Ah, SPRING BREAK! This has brought
much adventure to our household!
Hope and I went to Washington to
visit my sister and her family. Hope also was able to visit a former
friend from her foster village. Even though they were still thousands of
miles apart, they were able to connect briefly in an international village for
the day.
Easter morning brought us to
Westminster Church with long-time friends, Lavonne Dideon and Cathy Worrell. It
has been my long time dream to meet Yahoo group friends face-to-face--perhaps
someday I will make it to the Eastern coast too! (Annie and Angie, I am still
hoping!!!) The service was great; I was in tears more than once and the message
was a topic of conversation in our family through the
week.
The best part of our trip was
getting to know our niece and nephew (cousins for Hope).
Between the crunchy brown mice, chirping finches and growling Lilo,
it was worth it's weight in gold. (Those
who understand…understand!)
It was sad missing Easter with my
family. The kiddos at home did staggered basket hunts, divided egg hunts, and
Easter service with their holiday dresses without me. However, they did it well
and the memories were worth the absence.
In an effort to "make it
up" to my kiddos at home, I took them to an open-gym at our gymnastics
gymnasium. We did it on Tuesday with Andrew, Hannah and Amanda, and we
also repeated the excursion on Thursday. Originally I planned on picking up my
eldest daughter, Hailey, from the airport during the gym time but her
"special someone" Daniel asked to have the honors. For that, I am
SO grateful! I needed to be present.
It was a simple mistake--Jumping to
the high bar. Hannah did it (with permission first) and then encouraged Mandy
to do the same. Mandy jumped, grabbed, slipped and fell--just wrong. She
ended up breaking her elbow and needing surgery to put the piece of bone
back into place with a surgical screw (as well as sewing a chip back into
place…how do they do that??!?). My little girl who only cries silent tears
didn't stop waterworks for over an hour…big indication that something was VERY
wrong! X-rays showed that an early morning appointment with the
orthopedic doctor was prudent…and he "just happened" to clear his
schedule prior to today to accommodate for E.R. surgeries…namely,
Mandy's, whose took over 2 hours.
As I mentioned, Mandy is a silent
tear crier. She holds all of the "questionable" emotions inside.
However, once she was given a sedative via I. V., she opened up considerably!
Before surgery she was quipping about the room, the needles, us…anything
she could focus on! She said I looked like I had four eyes…and I don't
wear glasses. The funniest thing happened afterwards.
Dave (who "just happened"
to take a day off work…anyone connect the spiritual dots besides
me???) and I greeted Amanda as she woke up from surgery. Dave said,
"How's my little Cookie?" to Mandy as she entered the room. With a
totally perplexed look on her face, Amanda asked."I went
into surgery, and now I'm a cookie?" If she wasn't so serious,
we wouldn't have lost it--but she was, and we did. :) After a
while of eyebrow raising and abnormally animated antics from Amanda, we were
able to go home.
We are so thankful for all the
e-mails, phone calls and flowers that were sent to Amanda. As she came out of
her stupor, she relished the attention. Even her virtual twin was pining for
the attention…as she adorned the room with signs and pictures she drew for
her sister.
Hopefully the Tylenol 3 will last
the night. Hopefully tomorrow will be pain-free. Hopefully Amanda will realize
just a little bit more how important she is to our family. Dickens
had it right: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. This tragedy
left a bunch of fertile ground for my baby to grow in.
You are surrounded in prayers,
Mandy!
All my best,
Amy
