I love you

We've had a week. I'm surprised my husband and I are sane. I also realize that our life will never be dull ever. We will come across absolutely everything guaranteed. I wasn't going to write about this but I think it's important for everyone to continue to realize how valuable our lives are. We almost lost our oldest daughter yesterday. She was tubing down a river with her friends and lost contact. From there she was swept into and under a rock crevice with another girl. Her story was horrific and something most of us will never experience. She couldn't see anything, this other girl was panicked and had a hold of our daughters hair pulling her under even further while our daughter was trying, fighting and gripping onto the near by rocks. Everything was dark. Our daughter explained very upset and traumatized that while she was gulping water and loosing strength she knew her life was over. Her only thoughts were of us, Mom and Dad. I teared during her testimony. After her fight for life everything went black. She awoke with Paramedics by her side. Alive. Thank God she was saved and the other girl was saved too. She did suffer a lack of oxygen to her brain, some cuts and bruises from struggling against the rocks and she's traumatized. She's sore from her fight to live, she's having nightmares and still vomiting. The reason I'm sharing this is because within minutes our lives as we once knew it could have been changed forever. None of us know when our time will come and how it will be. The paramedics explained she shouldn't have survived. Even her story pains me but I'm so grateful that she fought for her life. That she survived. That for some reason she is to remain here. We all take life for granted. We take each other for granted. I had a discussion with our children today about the importance of respecting and loving each other because one day, we could regret what was said or how we treated one another. Last night I made a point of saying, "I love you" to all our children personally one after another. I apologised for not saying it enough. I know with our busy lives that those three words as easy as they can be, "Aren't said sometimes" Sometimes when we're dealing with hard challenges; saying, "I love you" can be difficult even though we feel we do inside. My point is, those three little words mean a lot. Lately but not because of this almost fatal accident, we have been frequently saying, "I love you" more then we have before. I've definitely been upset, I've cried knowing that I could have lost one of my daughters. I cry knowing that she still suffers from the trauma she endured. I only want to console, love and always continue to love to the best of my abilities knowing that within minutes we can loose someone. Selfishly, I can't be that Mother that has lost a child. I don't know how I would cope. I don't know how others have. I also can't keep them safe 100% and I feel having a larger family, I could indeed one day face a loss. I dread having a constable coming to explain something other then a crime. So the reality has hit hard, and we are moving forward knowing that right now, we're all safe and sound but we will never know from one day to the next our fatalities. So all I can say from our experiences, love and respect each other like it's our last day. I can not express that enough. Trust me, make that hug tighter, appreciate the little things and smile because we are still alive.

It's that simple.