Happy Birthday in Heaven

A WEEK OF EMOTIONAL UPS AND DOWNS

This week was my twins, Evan and Lauren’s (LaLa) Birthday. It was by far the greatest day of by life. Seeing them born and holding them in my arms was life changing!

Today my wife and I try to focus on celebrating our sons Birthday balancing that with the memory of LaLa. That’s not always easy.

It is a day filled with mixed emotions, all the joy I mention above, and the constant dull ache of doing life without our daughter here. I know her “A1 from Day1” (LaLa’s favorite nickname for her twin). From Day one they were extremely close. Lauren was a great encouragement for Evan and always made him feel important. Of course, this is not to say they did not have their moments as brothers and sisters often do, but they always worked those things out.

I and my wife have often said “We would never want her to have to live in the pain she felt in this world again.” That is still true but we do feel pain, some days more than others, simply because we now live (momentarily) in a world devoid of her presence while always being in our hearts. The post “Why We Know Lauren is Safe” explains why we feel that way.

PAIN IS A PART OF THE GAME

Pain is a big part of addiction. We talked about that in last weeks post: “Addiction Starts and Ends in Pain”.

If you go to LaLa’s Facebook Page you will see that I and many others—appropriately so—wished LaLa a “Happy Birthday in Heaven”. I have to say as one of the people that loved LaLa very deeply I am happy to be able to say that, but man, it is not easy! I hope you will never have to say that regarding someone you care about fighting an addiction or mental health issue.

THERE IS ALWAYS A PATHWAY FORWARD

The best protection from that is for you to get some understanding of what your loved one may be facing.

Here are some helpful places to start:

One Size Does Not Fit All

Broken Relationships

A New Perspective on an Old Problem

Friends and Family

Allies in Recovery

Allies in Recovery is an excellent resource that gives regular support for someone wanting to help a loved one fighting an addiction. Its well worth taking a look at.

This weeks featured image is by Brooke Shaden, it is called “In the Beginning”