He came from the woods

 "It is easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men." -Frederick Douglass

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Frederick Douglass
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_parenting.html

I have to share a story with you guys because it's just too incredible not to share. Early Wednesday morning I received a call from my aunt. I never answer phone calls anymore, I prefer to text, blame it on years working in a customer service call center. That morning something told me to answer, maybe because my Aunt knows me very well and knowing that I never answer, she respects my wishes and texts me. Whatever it was…. I answered and she immediately began frantically recounting a story that was still in the process of developing. She had called out of work sick and was sleeping upstairs when she heard the pitter pat of her grandson’s feet as he climbed the stairs, calling out to her "Granny... there's someone at the door and he has a dog with him." My Aunt, thinking that someone found a stray dog that doesn't and is now out looking for the dog's owner, told her grandson not to open the door, thinking the person would go away when no one came to answer their knock. My family lives in a very secluded area on a main highway in Arkansas and sadly unwanted pets get dumped off all the time out there.  A few minutes later her again came up the stairs calling out to her with each step “Granny, they’re still knocking!” Her grandson was persistent, returning every few minutes to let her know that the person was still at the door, each time she sent him away and told him not to open the door. Finally her grandson comes over to her bed and demands her attention, "No! Granny! Granny! Listen to me! There's a little boy dead on our front porch and he's covered in mud!" She bolted up out of bed and ran down the stairs, yanked the front door open and there he was... a little boy laying on the steps leading to her front porch. As she approached the boy, she realized he wasn't only covered in mud, he was also covered in dried blood with crushed leaves embedded into several wounds on the boy's body. The boy had a very large open wound across his tiny forehead and his face was completely covered in dried streams of blood. A black puppy was sitting on the boy, licking the dried blood from the boy’s many wounds. My aunt grabbed him up and began asking him what happened but the shocked little guy could only shrug his shoulders. When she asked where he came from he told her that he came from the woods.

The boy managed to tell her his name and that he is 7 years old and pointed to the area of the woods that he came out of. My grandma lives in the same house with my aunt, hearing all the commotion, she had come downstairs to see what was going on and was helping the boy and the dog drink some water. As my aunt called 911, she walked down her long steep driveway towards the main highway in the direction that the boy had pointed. This stretch of highway is very curvy, it wraps around a mountain on one side and has a deep ravine on the other side, there have been many wrecks near their home. As she neared the wooded ravine across the street from her house she suddenly noticed the broken branches and flattened brush between the road and the ravine. She looked down into the ravine and saw the overturned SUV laying on the driver's side. She told the 911 operator to send more help.

While they waited for help, the battered young boy told my aunt that he was with his own "Aunt" and that she was still in the woods. He remembered waking up in the woods during the night and when he found his guardian lying nearby, he tried to wake her but she would not wake up. His puppy had been by his side from the time the wreck happened the night before around 9:30pm until 7:45am when the puppy finally led the boy out of the steep ravine, across the dangerous highway, up the long driveway and to my aunt's door. My aunt who should have been at work but had gotten food poisoning and had called out of work. There are no other houses nearby, no neighbors to borrow sugar from or get help from. This is literally the middle of nowhere, it's peaceful and so breathtakingly beautiful but it's secluded. The town they live in has a Dollar General 2.5 miles down the road and they used to have a grocery store but when the owner passed away the widow closed it down. The boy was most likely thrown from the vehicle when the female friend of the family he was staying with fell asleep at the wheel and drove off the road, the SUV going airborne before hitting a tree and plummeting to the ground, landing on the driver's side. The woman did not survive the accident. The 7-year-old boy spent the night alone in the pitch black darkness of the Arkansas mountains with his puppy by his side licking his open wounds as he lay down in a deep ravine being eaten up by bugs. It is amazing to me that not only did this child survive all of this, but that the blood didn't attract any wild animals. This is the wilderness. Then as the sun rose, he climbed out of the ravine and managed to make his way across the street and to the only house within a few miles where my aunt just happened to be home sick from work. Miracles. They happen.

When paramedics arrived they put the boy in the back of the ambulance to take him to the hospital and told him they couldn't take the dog in the ambulance. My aunt and my grandma promised to keep the puppy for him and keep it safe until he could have her back. He began to cry and told them all the things his puppy likes and things she doesn't like and just how to take care of her because he was more worried about his puppy than himself. My aunt got in touch with the boy's mother and has spoken with several friends of the woman who passed away in the accident. I don't want to go into detail out of respect for this incredible little guy who just survived this horrific accident but the boy has already had a very hard life and now he has had to live through this. Despite having a brain bleed and several minor injuries, the boy is expected to make a full recovery. But he needs happy thoughts, he needs prayers, he needs healing juju sent his way, candles lit, spiritual dances danced, whatever you can do. This story has already affected me so much and it has especially affected the rest of my family in Arkansas. I hope things get better for this special little guy. I hope he changes the lives of the adults around him after this and his world becomes a safer, more stable place. I hope he heals completely, physically and emotionally.

Since this happened I can't stop thinking about how hard we all think our lives are sometimes. We are all faced with challenges, we all have bad things happen to us, but I  think that sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in yourself and your own problems and you forget to look at the big picture and realize that maybe whatever you're going through sucks but in the grand scheme of things it's really not that bad. I think we all forget how strong we are and how strong we can remain when we're going through hard times. Sometimes we're quick to throw down the "oh, poor me" card and blame those around us for our problems. We forget that once we turn 18 we're in control of the choices that we make and we're responsible for those choices. If you're in a bad situation, you can choose to leave. If someone in your life continues to hurt you then you can end that relationship, no matter who that person is or what their role is in your life. If you get pregnant and choose to give birth and keep that child, you are making a promise to them that you are going to take care of them, that with you is the absolute safest and most loving environment they can be in. Children don't have control over much in their life so the choices you make as a parent will absolutely have an impact on that child. So before you throw down your "oh, poor me" card and blame other people for your lot in life and your hard times, you might want to think about the choices that you are making and have made and how they might be affecting not only your own life and happiness but the child that you made that promise to when you gave birth to it and brought it home from the hospital. I don't personally agree with abortions, I like to think that I would never choose to have one but I know that for some people it's a choice that needs to be available. There are other methods too though, birth control is free through most health insurance plans now or through county health departments for those who might not have insurance. Please think about the choices you make. Please think about how those choices trickle down and can drown the people who you claim to love the most. Please be careful. Please be kind. If you really, really want to change the world, put an end to racism, inequality, violence and anything else that upsets you.... then please, please start at home.

Here's an article that was posted online about the accident:

http://m.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/aug/05/boy-7-his-pup-walk-out-of-wreck-2016080/#/

Here's an article that was posted online about the accident:

http://m.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/aug/05/boy-7-his-pup-walk-out-of-wreck-2016080/#/