have carried the baby for 9 months and have seen the precious baby's face. Hearing it from the birth mother's perspective, it is undeniable how hard and selfless this decision is. I greatly admire anyone who has made that decision, and with my ambition to work for LDS Family Services, I may one day be able to help the women in those circumstances.

All through his stories and songs I could hear sniffling all around me. I had no doubt that many of the people surrounding me had been directly effected by the things he was talking about it... whether they were a birth mom who gave up her child, the grateful parents who received a child through adoption, a child about whom the selfless decision was made, or someone else who had been touched by the miracle of adoption. I don't think there were many dry eyes in the audience, I know mine were not.

One of the most emotional parts was when he told the story that inspired his well known and loved song "From God's Arms, To My Arms, To Yours." Hearing about the specific individual who had asked him to write this song, and then about all the responses and decisions that it sparked in others from hearing it was truly amazing. It was much more powerful hearing him sing it, but here are the words:

From God's Arms, To My Arms, To Yours

So many wrong decisions in my past, I'm not quite sure

If I can ever hope to trust my judgment anymore.

But lately I've been thinking,

Cause it's all I've had to do.

And in my heart I feel that I

Should give this child to you.

And maybe, you could tell your baby,

When you love him so, that he's been loved before,
By someone, who delivered your precious one,

From God's arms, to my arms, to yours.

If you choose to tell him,

Or if he wants to know,

How the one who gave him life

Could bear to let him go.

Just tell him there were sleepless nights,

I prayed and paced the floors,

And knew the only peace I'd find,

Was if this child was yours.

And maybe, you could tell your baby,

When you love him so, that he's been loved before,

By someone, who delivered your precious one,

From God's arms, to my arms, to yours.

Now I know that you don't have to do this,
But could you kiss him once for me?
The first time that he ties his shoes, or falls and skins his knee?
And could you hold him twice as long when he makes his mistakes?
Tell him that he's not alone...sometimes that's all it takes.
I know how much he'll ache...

This may not be the answer,

For another girl like me.

And I'm not on a soapbox,

Saying how we all should be.

I'm just trusting in my feelings,

And I'm trusting God above,

And I'm trusting you can give this baby

Both his mothers' love.

And maybe, you could tell your baby,

When you love him so, that he's been loved before,

By someone, who delivered your precious one,

From God's arms, to my arms, to yours.

After the show I decided to go talk to him since I was only a few rows away anyways. There were two women that were in front of me in line to talk to him. I heard what they said to him and it was really amazing. One of them was the birth mother who had given her son to the other women and they had come to the conference together. Hearing their story and the positive results was really great. So then I got to meet Michael McLean and shake his hand and get his autograph. He is a really friendly guy and it was awesome to meet him. And his talk left me a lot to think about...