Yesterday began as any normal day…until noon. Ian had crawled outside and enjoyed the mud puddle directly in front of the door and was crawling back in when I grabbed him up and dunked him in the kitchen sink for a bath before he could track any more mud into this house! Jerome and Seth were outside playing in the orchard before it rained again. Jerome was using the hoe to dig a big hole that he had been working on for a few days, and Seth was playing with his diggers. I had gotten Ian out of his bath in the kitchen sink and carried him over to the couch under the window so I could look out and watch the boys as I dressed the baby. Just as I reach the couch and look outside I see Jerome bring the hoe down on Seth’s hand, which was on his digger. There was no look of malice on his face, just shock. I have no idea what thoughts were in his head at all, and he said it was an accident. Jerome had turned away from his hole and was being careless, Seth had not gotten in his way at all. So here I have a dripping wet, naked baby, and Seth with a bleeding hand…it’s bleeding so much all I can see is that his finger is still on his hand, “Oh God!” is all I can think and all I could say. I called Misty and she was there in half a minute. What a blessing! She helped me and made phone calls and kept Jerome as Mom was there in just a couple minutes and drove Ian, Seth and I to our doctor’s who was expecting us as Mom had called ahead. I kept pressure on his finger and held him and prayed. I was fighting anger in my heart toward Jerome who knew better, and guilt for allowing him to use the hoe which I knew to be sharp. I had no idea how badly he was hurt and had to trust that God had everything under His control, and that He allowed it to happen. Seth had not been crying out of pain unless I moved his hand or adjusted mine to keep the pressure on, and by the time we got to the doctor’s office the bleeding had slowed so that he could look into the cut. We both saw the tendon and thought it looked damaged, so he sent us across the street to the emergency room where he had called ahead to have the hand specialist look at it. Abby met us there and sat with me as the specialist examined Seth’s hand and proclaimed the tendon as intact. The cut had only gone down to the sheath! So Seth only needed stitches and his last tetanus shot. How bad it could have been, I knew, and my heart swells with thanksgiving that Seth was spared it. However, as amazingly tolerant he is to pain, he absolutely screamed the entire 20 minutes it took for them to stitch him up and it took four adults to hold him down! He is one strong little guy! We were home by 3pm. Our way had been made straight. Once home, Mom made tea and scones for us and we had a time of rest. Donna and Scott brought dinner for us, David stopped by with a balloon for Seth, and Abby stayed with me and took care of the boys until Peter got home late last night. We were surrounded with love.
Gigi spent the day with us today! It was so good to have her here helping and cheering us! Seth has not complained about his hand or his bandages, and smiles and tells us “It feels better!” when we ask him about it. Only when he bumps it running around does he casually say that it hurts him, and by the end of today he asked for some Tylenol. What amazing grace!
