Man finds mission in son’s death

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — On Feb. 19, 2010, Steve Baum and Deena Baum of Waterloo experienced the worse loss a parent could fathom.

Their 6-year-old son Austin Baum, Austin’s friend Kadin Baxmeyer, 7, and Kadin’s mother, Kathy Baxmeyer, 40, were all found drowned in a frozen lake on the Baxmeyer property.

The three were supposed to have gone to a movie for Kadin’s birthday but never made it out of Waterloo. Police suspected Kathy went out on the frozen lake after either one or both of the young boys and fell in while trying to rescue them.

Calls and texts to Kathy Baxmeyer went unanswered, and Deena Baum became worried and hysterical about where her best friend and son could possibly be. Steve Baum went to the Baxmeyer home to find some answers.

“I walked in the house and see Austin’s shoe sitting on the floor, I see his coat,” he said. “I see Kadin’s clothes. Kathy’s purse is still in the truck in the garage and her phone is in the house. It was a nightmare because we didn’t have any answers.”

Baum worked early mornings so he could pick Austin up from school and spend the afternoons with his son. Every morning before he left for work he’d leave a note for Austin, just a little hello, an “I love you” or “have a good day.” Pretty soon Austin was writing notes back to his father and that’s when the note journal started. Instead of leaving messages on sticky notes, the two wrote messages back and forth to each other in a journal.

The last message Baum wrote for his son on the morning he died: “Hey little buddy, have a great day.”

Police and emergency personnel with spotlights and search and rescue dogs arrived and a couple of hours later the bodies of the three were found in the lake.

“At that point I felt like I just got kicked in the stomach,” he said. “I dropped to my knees and I started praying. I kept telling myself `It’s not him. It’s not him. It can’t be him.’ And then I had to go to the ambulance and identify my little boy. I had to walk past all these cops and firefighters and emergency personnel and spotlights and flashing lights and I was walking into hell, right into hell. When people tell you hell isn’t real I’ll tell you it is and I was in the middle of it.”

Baum held Austin and cried and kissed him and said he heard God speak to him, telling him he would be all right, that he would be OK and that this tragedy would cause Baum to lead thousands of people to God.

“I stepped onto that ambulance one guy and I stepped out a totally different person,” he said. “When I stepped out God became real and my mission became to tell every person out there that God was real and he will guide you and lead you if you ask him.”

Shortly after the deaths a 12-year-old girl started a Facebook page in memory of Austin, Kadin and Kathy. Baum found the page and started posting Bible quotes and sharing his thoughts and feelings, or posting the messages he and Austin shared in the notes journal.

Before long thousands of people had visited and “liked” the memory page. Baum talked to some of them via messages and felt he helped them through tough times by sharing God’s message.

“When God told me I’d bring thousands of people to him I didn’t imagine it would be like this,” he said. “No matter what you are going through if you turn it over to God he will bring you through it, no doubt about it. Every single day he lifts me up because I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to go to work. But I get up because God tells me to get up and I do.”

In memory of his son and Kadin, the Baum’s started a memorial fund to send underprivileged children to the St. Louis Family Church Jump Kids Camp. It was a favorite camp for the two boys, Baum said.

Last year the fund raised enough donations to send 400 kids to camp on scholarship.

“This year, we want to send 1,000 kids,” Baum said. “We want to send as many little kids as we can to Jump Camp every year.”