There have been many situations, crises, and hardships in my life that I have had to sit back and ask why? One of my least favorite phrases is “Everything happens for a reason.” It isn’t that I don’t believe it to be true; it’s that the reason isn’t always a good one, or something that we want to accept. Losing Colin, watching Tayt suffer, losing everything time and again and starting over, has been difficult, and although I am someone who looks on the bright side of things, at a certain point, those bright sides become less lackluster and shiny.
Tayt Has Always Had Difficulty Truly Being Heard
The building of Hope4Tayt is long overdue. Tayt has been through many surgeries, secluded, isolated, just wanting to be a part of life, but life just always seems to move past her and around her. She has a hard time keeping up when we go on our family field trips, she has a hard time communicating in the noise and the chaos of our home, she has a very difficult time being noticed and “heard.”
Finding My Second Soulmate
A little over a year ago, I was blessed enough to find my best mate, and perhaps my second soul mate. Not in a romantic way, but in a way where you meet and you instantly just understand one another. Gabby had seen the horrible things that life can bring as have I, we spoke the same “dance" and make everything okay in the same way, we seemed to have lived parallel lives. There are so many treasures that I gained on that fateful day when Gabby entered my life.
Convincing Me To Bring Tayt's Gifts to the World
What she did for me and my healing is immeasurable, but what she did for Tayt and I together, is something that was life-changing and something that I can never repay her for. Gabby was one of the very few people who stopped and take the time to get to know Tayt. She let Tayt show her her art, she sat through books of sketches and drawings; she never once interrupted, stole the show, or looked for the exit sign. From the first day she met Tayt on, she has been Tayt’s champion, pushing her to be her best, convincing me that we could bring Tayt’s gifts to the world.
Promises Left Unfulfilled For Too Log
I have six children and there is always chaos. Tayt is always somewhat left to her own device. I have for years on end promised Tayt that I would find a medium to sell her art. I have committed to sit down and take my knowledge in my profession to make something for her, allow her to make a dent in a world that she has had to stand outside of her own life for as long as she's lived it The promised day to focus on her, help her with her goals, take the time she deserved, kept being pushed away over and over. Work came first. Bills came first. Sick siblings came first. The squeaky wheel got the oil.
Something Magical Happened
When I decided to leave my last company, it as one of the most fearful days of my life. Being the household provider, having children, dogs, house bills, groceries, all of it on me and suddenly finding myself without an income, without options, seemed to be one of the most devastating things I could imagine. But something magical happened.
A Commitment to Make Goodness Come From Hardship and Suffering For Everyone
Gabby spent that proceeding days and months getting to know Taytem, the time to convince me that things were possible. She gave me the confidence to give it a try, win, lose, or go down with the ship. I finally did for Tayt what I had been promising for over a decade. As a parent, who doesn’t know that last thought as you lay your head down to sleep at night of “tomorrow I will be better” “tomorrow I will follow through,” night after night for the better half of ten years, I laid my head to rest saying “tomorrow I will help Tayt with her art and her dreams.” Yesterday, we launched her site, built from love, not from fear, but from the desire to make her suffering and place on earth mean something, and that is my mission.
So, I Don't Ask Why Things Happen
So, I don’t ask why things happen, I trust that God has a plan. I don’t know if I always like his plan or want to be a part of it, but overtime, the true nature of it is always revealed. God gave me Tayt, God gave me Gabby, and now, God is giving me the chance to give Tayt’s gifts to the rest of you. I hope you see the true wonder that it is and it warms your heart the way that her presence does everyone she meets. Everything truly does happen for a reason and for all of the heartache and sadness, I wouldn’t trade a minute.
God Does Give Us What We Need; This I Believe
I can literally say when times are at their darkest, God gives us what we need. Gabby was the lifeboat that Tayt and I needed and we will both be forever grateful. In just one year's time, I gained a soulmate, a second daughter and son, and a best friend in her husband Chad. Thank you all of you for believing in us so that we could believe in ourselves.