i don’t even know how to lay down the facts here. i just know that a fourteen year old girl with cerebral palsy died on a mattress covered in her own waste, her body covered with maggots and bed sores – weighing in at 42 pounds – because a mother was embarrassed by her daughter’s disability.

i would ask that you would read this article when the time is right for you. awareness of these kinds of issues might be the best kind of information we can feed ourselves, to open our eyes, to soften us up, to make us bloody angry and want to change corrupt systems. because no one should die the way danieal kelly did. and she slipped through nine pairs of hands responsible for ensuring her chance at life. because of embarrassment. laziness. apathy.

this past weekend was supposed to be full of deep breaths and laughter and star gazing, and it was. but i cannot think about this helpless, beautiful, mistreated child and not choke or cry or shake my head in utter shame because someone should have done something and this story reminds us that the world is not fair. and Lord, you know if i lived in this girl’s neighborhood i would have beaten down her front door and broken every rule just to bathe her, to fix her a sandwich and a glass of milk. to read her green eggs and ham and teach her how to jump rope. even now, life seems so much less than what it should be.

i guess in writing about her, i am mourning danieal. i don’t even want to pretend that i don’t know about her, i simply want to prevent this from ever happening again. i don’t know if that means becoming a social worker, or starting a foundation, or opening a non-profit daycare for special needs children, or standing in front of the president of the united states to demand attention and improvements to our nation’s idea of social service.

it’s good when we have reactions that call us to action instead of recoil. it’s good to say you are going to stand for something meaningful, as ridiculous as it may sound to you or others. it’s good when a love for someone you’ve never met explodes out of you in a wave of emotions or a rambling of words. this is God’s work – he reminds us that we do care about others, we are made this way just like we were made to breathe and blink and imagine.

i pray for danieal, this girl i love with every bone in my body, and all the children out there sharing a piece of her story, and i pray where she is now is a place every child can find, a place nothing short of overwhelming peace and joy. and i pray that i may be utilized somehow by God’s mighty hand to bring a glimpse of that peace and joy to these children while they breathe on this planet that is so unfair.