Our Story

We are 2nd Avenue Christmas bombing survivors. After losing our home, our 4-year-old son attended trauma therapy. In one of the first sessions, his counselor rolled out a large sheet of paper on the ground. She then instructed me, his mom, to outline his body in marker to make a life-sized drawing of him. Next, she gave him the markers and instructed him to pick a color and assign an emotion to it. Then, he was to color on his outlined drawing where on his body he was feeling that emotion when he thought of the bombing. He immediately drew a red heart on the left of his chest, and a blue heart on the right. He softly explained, “The red heart is my angry heart, and the blue heart is my sad heart.” He then drew a green heart in the center. He quietly continued, “The green heart is my happy heart. When I watched my house get crumpled down, the red heart and the blue heart were banging up against the green heart.” My eyes instantly filled with tears, and my heart broke listening to him share how much he saw and felt that terrible morning. I thought I would not be able to keep from crying and interrupting this important moment of discovery, when his sweet voice rescued and comforted me. Without ever looking up from his drawing, with courage and wisdom beyond his years he said,

“But don’t worry, because the green heart is strongest of all.”

While healing from this life-altering experience was not easy, moment by moment we grew stronger and stronger until we found ourselves on the other side. We learned many helpful coping techniques along the way that still help us today, and we want to share them with others going through hard times as well. Though we can’t undo the past, we can promise that you will make it to the other side just as we did, because the green heart really is the strongest of all! Here’s to finding your green heart!