Time to speak up...PLEASE READ

[Guest guest]

I have tried to avoid getting into this topic because it is one close to my

heart and close to home. There are some of you out there that are all against

discussing the war on this board(and you know who you are) but what you don't

realize is that for some of us (me included and i am sure there are others out

there)the war does effect our CF families. My husband is a soldier in the U.S

Army who gladly fights to protect our rights and freedoms. Not to long ago ( I

would say about 1 year and 5 months ago) on 9-11 everyone in this country wanted

us to go find the people who attacked us. And we did, and now we are going after

the people who back him so that we can prevent it from happening again. I am

sure 9-11 had nothing to do with this board either but I can almost gaurentee

that is was disscussed.

You see there are alot of families out there that have a parent either over seas

or going over and I am sure there has to be another one who reads these boards.

So in our cases the war and CF are related. It affects how my family deals with

CF and how my son doesn't get to see his daddy very much. And I am sure that all

of you parents of children with CF know that every minute we get to spend with

our precious little boys and girls (and some not so little) is important. This

war, no matter how useless some see it to be, affects my family deeply. And it

affects our country, our healthcare and our lifestyles.

If you still don't see-think about this. Those of you who have children in

school know that they are not blind to what is going on in the world. So this is

directly affecting our CF children. No matter how hard we are trying to shelter

them at home from the images of bombs going off they are still hearing about it

in school- whether it be from the teachers or other students- they are hearing

it. And I am sure they are afraid and frightened. My 6 year old, who doesn't

completely understand what a war is knows one thing- that his " daddy Ty " ( his

is my husbands step-son) wears the clothes of the " good guys " (as he puts it) and

that the " good guys " are over some place far away fighting to keep us safe, and

it is scary to look into those big brown eyes when he asks why and I don't have

an answer for him. BUt do we tell our children and how can we help them through

what they are feeling if we are selfs are confussed and want to talk about it

with the people that help us with our most devasting problems (hospitalizations,

deaths of our children, the multiple surgeries) and they don't want to hear it.

I joined this group to get support and to help others if I could and I don't

plan leaving just because someones views/lifestyles, whatever are different then

mine. But I would like to know that I can come here and talk about ANYTHING that

affects my family, especially when it directly affects my little boy with CF.

That is what this board is here for right? TO help us with our problem, trials,

and fears? To support us.

Just to clarify- I am not saying that this war is right, but neither am I saying

it is wrong. I am just saying that for some of us it affects us just as much as

the CF does. For the mear fact that my husband is infantry and when he goes over

he is front lines and is risking his life and his son could loose him just as

easily as we could loose our son to this damn disease, only without warning.

I appreciate everyone for taking the time to read this and hopefully now we can

all understand why it is important for us to discuss this here. I can go to

military support groups and talk about my sick son all day long but they don't

understand the disease that is why I come here. Ya'll know what it is like to

have a child sick with something that could kill them next month, next year, or

in 10 years and you should also understand that we need support for the everyday

things too, expecially when it affects our sicks kids.

I would like to add this idea- if we want to post something about the war and

how it is affecting us then we should state it in the topic so those of you who

are sick of hearing about it don't have to read them. I didn't do so this time

for the fact that I wanted EVERYONE to read this and see why it is important

that we beable to discuss this if it affects our family and our children

(because it does affect them whether we see it or not).

Thank you.