In Remembrance of Sandy Hook Elementary

     I don't even know where to begin, mostly because I still cannot understand why someone would shoot his way into a school and heinously murder helpless children and staff of an elementary school.  I don't think any of us will fully understand why someone would do this, and this pain that we all feel as a nation will never fully go away, it may lessen with time, but we will never forget what was done.  We will never forget the faces of the innocent children whose lives were just beginning and ended way too soon.  We will never forget the staff of the school who woke up and went to do the jobs they loved, working with children. 

     Over the past couple years, we have seen many indescribable tragedies that have shaken us, but for me personally, this one hits close to home and is the worst I've ever seen.  I have two beautiful children, aged 5 and 7, that I would give my life for, as any parent would.  And to think that someone would willingly hurt them just takes my breath away.  Where do we draw the line?  Now we can't even feel safe sending our children to school?  

     Many people say "What is this world coming to?"  One of things we need to do, as difficult as it is, is to live our lives the way we always have, and let our children have their innocence.  As parents it is our job to shield our children from these things as much as we possibly can.  Of course they will hear about it to some degree, but we cannot let our children and ourselves stop living and enjoying our time on this earth, for we don't know which day is our last.  We cannot let our freedom and faith get taken away by a monster who doesn't value life.  We have to inform our children of bad things that could and do happen in life, but we have to make sure to do it in a way that children would understand.  Gone are the days of letting our children be as carefree as we once were.  I remember as a child walking around the corner to the candy store with my friends at a very young age, just as all the other children in the neighborhood did.  There were always neighbors outside and tons of children outside playing.  And none of us worried about a thing, except for who was going to be "it" in the game of tag; or who was getting picked next on a team for kickball.  We were young and carefree and had not a care in the world.  Unfortunately times have changed and we need to give our children the knowledge of bad things to help keep them safe.

     There are others that say "How could God let this happen?"  God didn't let this happen, in my opinion the devil did, but God was right there by those little angels when they met him at the gates of heaven.  They are safe now in His hands.  Unfortunately since the start of time there has been evil, but there has also been good.  Many more children and staff could have died that day if certain staff members didn't go above and beyond to save lives.  The first responders didn't even know what they were walking into when they entered the building, but they too saved many lives just by the monster ending his own upon hearing police enter the building.  Of course that doesn't lessen the sorrow and heartache that we all feel for the people who perished on that day, but it leaves us with a little glimmer of hope that good will ALWAYS prevail over evil in some way.  

     The only thing I can say about this tragic event is that every day I look at my children and thank God that I have them.  I always did that, but now even more than ever I feel lucky to have them to hug and kiss.  Even when they are testing my patience, as children often do, I find myself lucky that I can calmly talk to them and guide them through life.  There is no greater gift than the gift of parenthood.  God bless the community residing near Sandy Hook Elementary, and God bless the friends and family of the deceased.  We will rise and prevail and be a better nation.

These are pictures of some of the angels that earned their wings on Friday, December 14th (pictures courtesy of various sources online):

Daniel Barden, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Avielle Richman, 6

Ann Marie Murphy, 52

James Mattioli, 6

Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Rachel Davino, 29

Grace McDonnell, 7

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47

Nancy Lanza, 52

Dylan Hockley, 6

Victoria Soto, 27

Olivia Engel, 6

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Mary Sherlach, 56

Lauren Russeau, 30

Emilie Parker, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

The names of those killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary school were released by state police on Saturday. The list includes full names of children only when parents have spoken publicly:

• Charlotte, 6
• Daniel, 7
• Rachel Davino, 29
• Olivia, 6
• Josephine, 7
• Ana, 6
• Dylan, 6
• Dawn Hocksprung, 47
• Madeleine, 6
• Catherine, 6
• Chase, 7
• Jesse, 6
• James, 6
• Grace, 7
• Anne Marie Murphy, 52
• Emilie Parker, 6
• Jack, 6
• Noah, 6
• Caroline, 6
• Jessica, 6
• Avielle, 6
• Lauren Russeau, 30
• Mary Sherlach, 56
• Victoria Soto, 27
• Benjamin, 6
• Allison, 6