The bad news is that we have reason to use the CaringBridge website. The good news is that the CaringBridge website is there to be used. We have dear friends whose 14-year-old daughter (one of KayKay’s friends) is battling leukemia. It has been a heart-wrenching time for all of us, especially since this family recently moved away and keeping in touch with all their friends and family in GA could have been a monumental burden.

Enter CaringBridge.org. This site was developed nine years ago by Sona Mehring, whose friend had a high-risk pregnancy. Sona had developed a website to keep friends and family informed. The baby was born during the 24th week of pregnancy and both baby and mother were critically ill. The website allowed daily updates on their conditions and for visitors to send encouragement and love. Although this baby did not survive, the website experience has become the legacy known as CaringBridge.

On CaringBridge, families in crisis can simply develop a website to stay in touch with loved ones around the world. As over November 1, 2006, CaringBridge has hosted 50,000 sites with over 300 million “hits”. (Gosh, makes adoptionblogs.com look very small.)

I was fascinated with what Ms. Mehring had to say. The purpose of their non-profit organization is:

Our mission is to bring together a global community of care powered by the love of family and friends in an easy, accessible and private way.

She coined the term “Compassion Technology” (and has trademarked it as well, by the way).

We make profound human connections, using Compassion Technology™ to serve a higher purpose in a powerful way.

This quote makes my heart sing. Profound human connections to serve a higher purpose! What an elegant way to sum up how the Internet can be used to break down the barriers of time and location and connect people on so many levels.

If you, or someone you know, is facing a crisis (especially medical crises) and need a fast, easy, profound way of connecting…check out CaringBridge.

If you work for a hospital or health care organization that is NOT a CaringBridge sponsor, now is the time to suggest that your group checks it out!

And as a blogger here at adoptionblogs.com, talking about parenting special kids, I, too, hope this technology helps to create a compassionate connection. Same goes for my work through the Attachment Disorder Network. Despite all the negative publicity the Internet gets and all the precautions you need to be aware of when using it, the Web is an invaluable tool that can be used to connect people at the time they need it most with others who truly understand what they’re going through!

Photo Credit