The Adventures in Grace

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Last Wednesday morning, (8/26) about 8:00, after I had just gotten out of the shower, I hear Grace SCREAMING at my bathroom door. I quickly opened the door and notice that there is blood all over her hand. For her, this is a usual occurrence, that is,to have blood somewhere on her, because she is always getting a bloody nose (just like her mother did when she was her age). I brought her over to the tub to wash the blood off, but one part wouldn't wash off! I thought "Oh my goodness! It's not a bloody nose, She's almost cut  her thumb off!" I quickly ran and got her a towel to put pressure on it while I threw my clothes on and grabbed the other two children out of their beds and threw their shoes on them. I tried to call my husband but I just left a message telling him we were going to the hospital and that I'd try and call him sometime and that I couldn't find my cell phone. And then we were out the door to the hospital. I want to know why they make Emergency Rooms SO hard to find?! Where we live the ER is down a side road in the back of the hospital. But I did find it eventually. When I did find it they told me that my other two children, Josiah and Autumn would not be allowed to come back to the ER because it is flu season and that, if I don't have anyone to come and watch them, then they would get a volunteer to watch them.

What?! Here I am with three children and I'm eight months pregnant with my fourth child. I'm new to the town and only have one friend, who just happens to have four children of her own (and I don't have her number) with me), and I cannot get in touch with my husband and they expect my children to stay with some stranger, who I don't even know, for who knows how long!? Please, Lord, Just let my husband show up.

I must have given the nurse, that checked Grace in, a overwhelmed-bewildered look, because the next thing she said was "You know what? Let me go talk to the manager about letting all you guys stay together." Thank God for a generous managers and no runny noses for the children!

Once we were ALL in the ER they gave Grace some Tylenol for her pain while we waited for the doctor to see her. By this time I realized that none of us had eaten breakfast and I started wondering the usual mom things, like I wonder if I have any change in my purse for the vending machines and where they might be if the hospital did have vending machines and how would I possible get to them without leaving anyone alone? But God always supply's, in someway, for our simplest needs. A nurse came in and was so amazed that all of my children were so well behaved and she asked me if I wouldn't mind if she gave them some apple juice. So we had apple juice for breakfast.

The doctor that Grace had was so wonderful. I've never ever had a nice, relaxed doctor in the ER before. He examined Grace's thumb and told me that he's going to need to numb her thumb up to actually get down and see what is really going on. I so much wished that I could have taken her place or maybe just have held her to soothe her, when they had to give her the numbing shot. But once her thumb was numb and the doctor was actually able to look around he saw that she was still in pain and that her thumb was cut below the nail and to the bone. I was going to have to take her two hours away to see a hand specialist at another hospital. By this time it was 11:00am.

Ok, Lord, how am I going to do this? So I asked one of the nurses if there was a phone that I could use and there was. So I started calling my husband over and over again. I did tell him I would call him sometime. I don't know how many times I redialed his number, but the last time I redialed I just left him a message with an update on what was happening and that I really needed him there. That's all that I could do. So now my prayer was; Lord, show me what to do and please provide, like you have and always will, a way. I don't know how many times I prayed that but, the next time the nurse came in she brought in the phone and said I had a call!! Praise the Lord, It's my husband!

That's when I totally lost it. I just wanted him to be there and be the strength that I didn't have. Through sobs I told him what was going on and he told me that he hadn't received my first message from earlier in the morning until then and that he was 30 minutes away and would be there as soon as he could.

So to make this incredibly long story short.

- I took the children to my friends house when my husband arrived at the hospital.

- We did go to the other hospital that was two hours away to get Grace's thumb operated on.

- I never ever want to see another child of mine under conscious sedation.

- After Grace's operation she finally could eat something, and she really wanted strawberries (which is her favorite thing to eat) so we took her to a near by Jack-in-the-Box and got her some food and a strawberry smoothie.

- The day ended at 10:30pm

- Grace's thumb is now intact and healing beautifully in a cast.

- Oh, and by the way, never slam a door when there are fingers where the door is hung, because now we know what happens.

- Note to self: Remember, God is my strength in times of weakness, not my husband.

Grace and her not-so-much-loved cast "playing" in the rain.