20 Little Angels....

RIP Sweet Angels

On Friday morning, we mourned as a nation. 

A senseless act that none of us could imagine possible, pain rippled through a small town that none of us ever want to experience. As shots rang out, Heaven gained 20 sweet little angels and 6 heroic women to watch over those angels in the absence of their parents.

As I watched the story unfold in the small town of Newtown, CT, I cried and thought to myself "Why?" What causes a person to open fire on innocent children and shoot them, multiple times? It makes me just angry, sad, confused and all around heartbroken.

Anastasia came home from school early because she was sick on Friday, about 2 or 3 hours into this, when we wasn't sure what was really happening, the magnitude of what happened. All we knew is that a person opened fire in an elementary school. We didn't know how many lives, for sure, had been lost, we just knew that something had happened at an elementary school. When she walked through the door, I grabbed her in a tight hug and just held her and cried. Then I held Cailin and cried. When Sebastian got home, I held him and cried. 

When they asked me what happened, I let them watch the news and I explained what was going on. I kept the lines of communication open. I answered all the questions I could, to the best of my ability. I let them know what happened and that some children died. 

THEY GOT ANGRY!

They wanted to fight back in some way. They got so mad because those little souls were lost. Anastasia asked about Christmas and how their Mommy and Daddy would handle it. She said she wanted to go to their house and hug them all.

I asked them what they do at school. Evidently, they hide behind the cubbies while the teacher locks the doors, shuts off the lights, and closes the blinds. I take some comfort (I think) in the fact that both of their rooms are on the second floor. It will give them time to get hid before something happens. (I can't believe that I'm even talking about this.........) I, personally, think that their school is pretty safe and it's about a mile up the road from us, less than a mile from the fire department and police departments. 

As I'm sure many parents did, I searched my heart this weekend and tried to come to grips with what happened and tried to find a way to honor those kids as best as we can. And I decided that what MY family is going to is put a slip of paper that says "Merry Christmas" and a child's name into a balloon and release 20 green and white balloons on Christmas Eve. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I can't think of anything else. Of course, I'll take pictures and share them.

This morning, my kids wore green and white (as best as they could) shirts to school. I was kind of shocked that, out of all of their clothes, this was all they had that had green and white on it. But they wore them with no arguments, because they felt it was a way to honor the victims. I was very proud of them. Before they got on the bus this morning, they grabbed me up in a big, tight hug. I held back tears as I watched them board the bus and sent up a silent request to please keep them and their classmates, students all over the world as well, safe.

How has your family handled this news of this tragedy? Are you hugging your kids a little tighter this week?