Red Balloons for Ryan

Words are kind of hard to type right now. My heart is aching for the Saldana family - on Friday, they lost their precious 3 1/2 year old son. In a tragic turn of events, sweet Ryan ran into the street after his frisbee and was hit by a truck, right in front of his family. I cannot even begin to imagine what his mommy (Jacqui of Baby Boy Bakery) is going through at the moment. Having to bury a child is something I hope I never have to face. This family has been on my mind since I heard the news and I have certainly hugged my precious ginger baby harder each time I hold her. Scrolling through Jacqui's instagram feed leaves my heart so heavy, you can tell just how precious Ryan was to her.

Its funny, so often I get annoyed by social media because it frequently becomes a place where people air their dirty laundry for the world to see. But then a tragedy like this happens and I am reminded again just how much I love it. You see, I don't personally know the Saldana family. I found out about this horrific accident on instagram while I was scrolling through my feed and saw a friend post a picture of a precious little boy with gorgeous red curls. And then all of a sudden the social media and blogging communities rallied behind this family and pretty soon every single post on instagram was about Ryan. Prayers are being sent up for this family from all over the world. It is a beautiful thing to witness - the support of an online community. I pray that the Saldana family is able to find some peace during all of this; that a community full of people they don't even know is standing beside them and supporting them, loving on them and praying for them.

Seriously, the online community can be amazing. When I first read the tragedy on Monday morning, I checked Jacqui's instagram and she had a little over 6,000 followers. As I write this post, she now has over 70,000 followers - yep you read that correctly. Isn't that amazing. 70,000 plus people are praying and sending positive thoughts to this family. And what's even cooler is that people are actually coming together and creating ways to raise money for this family to cover funeral costs. If you are interested in helping out here are ways you can:

• pray for the family
• show your love and support for the family by also sharing a photo from Jacqui's instagram and using the hashtag #redballoonsforryan
• donate money to the family via the website thrivemoms
• check out the account REDBALLOONSFORRYAN on instagram - there will be an auction on Saturday, May 10 with proceeds going to the Saldana family
• love the people in your life well, our time on earth is so temporary