when chris was in iraq, i was always so happy to meet people who had come back from iraq, safe and alive. now that chris is a cop, i really enjoy meeting retired cops, people who have served for 20+ years and are safe and alive. these days, i am enjoying meeting adults/teenagers who have grown up in arizona and are safe and alive.
did you know that there are 90 pool-related deaths in arizona every year? and they occur between april and august. two weekends ago, a little 7 year old boy died in a canal, while his 6 year old brother, also in the canal, managed to survive. this weekend on saturday, one 3 year old and one 7 year old girl died in swimming pools. the 3 year old was in a pool full of other kids, the oldest one being 14. the 7 year old died at her grandparents house in an above ground pool. there wasn't a ladder on the pool, but there was one close by, and the 7 year old pushed it over and drowned. my heart breaks for all of the families that have lost their children in this horrid month of april.
but heart is also divided between being sad and being extremely angry because drowning is so preventable! i feel like it should be mandatory for swim lessons to be free in this state. is that crazy talk? i am pretty sure i took free swimming lessons in canada at the local rec center. and they were great swimming lessons. i became a lifeguard. i think i even took synchronized swimming lessons for free (that didn't last long. the lessons. not the free-ness). sure that was EONS ago, but can't we just do that here in the land of the 6 month long summer? i mean, there's about 2 months, max, that you are swimming outside in canada, and yet we have free swimming lessons. i knew 1 person with a pool in their backyard growing up. 1 person. that's it. and i can't yell at parents on this blog to go out and pay a ton of money for swimming lessons, especially if they don't have the dough for it. but then at least be ridiculously vigilant about watching your kids near water and letting kids know that water is EVIL AND DANGEROUS! ok. it's not always. but young kids don't do great with 'exceptions to the rule' so for now, lily and topher have been getting an earful about how dangerous and evil water is.
these last two weeks have put me in a quandry. the boys who fell in the canal were on a bike ride. their dad started looking for them after they had been missing for quite a while. but they were on a bike ride. that's safe, right? something they probably did every weekend, if not every day. but they had an accident. i don't know all the details to this story, but i can only hope they didn't intentionally go into the canal, especially because it was freakishly cold last saturday. so does that mean i still shouldn't trust lily and topher to be outside when they are 7? that's not old enough, but then what is old enough? at this point, the kids are going to live with me for the rest of their lives because they won't have nya friends cause i won't let them go anywhere or do anything cause i can't trust them. oh evil water.
but i guess not all water is evil. ok. i know it's really really not. this weekend was baptism weekend at our church and many people were baptized. one of my 'young' friends (high school student)that i volunteer with jumped out of her seat and got baptized at the last second. it happened to be at the service i was attending and i was so blessed to have been at the same service as her. what joy it is to watch people give their lives to Christ. to go under that water and emerge as a new creation. i guess water is evil if you don't emerge from it.
the baptisms were the highlight of my day yesterday. i guess this is an angry post because i found out that the 7 year old who drowned at her grandparents' house was one of my students in my special needs class. she was the sweetest little angel who had a plethora of different afflictions, one of which was not being able to speak. i have been praying for her family in this insane time of loss and mourning and grieving, and i guess instead of ranting about how our state should offer free swimming lessons, i should just be asking you to please pray for this little girl's family. i have hope and faith that this little one is in heaven, communicating ever so clearly to our heavenly Father, and they are laughing and sharing some inside jokes, and He is delighted to have her with Him. she is in a better place. and now we pray for her family to try to get to a better place mentally and spiritually.
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