Blog community supports injured couple

The letters and e-mails keep coming. The well-wishes, words of prayer and support arrive daily from as close as Gilbert and as far away as Australia and Spain.

For one Mesa family, what started as a small blog by a stay-at-home mom has turned into a fountain of encouragement, with words from around the globe.

Christian and Stephanie Nielson of Mesa, parents of four young children, were critically injured in the crash of a private plane on Aug. 16 near St. Johns. A flight instructor on the plane, Doug Kinnear, died the next day.

Christian suffered burns to over 30 percent of his body. Stephanie's burns covered more than 80 percent of her body, according to a report on a Web site devoted to their recovery. Both remain at Maricopa Medical Center in the Arizona Burn Center, the second largest in the country.

Christian, 29, grew up in Mesa, and was senior class president at Mesa High School in 1997. The couple married in 2000. A job took them to New Jersey, but they returned to Mesa a couple of years ago. Christian is a facilities manager for a scientific and engineering consultant firm in Phoenix.

Stephanie, 27, started a blog, The NieNieDialogues (nieniedialogues.blogspot.com), while they lived on the East Coast as a way to stay connected to family, her brother-in-law, Peter Nielson, said Monday at his parents' home in Mesa.

After a report was posted on the site about the crash, the family has come to know just how many people were touched by Stephanie's insights into motherhood, crafting and the joys it all brought to her life.

"We had no idea it was that big," Peter Nielson said. "It was a surprise to everyone."

Hundreds of letters have arrived at the hospital in Phoenix, their home in Mesa and a post office box set up by Stephanie's sister in Utah. Readers even sent little gifts, craft flowers and decorations that now adorn Stephanie and Christian's hospital rooms, Christian's mom, Mary Nielson, said.

"It's a wonderful feeling to know there are so many people working and remembering them in their prayers," Mary Nielson said. "It makes you feel good. It's a good world."

Another amazement: Stephanie's readers and others who have heard their story are setting up fundraising efforts, from online auctions to online sales with proceeds going to the family, to a benefit concert and silent auction Wednesday at Mesa High School and other events in Mesa.

"The bloggers started it themselves," Mary Nielson said.

Peter Nielson added, "We immediately all thought of fundraising at the beginning because of the astronomical costs, but then the bloggers in a week started the auction."

With all the buzz online, The New York Times wrote a story about it over the weekend and NBC's "Today" show is planning a segment, Mary Nielson said.

Angela Johnson, an East Valley artist and singer who has known the family for years, is one of many people participating in Wednesday's event.

"To me this is a tremendous outpouring of a community," Johnson said. "It's a broader consciousness that says, even though this is a tragic event that's happened to this family, we are all aware of the pain and want to do anything we can to support you."

Peter and Mary Nielson said people were drawn to Stephanie's blog because it shared her positive outlook on life. It really took off one day after she posted handmade home décor online. Readers saw it and passed it along to one another.

"People got connected and enjoyed her blog. They liked the fact she made her life as a mother delightful. She reminded them they could do fun stuff with their children daily," Mary Nielson said.

"She was focusing on all the positive aspects. For some bloggers, it's their way to let off steam. Stephanie was real positive," Peter Nielson said.

East Valley mom and blogger Tara Carpenter, who runs the Web site www.thewell-roundedwoman.com, said she doesn't know the Nielson family personally, but learned their story through her travels on the Internet.

"I found her blog, The NieNie Dialogues, a couple months before her crash. I thought it was great because I don't know a lot of bloggers here in Mesa. I'm not sure how popular Stephanie's blog was before, but I am amazed at how the blogging world has come together to help her and Christian since their accident," Carpenter wrote in an e-mail.

"As I navigate blogs from all over the U.S., I am always touched by how many people are aware of them and are doing what they can to help. ... I get a little emotional thinking about the Nielson family and all the people around the world who are pulling for them - mostly strangers like me who have never met them. This is a big part of why I blog - for the community spirit it fosters and the relationships I have made with people I have never even met. It's amazing."

Stephanie and Christian Nielson were raised in large families; she is one of nine children and he is one of 11. The siblings have taken a role in the efforts to help the family, from caring for their children, ages 6 and younger, to updating Web sites to setting up visitation schedules at the hospital.

One sister took quotes from Stephanie's Web site and hung them up around her hospital room.

"The quotes are so amazing and so fitting for what we're going through right now," Mary Nielson said.

The efforts will continue for months, if not years, Peter Nielson said. Both remain at the hospital, where Stephanie is undergoing skin grafts.

Christian was able to speak a bit, Mary Nielson said, during a period when tubes were removed.

"I told him, 'People are saying prayers.' He said, 'I feel the prayers.'

"We've been very, very amazed. It's been very, very comforting to us."

For information on Stephanie and Christian Nielson, see these Web sites:

Cjanerun.com

Nierecovery.com

nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

If You Go

What: Benefit concert

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Mesa High School, 1630 E. Southern Ave.

Cost: The concert is free, but donations will be accepted. Free tickets were passed out and ticket holders will be seated first. A silent auction will also be held. Proceeds will be used for medical costs for Stephanie and Christian Nielson.