Maxwell had a drowning accident when he was 3 1/2 years old on Sept 29, 2000.   I was cleaning a friends house that he has on a lake and we spend the majority of our weekends down there and he lets us leave our boat down there for most of the summer.     Right when Max and I were about ready to leave (just had a couple more things I wanted to do) Max told me he was going to go outside and I told him to stay up here cuz we were leaving to meet Spencer home from school.  Max loved to fish but that day he didn't want to so we left his fishing stuff at home but I always had his life jacket in the van in case he went down to the lake.   When I went outside I didn't see Max and started to call for him and went down to the lake to look for him and didn't see him (or anything like movement in the lake) so I ran around looking for him and when I couldn't find him anywhere the panic set in.   Eventually after going down to the lake twice the third time I actually went out onto the dock and looked in the lake from the dock and saw him under the water.    I got him out and he wasn't breathing and no heart beat so I started CPR and started to scream for help not knowing if anyone was around cuz it was around 3 in the afternoon.   Some one showed up (to this day I don't know who he was) and he called 911 for me and then some other people showed up.  One older man who I had asked if he had seen a little red haired boy when I was looking for Max, knelt by my side and kept encouraging me to keep up with the CPR cuz I was ready to give up cuz Max wasn't coming around.    This man has since passed away (I forget his name shame on me)  my friend told me but I think of him from time to time.  I thank him so much for being by my side and helping me with Max (cuz Max did throw up quite a lot and he helped me turn him on his side and told me to keep going with the CPR).   I belong to a couple groups of near drown children's families (parents of near drowns and near drowns support group).    It's a whole new world that was brought to our attention.     You always hear on the news or papers about kids/adults who drown and they either are ok or have died.  Never do you hear about the ones that did, survived, but now live with brain damage.    These families I talk with are from all over the world, South Africa, Australia , Malaysia, Canada, and of course the US. ************************************************************ Update: March 29, 2006 Good Morning, WOW the sun is finally shining. Hope the sun gives me the boost I need to feel alive again LOL. (of course some nice warm weather would help also) Well, Spencer is back to school after a week off for spring break. He didn't do much and I couldn't think of anything to do with him. We did go bowling one day. He's hard to entertain since his toddler years. Jim has off from work this week. We've had appts every day so far this week (so much for his sleeping in LOL) Monday we had to have Max's TLSO adjusted and then they decided to cast him for a new one. His little tummy has gotten bigger so he's getting squished in the one he has now. Yesterday was horse riding. Max was pretty sleepy so he didn't do his best and Max also rode on the bigger horse so the stride on this horse made Max bounce more so holding his head was alittle tougher. But, Shari used this horse so Jim could ride with Max (I have pics but will add them later). When Max and Jim rode together, Max had this crabby look on his face almost the whole time. I think cuz it was he was riding up higher on the horses back and was sitting on a lump from the horses back/neck and the blankets. Or mayb he knew Dad was riding with and was a little nervous LOL. Jim said it felt weird like I said when I had rode that day. We also had Max ride laying on his back and the we flipped him cross ways on the horse tummy side down. So he was hanging over the horse. He sure talked alot then. Probably got a major head rush after when we flipped him back over and on his back again (laying full length on the back of the horse). He had this happy look after getting him off his tummy hanging over the horse. I suppose I would too LOL. Last week Max did really well with riding. He held his head up for quite a while and then it dropped just alittle and he held it there for some time. Then he had this very much happy look on his face and almost a full smile as if he was really pleased that he did hold his head up. I told him he should be proud of himself for doing so. So that was encouraging to see him do that knowing he may be on his way here to getting better at this. He gave that look again later right before we were done riding too. I also saw this smile on his face the other day when I was holding him and playing with him. It was a seizure at first but that seemed to go away and the smile stayed :o) Tomorrow we have an eye appt for Spencer. He said his right eye is blurry when looking in the distance. The boys have their fathers eyes but I also want them to have their fathers eye sight LOL. I don't want them to have to deal with glasses/contacts like I do. Pain in the butt. But, if down the road Spencer site gets worse, I suppose that laser stuff would be a good choice for him. Well I guess that's something down the road we'll have to deal with maybe. Other then that not a whole lot more to write. Shari would like to see Max go to this SPOT rehab to see if we can some how figure out if Max can communicate (communicatoin therapist)with us through is vision or something. He's so verbal when you talk with him (his uh's) and when you ask him to look at things and he does. I have to get a Dr's ok for this first and see if we can get a few therapy session ok'd through her and then through ins. Well, time to get Spencer off to school. Only a couple more months to go then it's officially summer to us LOL. Oh, and being April is around the corner here I say it's officially garage saling time :o) Enjoy the nice day, Lisa