August 29, 2008

Hi…

  I’m Rebecca. My dad said it would be good for me to tell people my story. He said that a lot of adults think about their kids’ safety all the time, but they sometimes forget how important their own safety is too. This summer a lot of things changed around our house. It all changed because dad got hurt really bad. He’s okay now. Well sort of. It was so scary at first. I didn’t know what was going on, and no one could really explain it to me or my sister and brother. Mom sat down with us a couple of times but I don’t think I quite understood everything then either.

When I’m excited, scared or upset, I write in my journal. It’s usually fun to write in my journal, but this summer I was more scared and angry than I’ve ever been. I couldn’t tell my mom in words how I was feeling so I gave her my journal to read because it explains everything. (And then she’d know how I felt without me having to tell her- I’d probably start crying.) She read it and then came to talk about it. She was glad I had shared this with her. We talked about what I was feeling and she told me that no matter what, she knows I love my dad and care about him. She also said that no matter what, he loves me too. Then she asked me if Dad could read my journal. I didn’t want him to at first, because it says how I was mad at him. And I’m not mad at him anymore. She said I should do it anyway. So I did.

After Dad read it, he gave me a huge hug and told me it was okay to be mad at him. I told him I wasn’t and that I feel bad about the whole thing. We talked about everything for hours and I began to see a different side of my dad. He admitted to me that he took a risk that he shouldn’t have taken. He told me the most important thing now is to make sure we all learn from this lesson and make sure that it never happens again. That’s why he wants me to post my journal online now so everyone can see it. My family doesn’t want to see this happen to other families. Plus we’re lucky. Dad is going to be okay. He told me some dads or moms might not be as lucky as he was.

So I’ve decided to do it. I’m going to post sections of my journal online for all of you to see. Not my whole journal, just this story… from the beginning.

I’m doing this for my dad.

 Rebecca

 

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