Sadie's Bike Accident

So my last post I talked about our mundane life...and well I guess I spoke too soon and it was our turn for a little excitement. Last week we had a mini Spring Break so the kids and I headed to Charlotte after a fun lake sleepover with Daddy. We had enjoyed our afternoon and were visiting with a sweet friend and her two little boys. Eli has just learned to ride a bike without training wheels so he and Sadie now have to share the bike at my parent's house. So big girl Sadie convinces us she can ride my old, adult size bike, and actually did really well on it. She would pedal without sitting on the seat, even showed us she knew how to use hand brakes. A little while later she came flying toward the back steps and ran into them, as the bike stopped she lurched forward. I witnessed that part and thought to myself "Wow she might have some whiplash from that" but immediately knew it was more serious than that - as she jumped off the bike the blood just poured out of her mouth and nose. I'm in the medical field and thought I was fairly calm but that much blood coming out of my daughter's face just about put me over the edge. Mom and I took Sadie and the baby and drove downtown to the pediatric ER (good call by a family friend!), they saw us quickly and were so great with her.  

 Sadie shed some tears, of course, but was really a trooper through it all. Here she is covering her eyes with the bright light so the doctors could examine her nose. The first two doctors told us they could handle it right there in the ER, but I didn't have a good feeling about it. Thankfully the attending came in and took it out of my hands by saying it was out of his scope and he was going to call the plastic surgeon. We had to wait a little while longer so Mama took the baby home and helped my Dad get everyone down, then came back to sit with me during the surgery. They gave Sadie some Versed when they thought they were going to stitch her up in the ER and it was pretty funny to see her loopy. She got a little confused when they started her IV - the sweet child life specialist tried to explain it like it was a "straw for her vein" ...so a little while later Sadie was trying to drink from her IV. 

I was never so happy to see this little face as I was after surgery! I'm glad she didn't have to go through it awake but having to kiss your tearful child goodbye is stressful, too. She (and I) both calmed with a quick prayer and I was taken to a nice waiting room where Mom found me a few minutes later. The surgeon came in about 45 minutes later (also a face I was elated to see!) and said that the tissue was cut all the way to the nasal bone, but it should heal well. I thought she would never wake up in the recovery room, but a little ice cream later we were finally on our way back to my parent's house. 

Thankfully the rest of our break was uneventful. Mom had planned a sweet Easter egg hunt the following day and Sadie seemed up for it so we didn't cancel. She was excited to see her friends, although a little self-conscious since her face was really starting to swell. She didn't want me taking pictures but I managed to snap this one while she was reading with my Dad. Steven got in that afternoon and we had a fun night out with my parents. We were supposed to go to a baseball game but it got rained out so we went bowling instead. Bowling with our crew is pretty funny - they roll it down about 2 miles an hour, you wait and wait for it to get to the pins, maybe 1 or 2 gets knocked down, and the kid cheers like they won the lottery. It's a sweet life. 

I got a Build a Bear gift card at Christmas time at a work party and have been waiting for the right time to take one of the kids. Sadie is the one that would love it the most, anyways, so we decided this was her "I was brave" treat. I kept her out of school yesterday (and today) and let her pick out a bear and a couple outfits. Thankfully she was cool with stuff on "sale", that place is like another world and SO expensive!! Sparkley has joined our family now and will always remind us of Sadie's accident. This could all change tomorrow but I really feel like she grew up a little through this. I guess that's what life experiences, especially the painful ones, do for us. Steven's sweet Daddy drove down the morning after the accident to check on his grandbaby, and while he was there Sadie told him and my Dad that "if I had died that would be ok, because I know the Lord" That is the kind of thing that makes me lose it after the adrenaline dies down, however, the dam actually broke at church a couple days later when Sadie was standing on the pew between Mom and I, her sweet little face still so swollen and bruised, holding the hymn book and singing "Christ the Lord is risen today". A blessed Easter Sunday I will never forget - not just that my baby is going to be ok and that she is showing some sweet little signs of faith, but that the object of our faith is alive and "forever living to intercede for us". Hallelujah!

Spring is finally here!

 I am sitting in our unusually quiet house while Steven studies for tomorrow, and it seems like a good time to catch up on my blogging. We just got back from a wonderful anniversary dinner to our favorite fancy place - The Melting Pot. We have such a routine, we've become like the old couple that doesn't want to try anything new. In fact, they took the cheesecake off the dessert plate and it threw us off -thankfully our waiter was nice and brought us a piece from the back at no charge. On our actual anniversary Steven was in San Francisco, CA, visiting with a couple good  high school friends of his. And the next day I snuck off (not really,of course, it had been planned for months) to a girl's weekend with three of my long-time best friends to High Rock Lake for a wonderful kid-free retreat. 

 Between the 4 of us we have 14 children and only one got to come, she was young enough to let the grown ups do all the talking and sweet to pass around and snuggle with, too. We did some cooking, slept late-ish, shopped, got pedicures, listened to a great sermon online, and talked pretty much non-stop. Old friends are the best, hands down. I'm so thankful for all the dear friends the Lord has placed in my life. He knows we need these relationships. 

 I am not very creative or artistic, my brother got all those genes in the family. I like to cross-stich because it's looks like art but it's really math. I got these chairs for free from our neigbor, though, and decided to paint one for each child. Normally my projects are like the pinterest fails but I was pretty happy with how these turned out. 

 Davd got orange for Clemson and Eli got a Wolfpack chair - which they are very happy with. Mary Jo likes to climb in them, especially when they were insde, which is much safer than her other endeavors. She started walking right at 13 months and is enjoying her new skill immensely. I'm afraid I have another climber on my hands, she loves to climb up on top of tables and still has no idea that she can fall off. Bad combo. Eli and Sadie are good about rescuing her quickly if I'm across the room, thank goodness for older siblings. Speaking of, Eli turned 5! I tried to have a little more low-key of a birthday for him this year but when you're 5 it's just a big deal, there's no way around it. He looked forward to it for weeks, and it doesn't take much to make him happy. He ate cheese dip and Krispy Kreme donuts with his cousins on his actual birthday, shared the rest of the donuts with his class the next day, then that weekend we had a big Harrell get together and celebrated with him and Steven (they were born 30 years and a few minutes apart!). 

 I still can't believe I have 2 boys. They are really enjoying each other lately and I love to watch them play together. I pray they always have a close bond.

This is my new favorite picture of Mary Jo, it just sort of sums up her developing personality. I'm sorry this post is not very exciting, but sometimes it's nice to just enjoy the mundane, everyday life. I'll never forget watching some special on TV with my Mom when I was in high school or college of a Holocaust survivor. I don't remember much of what she said except for this one quote, "I will never again take for granted a boring evening at home." I'm ok with that, too. Goodnight!