Tragedy TOO Close to Home

My family and I vacationed on the Frio River this year. We had around 25 people, so we rented two little houses right alongside the Frio. One morning I wake up with my cousin standing over me with my son...it's daybreak so I wasn't all there but I made out that my son was on their porch crying for daddy. I grabbed him and put him back in bed, where we went back to sleep. When we woke, I found out the detailed story...

Our house was the farthest away from the water, whereas my cousins porch was facing the water. The only thing that separated the porch from the river was a little fence that didn't even have a latch. My almost 3 year old, climbed out of his bunk bed (where his dad and myself were sleeping a few feet away)...walked out the bedroom door, down the hall, unlocked the front door and walked 30 yards around the other house to get to the porch. Thank God someone heard him crying and brought him back over. I was somewhat in shock for the rest of the trip -- my baby boy, not quite 3 years old, could have ended up floating in that river while we were sleeping. Some might think I'm over-protective but I just try my best to squash any possibility of something happening to my babies. I don't usually let them out of my sight for a second, especially if there's water around. I don't know how I could live with myself knowing that my negligence caused my kids harm. How do you prevent those things from happening when you're asleep 5 ft away???

When I came back from vacation to my job fundraising for a children's hospital, I saw all these online donations come in -- in memory of Clinton -- I asked our chaplain if that was a patient that had passed away. He replied, "no, that's the 2 year old that drowned in a pond this past weekend". My heart stopped. The same weekend my son could have drowned. Right then I had just had to thank God again for somehow sparing my child... it could have easily been my family that suffered this unthinkable loss.


Here is part of little Clinton's Obituary:

"Clinton Ryan Miller, twenty-three months old, went to be with our Lord on Saturday, June 7, 2008 in New Iberia, Louisiana. He was born on June 30, 2006 in Corpus Christi, Texas to Curtis and Charise Miller. He was a loving boy and enjoyed playing and being around his family and friends. He will be missed dearly by all his family and friends."


Please pray for this family... and I want to do something special in his memory. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.