Sad day.

How do you tell a five-year-old that one of their closest friends had lost their life? I never in a million years thought I would be asking myself that question. I mean, five-year-olds don't die. At least not ones that you know or ones that are perfectly healthy and happy... Right?

Unfortunately, over this past weekend, the world lost one incredibly amazing little boy who gave the best hugs in the world. A freak accident at the racetrack took the life of one of Cohen's closest school friends. http://www.kxly.com/news/28944619/detail.html

So how do you tell a five-year-old about the death of their friend? Honestly and delicately. Cohen had already heard about the accident as I had been talking about it before I knew who the victim was. So, when I brought up that Kaiden was killed in an accident, he already knew what I was talking about. His response? "So... Kaiden is in heaven then?" I replied, "yes." With that, Cohen said, "I bet he was the one that made it rain today!" For a minute, I thought that maybe Cohen didn't understand, or worse, he was just too young to care... but then his humor quickly turned into "I will miss him and it makes me sad that his mommy won't get to see him anymore." Now that's the compassionate, caring son that I know and love.

I'm still not sure if he completely understands just how permanent death really is and I'm sure there will be a few questions as the days go on but I am grateful that my son had the opportunity to have been friends and to have known this sweet little angel. I truly pray that I don't have to have a talk like this again with my young son. No parent should ever have to lose a child... especially not one this young. But it does happen and it happens more often than we realize. It's so easy to look past it when it's not someone you know. It's easy to have the mentality of "It will never happen to me" but the reality is, is this accident could have happened to anyone...

So, hug your kids a little longer and harder tonight. Always say I love you. And be grateful for the time that we have.

Prayers to the Henley family during this difficult time.