Bit off & on topic. Many have asked me offline @ my son, he's in SPAIN & is OK!!

[Guest guest]

Dear All:

I just want to personally thank everyone for their emails, for their concerns

& prayers, that knew that my baby, my son, is in Spain. is perfectly

fine & even had the brains (not usual for a 20 year old young man)! to call his

Mommy from Spain to tell me that he & his friend are OK. He is a Junior at

the U of Conn & plans to go to law school afterwards & went for 8 days, during

his Spring break, to visit a " sort of girlfriend " , who has spent the year,

studying abroad, as she is a Spanish major.

I had been incredibly blessed, not having known anything at all about EDS &

was a symptomatic before both of my pregnancies & neither he, nor my daughter

Thea, who is 23 & is also in college, have EDS. Gosh, did I get lucky!

Though, I did really have serious issues with early labor, especially with

& we

came as close to losing both of us at 23 weeks gestation, as you can get,

including having to call a code. And unquestionably, the complications of my

pregnancies, sort of " kick-started " all of my current disastrous difficulties,

that I now have.

Though it's miserable, I always say that every one of the 50 & counting

operations are more than worth, having my 2 children & that they can operate on

me

50 more times, as long as my kids are OK.

But, I guess the lesson is that there's absolutely nothing, as parents, that

we can do to protect our children every minute of their lives, whether or not

they have EDS & it surely becomes harder, the older they get. At some point

they are just going to take over their own lives & futures & there will be

little, if anything, that you/we. can do to tell them or even suggest to them,

what they can or can't do.

I laugh at myself now, as during Winter break, went to Israel with his

college on an educational program & though the security was so incredibly

tight, you almost wouldn't believe it, including some kind of space tracking

device

on each group, that tracked the exact location of each group, every second &

had them do little things like make a different turn if they thought the

slightest thing was going on. They had soldiers with oozies with them, at all

times & one time his hotel was changed & I needed to contact him. It took a

call

to UConn, then to NYC & then to Washington. At that point, I had to answer at

least 20 minutes worth of questions to prove that I was indeed his mother &

at one point I wanted to ask them if they wanted me to send some blood through

the phone lines, so they could match the DNA! But I decided that they

wouldn't think that was funny. And I'm sure we didn't even know 1/2 of the

security

that they had on these kids. But when he had done the research about doing

this project, he didn't even tell us until HE decided he was doing it & then he

called us to " inform us " that he was doing it. He said that he wasn't calling

for " permission " , that he was going & he was just calling to tell us.

Hmmmmm. How soon we lose the ability to say, " Don't cross the street with out

looking both ways & you have to hold my hand. " Or, you have to tell me if you

cut

yourself or bang yourslef or fall, (as only we know what the possbile

ramifications could be.)

The point being, I don't think I slept a single night, the entire time that

he was in Israel, but didn't think twice, really, when he spoke of visiting his

friend in Spain. He's was acutally in Seville with her at the time of the

explosion, several hours away from Madrid, but they are going to visit another

sister in law & new husband that live in Venice, Italy this weekend, which

means they have to fly & change planes in Madrid on Friday(today), then on their

way back to Seville, again they have to change planes on their way back to

Seville on Sunday eve, And then again, he is heading home to the U.S. on Monday

&

will have to fly through Madrid yet a third time on Monday, when he flies

from Seville, thru Madrid & back to NY. Aren't I just jumping for joy? I just

have to relax & believe that he will be OK, as there's nothing I can do to

change it all.

And just to top it off, we moved about 2 1/2 years ago & I had always dreamed

of living near the water. I thought it would be so relaxing, so calming &

pain reducing. Silly me............

We were very fortunate to find a house (and were only able to afford it

because it was an absolute mess & we are still fixing it up) with a complete

unobstucted view of Staten Island, Coney Island, the NJ shore & YES, the

Manhatten

skyline. We moved in on 8/31/02. And yes, my wonderful relaxing, pain

reducing view, within 11 days, became the worst experience of my life. Yes,

from my

very own deck, from my own home, straight accross the water, which is about

13- 14 miles, with my very own eyes, I stood here & watched the events of 9/11

unfold. I think I'll leave it there, but it truly taught me a lesson & I

think it applies to all that occurs in life, including all we endure with EDS.

There's a plan. There's only so much we can do about it. Oftentimes none of it

makes any sense & seems so unfair & senseless & surely makes no sense. But

it is. And that's all we know.

Thankfully we all have each other & it has been both a privelege & a pleasure

to watch this group & these organizations grow, since I became involved, in

1990 or thereabouts. I honestly don't remember, it seems that one day has

turned into another, a week has turned into a month & months into years. Thank

you all, from the bottom of my heart, as when things get as bad as they can, as

supportive as my wonderful husband is, I always know that I have all of you.

Thank you again, Schoenberg.

[Guest guest]

There's a plan. There's only so much we can do about it. Oftentimes none

of it

makes any sense & seems so unfair & senseless & surely makes no sense. But

it is. And that's all we know.

, you are so right! I'm so very glad everything is OK with ! We

just need to trust that God is with him and that he's where he's supposed to

be right now, and that he'll come home safe!

We'll continue to pray, Sweetie!

Love Lana