It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Mainly, I think it was because I allowed self doubt to creep in and cause me to question whether I (we) was really helping anyone. \u00a0In the quiet recesses of my mind, I questioned whether we could truly end the epidemic that plagues our society and preys on our children. \u00a0Day after day we see the stories of child sex abuse taking place in our schools, religious institutions, and homes, and often the crime is lightly punished if at all. \u00a0But today….. I have a renewed sense of conviction and WE can stop this epidemic; even if it’s one child at a time.<\/p>\n
I attended a screening of a documentary regarding male survivors this past week and a woman who sat on the front row and whose face I never saw touched my heart in ways I can hardly explain. \u00a0She spoke of adopting a little boy at the age of five and how devastated she was to learn from him that he had been sexually abused. \u00a0Her heart was obviously broken in what seemed to resonate as a million tiny pieces. She cried and shrieked in pain as she recounted his experiences and questioned how she could help him to heal. \u00a0She explained that he is now 33 years old and he is struggling with healing and recovery. The pain in her voice was so heart-wrenching and raw; it resounded with the same ache that she felt when her son first first disclosed his abuse. I knew this because I am all too familiar with that pain.<\/p>\n
Hearing this mom grieve for the loss of her son’s innocence under such horrific circumstances caused me to sympathize in ways I wish couldn’t. It also reaffirmed the need for forums such as ours that strive to be a soft place for survivors and their families to land. An environment that gives validation to a mother’s pain for something that happened 25+ years ago, but still hurts when the wound is touched or even slightly brushed upon. A place that tells survivors you can heal, but your journey may not look like other people’s. \u00a0It will be unique and that’s ok.<\/p>\n
Comfortinthestorm.com doesn’t have all the answers – we never professed to. We are about being exactly what our name says; to provide comfort to you no matter what stage of the storm you’re in. \u00a0So when a mother is crying and feels helpless, we can say we understand and we’re here to listen. We’re here to tell you that you’re not alone and you don’t have to suffer in silence. We’re here to share our pain and speak healing into someone else’s brokenness thereby placing us one step closer to our own healing.<\/p>\n
The evil is around us; it’s being discussed on the evening news, it’s in the newspaper, and it’s on social media, but if we don’t pull our heads out of the sand and acknowledge that it is often closer than we’d like to admit or may be aware of, the stories of abuse will continue. We have to start educating ourselves, our children, and those around us. It’s an uncomfortable topic and many shy away from it, but I can’t stress enough how important of a conversation it is. Conversations regarding awareness and prevention need to be taking place everywhere, all the time. It will save a child, protect their innocence, and prevent a mother’s pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Mainly, I think it was because I allowed self doubt to creep in and cause me to question whether I (we) was really helping anyone. \u00a0In the quiet recesses of my mind, I questioned whether we could truly end the epidemic that plagues our society and preys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comfortinthestorm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}