The one year anniversary for ’The Accident’ is on April 13. My wife and I were not sure what to do about that because it is also our oldest son’s birthday and we don’t want to take anything away from that. A year ago on April 13, we were getting ready to celebrate his birthday when the accident happened (immediate family only, with cupcakes and a special supper). My youngest and middle son were severely burned when the boiling water on the stove fell on them.

We wanted to focus on a birthday, and not the accident, but how do we do that?

Sam, our middle son, who had to have his feet surgically repaired with skin grafts because of the accident, made a suggestion:

“Let’s draw pictures from the accident.”

So, a couple of days ago, we all drew pictures about the accident and hung them up in the kitchen. The plan we all agreed to was to take them down on April 12, and move on, and celebrate a birthday like you’re supposed to!

I had no idea what I was going to draw until I started. I had no idea what I might write until I looked at the picture I drew. I had no idea I would start crying when I looked at the picture and read what I wrote.

Sam came over and gave me a hug and asked, “Why are you crying? Because we are all better now.”

I had to chuckle as I hugged him back. Kids are so dang resilient. He’s right, their burns are healed. Our youngest didn’t need surgery and recovered. And Sam’s feet have healed really well, even though he still has to wear a compression sock and receive treatment for his right foot. He just started Karate. His surgeon agreed Sam should practice Karate bare foot, if that’s what the other kids do.

We’ll take the pictures we drew down and archive them and reclaim April 13 as the day that is my oldest son’s birthday. I love that plan. And I’m glad one of my kids recognized I needed this to happen so I could draw that picture. So I could move on.