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Last week I introduced you to my secrets of breathing underwater. Breathing is an automatic response that seems incredibly simple. It is until itʼs not. Spending a fair amount of time in an ICU setting with my daughter over the past 17 years, I have a deep appreciation for heart rate, respirations and the amount of oxygen in the blood. In the ICU, those numbers are monitored very carefully and if something is amiss, an incessant beeping noise calls attention to the change in any of those rates. The dreams I had about being out in the midst of the ocean, treading water with my daughter in my arms, changed a little over the years that I had the dreams. Sometimes my husband and I would be at the beach playing on the shore with the kids when a tsunami would start rolling in. We were frantically trying to grab [...]

Before my youngest daughter Johanna was born, I enjoyed play dates at the beach. I was a decent swimmer, having taught myself how to swim when I was growing up and then taking formal lessons in high school. The past 17 years, I have taken a different kind of swimming lesson. It has little to do with strokes and everything to do with breathing. I have shared in this column a few times about my water dreams that started just before my daughter was diagnosed with a brainstem mass when she was three months old. In the reoccurring dream, I am out in the middle of the ocean holding my baby in my arms, treading water to keep us alive. One night God spoke to me in the dream and told me to let go and to trust that we were in the ocean of His mercy. He promised that [...]

Eileen and Steve Benthal on their wedding day in 1986 and in 2013.   I remember the first time we met. It was right after Mass at Christ the King Chapel. A mutual friend introduced us. We had been sitting in the same pew, but I hadnʼt noticed him until I looked into his eyes. Those deep blue eyes caught my attention right away. He remembers the first time we met. We were standing in the long line for Sunday brunch at the cafeteria. We talked about the eggs and the french toast. No matter. He noticed me and I noticed him; and the rest is “his story” - and mine. We met during my sophomore year in college. We had similar interests, especially music. We were part of a traveling music group that toured around the country giving concerts in churches and private high schools. We traveled [...]

When we applied for a CCI service dog, for my daughter, Johanna, I was worried that they might not give us one because we had a history of being really bad dog owners. The first three dogs we owned ran away and two of them got hit by cars. The other one watched me go into labor with my fourth child and decided she had enough. She took off to find another home, probably one with no kids. The application process helped me to let go of the guilt I felt about being such a terrible dog owner. The trainer assured me that the service dog would be well-trained, and I would also be trained to handle it at home and in the public. Over these past 10 years, CCI has really helped me to understand that a well trained dog is a secure and well-behaved dog. After two years [...]