Thank you, God

Well, this is not what I intended to be the first entry in my new web log, but it's all I can think about.




Yesterday there was an accident at our house that has had a huge impact on all of us; myself and Hunter especially.



Faith and Jesse were playing happily in the living room as I sat in the recliner downloading some pictures onto the computer. Hunter was in the kitchen peeling an orange. I was fairly engrossed in what I was doing when I heard a loud crash followed by screams from both Faith and Jesse. I looked up to see that the television was on the floor (it had fallen from where it sits in the entertainment center), Faith was running from the room, and Jesse was lying on the floor next to the t.v. I immediately dropped the computer to the floor and crawled over to Jesse and began feeling around for any broken bones. I was examining his legs, since they were the closest to the t.v. set when Hunter said in a very shaky voice, "Mama , there's blood", pointing to Jesse's head. The panic and fear that came over me at that point is indescribable. I realized that my 2 year old child had sustained some sort of head injury from a falling television set and his scalp and hair were covered with blood. I yelled at Hunter to bring me a towel. After a few seconds (that seemed like forever) I located the site of the bleeding - (the gash that you see in the photo above) and began deciding on a course of action. I knew he would need stitches and was still worried about head trauma. I began shouting out intstructions for Hunter as I held pressure on the wound. "Hunter, bring me another rag", "Hunter find my cell phone and bring it to me then go find Faith and make sure that she is not hurt" "Hunter, go get my purse and my car keys and get your shoes on quickly" Hunter ran around doing every thing I told him to, crying and trembling and repeating "okay, mama", "okay, mama". On the way to the emergency room, Hunter held the rag against the wound to control the bleeding, as I instructed him, and tried to keep the edges pushed together (it gaped open to about the size of a quarter and was very deep - all the way to the skull). Jesse had stopped crying and had become very still and quiet. We all said prayers out loud in turn that Jesse would be okay. By the time we checked in at the emergency room, Jesse was talking - reaching up to his head and saying things like "bonk head.....ooooh, dat heavy.....dat big one" So, skipping to the happy ending, Jesse got 9 stitches in his cute little baby head and is doing fine with no signs of brain trauma. Having worked with brain injured children (one of whose injuries resulted from climbing on the t.v. stand), I am well aware of how very bad this could have been. I am still thanking God every few moments for sparing Jesse from serious neurological injury, or worse. He has added such joy to my life and has completed our family - it is unbearable to think about what could have happened. He has been getting lots of extra hugs and kisses from everyone in the family. I think that Hunter has been very traumatized by this whole experience and we have been doing lots of talking and "de-briefing" about what happened. Despite his fear, Hunter acted like a true hero, and I am so very proud of him.