Inspiration Behind the Blog...

My daughter, Macy, encouraged me to create a blog following an incident which took place on our family vacation in Walt Disney World... which, by the way, is our most favorite vacation spot:) We were having a quick lunch in the Magic Kingdom (some time after Space Mountain but before Buzz Light Year). A woman approached me asking if I happened to know how many carbohydrates were in the chicken nuggets on the kids menu. At first, I was taken back, wondering how she possibly knew that I was counting carbs in my head for the food that my children were eating. Then realizing quickly that I was holding their insulin pumps in my hand ( a dead give away for anyone who knows a thing or two about Type 1 Diabetes). I responded with the carbohydrate amount then went on to ask if she were a diabetic. She explained that she was vacationing with her daughter and six year old granddaughter who had been diagnosed a week earlier. Of course any of you mom's out there with diabetic children know the overwhelming grief that comes in that moment when you receive the diagnosis that your child has Type 1. When I heard the news of this six year old child my heart immediately went out to the family. As the little girl took her seat at the table with her mom I could over hear the childs grandmother telling her daughter and granddaughter that the woman (me) sitting at the next table had two diabetic children. I felt compelled to go talk with the child and her mom and as I began speaking... the beautiful little girl stared at me with a big smile on her face while her mother looked me in the eyes with tears running down her cheeks.  At that moment, I was brought back to eight years earlier when my own little girl, now 14, stared at me with her big beautiful smile wondering why the tears were running down my face as the Dr. explained her diagnosis and what it would mean for the rest of her life. I spoke with the mom, briefly, offering some basic information(trying not to be too overwhelming). We exchanged phone numbers and went our separate ways. Two weeks after that encounter I received a text from that mother thanking me for what I had done for her.... She said I was a silver lining in her cloud that day... . I wondered how I could have been her silver lining. I felt that I hadn't done enough. I wished, with all of heart that I could have done more for her. That encounter was the inspiration behind this blog. I hope that families dealing with the struggles of Type 1 Diabetes may see how we cope (and sometimes don't) with the issues that come along with raising children with this diagnosis. I would like to be an encouragement and most importantly put out there that we have days filled with laughter and silliness and sometimes tears and frustration. At the end of the day we are still a family like any other and our children want to be like every other child out there..... It has been a balancing act, which we still haven't quite figured out to perfection...... I don't know that we ever will, but we will certainly keep working on it!!! :)