Normal

I have thought all day about what to title this blog post. I have even thought about how to start and what exactly to say. I finally figured it out.

NORMAL

WHAT IS NORMAL? Who is living a normal life?

I am living a NORMAL life.

For the last 3 1/2 years since Joey's accident, I have constantly said "I wish my life was normal". Well after this weekend I realized my life is normal. This last Friday I got on a plane with Jill and Peggy. Jill is mom to Seth who had his near-drowning 8yrs ago. Peggy is Jill's mommy. We flew to Seattle, WA to meet up with and spend the weekend with 9 other mommies who have children that have had a near-drowning accident. 12 of us total.

Over the last 3 1/2 yrs even though I have talked to many different mommies through email or more recently through facebook, you still feel most days that you are alone on your journey. I have always called it a journey because I have never felt like it was a normal life to live. WELL, this weekend changed me a lot. For the first time ever in the last 3 1/2 yrs I have felt normal. I sat in this HUGE house with 11 other mommies and we laughed and laughed and laughed and cried, then laughed some more. We talked about our lives, our feelings, our struggles and our happy times, we prayed and sang and cheered, we held each other and just sat and listened. Even though all our kids are at different levels of healing and different levels of disability and all our stories of how we got here are somewhat different, we all felt the same. We all have experienced the same emotions. No one judged the other. You never had to explain your life. We all understood. We all were on the same path, the same journey, the same NORMAL. Being with all these mommies I realized that we lived normal lives. Normal because we have all been were the other has been. Normal because it was comfortable. Normal because we all understood each other. Having the 12 of us women in the same room made my life NORMAL.

I want to send out a few special thank yous; Thank you to Sue S. who organized and planned our whole weekend and Thank you to Tiffany V. for letting us stay at her house. Also Thank you to Amy S.(Sue's daughter) and Yoli (Sue's Best Friend) for cooking and cleaning for us all weekend. And Thank you to all of Sue's friends who volunteered their time and donated monies to make our retreat all it was.

I will miss you all, but will see you next year (hopefully). This weekend really changed me more then I ever imagined. Thank You Mommies. I LOVE YOU!