What a way to start!

This is our first day of summer. We had such grand plans! We finished early today and had our last spelling test. To celebrate, I decided to surprise the kids and take them all ice skating. I thought that was a great idea, but..... about an hour into the skating, Benjamin had an accident. He tripped and Christopher tripped over him. Christopher's skate went into Benjamin's arm. It made a rather large gash on his inner arm (antecubital area for any nurse friends reading this). That is not a good place to get a gash. The paramedics were surrounding him when I came in. (I was outside with the two little ones). It was a horrible scene. Benjamin pale, sobbing, blood gushing. One of those scenes in life that you hope you forget. We rushed to the Pediatric ER after we got the bleeding stopped. On the way we all prayed for Benjamin. As we prayed, I started thinking about the prayer that morning during our family devotional. We prayed for many things, including protection. And here we were in the car rushing to the ER - not feeling very protected. I told the children as we drove, This is a storm. We don't understand. We didn't ask for it. Our choice is how we are going to deal with it. I asked them to join me in thanking God for His protection, even when we didn't necessarily see it. When we got to the ER the triage nurse said that the cut was at such a vulnerable place that we might have to go to the downtown hospital - Fort Worth's Children and Benjamin might even require surgery for the repair since that area was full of nerves and a huge artery. Moments later the doctor came in, examined the arm and told us how fortunate we were. She said that if the cut had been even millimeters deeper, the artery or nerves could have been seriously damaged. I immediately felt a deep sense of relief and protection. Benjamin did great through the 6 stitches and had the nurse, doctor and me in stitches laughing as he told us jokes, including telling us that his arm reminded him of a science experiment he had done this year - making a volcano :)

Now, days later, as I finally finish this post, Benjamin is outside laughing and playing with the injury a distant memory. I still don't understand why this injury had to happen, but I continue to learn that I don't have to understand. It is all in how I choose to deal with the incidents, the storms, the problems, the scars.