Follow-up on Buhdro

We thought we should follow up our last post with some of what has happened since the waterslide incident on the 1st. First of all, we want to thank you all for the outpouring of love and support and nice words that have been sent our way by comments on the blog and emails. Thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging words - it was so nice to have the support and prayers of so many of you as we worked through the whole ordeal. But I also wanted to share some of what we've done since then to help ourselves work through our feelings and also to hopefully help out a little.

On the Sunday after it happened, we decided to have 'home church' so we could talk through it with the boys. They had a lot of questions to discuss. Jonah had a hard time, after seeing Buhdro's dead body, reconciling the idea that his soul was still alive and now was in Heaven (I can understand where he's coming from, as the idea that this person's soul is still alive just moments after their physical body has died is difficult to imagine when you're looking at the body mere seconds after it died). After we read some bible verses about heaven and the coming life we get to spend with Jesus, we all drew a picture of what Buhdro was doing in heaven.

Graysen's drawing of Buhdro in Heaven (Alisha wrote down Graysen's interpretation of his picture)

Jonah drew Buhdro in Heaven riding a skateboard with birds flying in the sky

This past weekend, Alisha and I wrote up some things that we felt could be done at the park to help prevent such an accident from occurring again. While we are obviously not experts on the subject, if you saw the conditions there I think most anyone could come up with a number of ideas. Since we have been to many waterslide parks with the boys back in the States we could easily see the glaring differences in safety precautions and procedures. So on Saturday, we stopped by Didi's World and Alisha delivered the document to the manager whom we had dealt with on the day of the incident. She was most gracious and said she would take a very serious look at our suggestions and see what they could do.

Brodie's picture of Buhdro playing basketball in Heaven

On her way out of the park, Alisha went by the slides and found Michael working again. She invited him to attend a First Aid class with us that we had learned about 2 days after the incident, and told him we would sponsor his fees for the class. He was very thankful for the opportunity, and this past Tuesday he was there waiting out front when we arrived for the class. It will be a 4 week session for 2 1/2 hours each Tuesday morning at 10am. We will only be able to make the first two sessions due to our trip home, but Michael will attend all four classes, and at the end will receive his certification.

Dani's picture of Buhdro meeting with God and Jesus before entering through the door into Heaven - his family and friends await him through the window

The first class was very good, and after telling the instructor our story she agreed to cover CPR and drowning in the second class so we can be there. The class will be offered again in a few months, so at that time we'll catch the other 2 classes.

Alisha's picture of Buhdro playing soccer next to a stream in Heaven

But we were so glad that Michael showed up as he said he would. Getting this certification could really help him in his career - he apparently has worked at Didi's World for 8 years, since it opened. But more importantly, he will now be a resource for the whole amusement park should something happen on any of the rides. He could even get moved over to the 'First Aid' stand since he'll actually be trained in First Aid (imagine that, a First Aid worker actually having First Aid training! :) ). We also found out that he has two young boys of his own at home.

Anyway, all of these little things have really helped us let go of some of the frustrations and sadness of the whole situation. And, our hope is that Buhdro's sad death that day will end up saving the lives of other children.

My picture of Buhdro eating a hamburger while surfing with a pink mohawk in Heaven (yes, that's a Manchester United jersey he's wearing! :) )