The Story
Have you ever picked up the newspaper and read about a teenager losing his life in some horrible tragedy? Does your heart sink when you hear that news and think about that poor child's family? I remember times when I would read these stories only to put down he paper and go about my day. On December 25th, 2005, I picked up the paper to read the second page headline telling a similar story, but I couldn't put down the paperand I didn't go about my day. This time, it was my son, and it was myfamily that had received that horrible news on the 23rd of December. My son Blake was sixteen at the time, and, in just a few seconds, he was gone forever.
Just four short months before this event, I had remarried and brought into my life my new wife, Gena, and her young son, Jacob. Posts from Blake's blog read, "I am so happy for my dad, my new step-mom Gena and to have a little step-brother, Jacob". Our family was shattered on that horrible night in December, and instead of opening Christmas gifts we were viewing my son's corpse and making funeral arrangements.
That tragedy could have defined my life, and for a few difficult years, it definitely tried. The Birdhouse Project is the story of how I came out of the darkness and back into the life that was all around me. It is also my attempt to share my healing process with anybody out there who is in a similar stage of hopelessness; if you follow the same process I did, you might just find your way out.
This is the first manual on project-based healing. The idea hit me one afternoon after doing some exploring in an educational movement called project-based learning.
Armed with something to say and a commitment to making at least that much happen, I was fortunate enough to stumble across Jeff
Fouquet, an English teacher from the same area of western
Kansas, and, after several brainstorming sessions, what had once seemed like a distant dream started to become a reality.
The Birdhouse Project is a collaboration of the heart, mind and
hands that will hopefully teach others that it is never too
late to reclaim your life; anything can be done if you surround
yourself with the right people and believe in what you are doing.
We hope you will become a part of The Birdhouse Project.
