I’ve had a lot of experience in my life working with children – I spent 2 summers as a camp counselor at Tanager Lodge, I babysit various kids several times a week and I am constantly surprised at the general resiliency of children. I think this resiliency exists solely because their brains haven’t been conditioned to believe there are certain limits in life. Simply put, their imaginations are insane. They still firmly believe, until a certain age, that anything is possible (and of this, I think many of us are envious). They dream of being super heroes, shown by the all too often and frightening moments when they attempt somersaults off of a living room chair, or jump off a roof with an umbrella, believing that they will float gently to the ground. (To defend my babysitting abilities, never has a child been injured in my care… though there have been some close calls).

But I’m straying from the point. I have yet to have the honor of meeting Elle Shaheen but I have had the honor of meeting her mother, and building her mother a blog. Elle Shaheen is a ten-year-old girl with juvenile diabetes, and her mother Stefany just launched a blog to talk about the struggles of parenting a child with diabetes. You can find it at goodmeasures.com/blog. In putting the site together I watched every video and saw every picture, and have been amazed by the stories Stefany has shared.

For one, can you imagine being a child on Halloween, and knowing that the bags of candy at each house in your neighborhood are pretty much poison to your body? Or, can you imagine being that child’s mother, and knowing that all she wants to do is be a “normal” kid on Halloween and eat gobs of candy until she feels sick? Something I never considered before I worked on this site was the fear that must come with letting your child sleep over at another child’s house when you can’t be there to check her blood sugar in the middle of the night. Something as simple as a sleepover can become an all night panic attack, a self-judgment on ones own parenting abilities.

So I’m writing about this site and this family because I have always understood how strong children can be, and that they are inexplicably able to get through almost anything. This is especially true of Elle. But also, this particular blog shows a mother's resiliency in supporting her daughter through a difficult disease. If you have your own story to tell, or are just interested in Stefany’s, I definitely recommend checking out goodmeasures.com/blog. Post a comment, send an email, or follow her on twitter at twitter.com/goodmeasures. If you have your own blog of a similar subject, let us know and we'll put you in touch with Stefany. We all know that kids are strong and resilient, but they and their families still need our support -- like a babysitter who pads the livingroom floor with pillows. We need a community of people willing to talk about the good times and the struggles. We need someone who has already done the somersault, and knows how to land feet-first.