our hearts are broken

We dropped off True earlier in the morning at my parent's house. There were plans to build a birdhouse with Grandpa.

A couple hours later, the horrific news came. Shock. Tears. Overwhelming sadness. As a parent, I could barely breathe. We stopped what we were doing and went straight to my parent's house to scoop up True and hold him tight. We haven't let him out of our reach since.

We are in deep prayer and mourning over here.  We're trying to stay away from the television and instead we are lighting candles, and sending up eons of wishes of comfort and light. We have to collectively help hold the magnitude of this for those who are suffering. And for a long time.

Our hearts are broken.

For those of you who have older children, Brene Brown has gathered up a list of helpful resources on how to talk to children about violence toward children. You can click over here to see her list. Super helpful.

As a social worker, I have deep deep concerns with our country's notorious poor access to mental health care yet high access to guns. I have deep concerns about how hard it is to purchase cold medicine in our stores (to deter meth labs) yet how easy it is to purchase bullets and guns. It just doesn't make any sense. We have to look at these things. Our lives are too precious.

 Our children are too precious.


I made this piece after becoming a mama and it's all I can think about when I think about all the parents who lost their children, and all the children who lost their parents. 
Their hearts will never be alone.