Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Noni Responds
(Noni's response taken from the comments of the last college years post, moved here and deleted there)

No parent ever wants their child to go through pain and heartache. It was one of the most frustrating and heart wrenching experiences of our lives. We had to watch Alex suffer the pain, the difficult decisions, the questioning of herself and the attack on her self confidence and self esteem. We tried to be there for her through all of this. It still doesn't make it easy and it still wasn't enough to stop her suffering. Popi said it was one of the most painful things he had experience seeing Alex go through all of this. As a parent, you wish you were the one experiencing the suffering, not your child.

To see what was coming and know that she was determined to give it everything she had was hard.

We are so proud of her for so many reasons. She stayed in the fight to the bitter end. Then she picked herself up and finished college. I don't know where she found the strength and energy to do it, but she did. She is a strong woman. She is a better person as a result of what she experienced in so many ways.

Hopefully her experience will enable her to prevent Emma from suffering such pain. However, when your adult child is determined to follow a course you see as potentially disasterous, there is a fine line where parental involvement is concerned which can push your child further toward the disaster rather than away from it. The one certain positive thing you can do is be there for them no matter the outcome and love them unconditionally. Alex will always have that guarantee from us.

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Written at 10:41 AM by Highlandgal.
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