Inspiration Through Art & Malachi

I woke up this morning, a little later than usual because school's out!! And I didn't have to drive my daughter to school!!! Yay for sleeping in! Sorry... I was a little too excited about that. So I woke up, grabbed a bottle of water and hit my couch. Ipad, Iphone, and Macbook in hand. Since the kids were upstairs sleeping still, I got to turn on the news channel while I sat on the couch and read emails, add sessions to my planner, and browsed through Facebook.

So as I opened emails and started to work, I saw this!!

**PLEASE NOTE- This is very personal, so I wanted to let you know in advance as to not shock anyone**

Before I continue with this story I want to you back a couple of years. This is my stepson Malachi. When he was 1, he had to have a heart transplant. Ever since then he has been taking special medication, visiting the hospital regularly for check ups and such. But in July 2008, Malachi got sick and we had to rush him to the hospital. 

Before I start telling this story I just wanted to add something in. When people find out about him, they often whisper to me and ask what happened, because they feel like talking about it will upset Ray or it's probably something he doesn't want to talk about. But it's not. As hard as all of this was on us, even though it's hard for us to talk about. Getting his story out there means more people know about him. If we never brought him up, people wouldn't know that Sophia & Isabel have a brother. And they wouldn't know he existed. And that's not what we want. We want people to remember him. We want people to know the girls have a big brother. If you ask Sophia who Malachi is, she will say "My brother". We even got Ray a build a bear for Father's Day and named him Malachi & Sophia takes him everywhere. We want him to be remembered, not forgotten. So even though talking about him means we have to talk about the bad, we also get to talk about the good. And that's what counts.

So back to the story,

We spent a day out with the family swimming all day. Once we left Malachi started complaining about his stomach hurting. We stopped and got him medicine and took him home so he could rest. After hours of laying down with stomach pains, and endless calls to his heart transplant coordinator, we finally just picked him up and put him in the car. Sitting in the car with Malachi on my lap we rushed to the hospital. I had my one hand on his head and one hand on his heart as I talked to him. Half way there, I felt him take a BIG, HUGE breath....and I didn't feel him take another one. I panicked... Ray told me to give him CPR. I started giving him CPR as Ray started speeding to get to the hospital. Once we got there he grabbed him and ran to the E.R. doors and banged on them so hard I thought the doors would break. They took him in and I met Ray in the hospital, were we spent the next week...Family & friends stayed there with us all week as we waited for him to wake up. Waited for him to get better. But it didn't happen. After a week of him getting worst, the doctors finally told Ray there was nothing more they could do. Everything was shutting down. So Ray made the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support. 

Ray had told me that they have been in and out of the hospital all his life. They stayed in the Ronald McDonald house of Charity for a while. They've been through a lot and a big chunk of Malachi's life was spent in hospitals. So after his death I wanted to do something for him. I wanted to do something because of him. So every year on his birthday, we send out invitations with a list of toys and items our local Children's Medical Center needs for the kids who can't leave the hospital. We take everything to the hospital and fill out the forms with Malachi's name. So when we get the Thank you letter it says "Thank you Malachi" 

But I wanted to do more. 

I just recently found out about Inspiration Through Art. And knew I wanted to be apart of it. So after filling out my paperwork, I received my "approved" email letter this morning! This means the world to me. We don't have many pictures with Malachi besides pictures just snapped of him. I really wish we would have had family photos, or even more photos of him. You can never have too many. So knowing that I can help other families stop and remember the importance of memories like this makes me feel like I am doing something worth while. 

"Our mission at Inspiration Through Art is to help provide and capture memories for families who are dealing with hectic schedules due to having a child who is suffering from a serious illness or life altering disability. We are here to offer emotional support through the beauty and expression art has to offer, as a way of healing and coping. We understand that in the midst of being thrown a diagnosis and having and having to switch from a "normal" life to a life that is totally different, and often scary, things like getting photos taken is sometimes a huge challenge and is one of the last things families are thinking about. But when everything is done, and either the child has reached the end of their battle, or has proven the odds against it many wish they had more time to stop, and capture the journey that they lived through for so long."

In Memory Of Malachi Christian Arbaiza