Met a nice family
Scott Benner
First I need to say that Arden choose this picture for the post. I asked her which to use and she said, “the one where we twist our faces”. The glasses that she is wearing are BTW cosmetic... oh little girls!
Anyway...
The other evening my family went out to dinner, we took two cars because Arden and Kelly were out shopping and Cole and I met up with them at the restaurant when they were finished. When it was time to leave the kids went with Kelly and I stayed behind to pay the check. As I was getting up to leave I saw that the little girl next to me was giving herself an injection in her arm. I spoke to them as I was leaving saying, “excuse me” before I began.
The next day I received a great email from the little girl’s mother and I want to share some of it here without using their names. The bits from her email will be in bold...
To be honest, I initially thought you were going to say something to us about not having our daughter give herself insulin at the table! I just heard you say "Excuse me" and I thought, oh God, here we go. We offended this guy by having her inject herself in public.
But that isn’t what happened, is it? I told that little girl (she was about 11 or 12) that I thought she was a rock star for injecting at the table and not being embarrassed!
It was the exact opposite, and it was a nice surprise to have someone support her for a change. I think she liked hearing what you had to say too, it made her feel good. She doesn't get positive feedback often...
Well I’m glad that I didn’t come off as creepy!
The last couple of years have been frustrating in so many ways...
Wet talked for a few minutes and I tried my best to let the family and that sweet girl know that they weren’t alone and that much of the trials that they face are faced by all of us. That they get easier and that there are a lot of people that would be happy to help them. I told them about all of you on Twitter (hey tweeps!) and in doing so I said Arden’s name...
The father says, “what was your daughter’s name again?” and I repeated, “Arden”. He looked at his wife, she looked at me, smiled and said, “I know you, I’ve been on your website”.
Here I thought that after almost 2 years of caring for my daughter’s diabetes, I had it down and felt that I was educated and informed. Your website humbled me pretty quick. There's still SO much left to learn and it's clear we are only just beginning...
So for anyone that is reading this, you aren’t alone and to the people that blog about their experiences... you are helping others so please keep it up!
Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks and we'll definitely be following your blog and maybe I'll start a Twitter account eventually...
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