Anyway, our scars can tell the story of our lives. Robbie has about 10 scars on his head alone, and with each of those there is a 10 minute story to go along with it. If it weren't for the scar on his nose, I may have never known that when he was a child he had a swing set with a slide that a go-cart wasn't meant to fit under.
Well my little Austin now has his own scar story that I'm sure he will be telling for years to come. And in case he ever forgets it, it will forever be on this blog to help remind him of the details.
About a year ago we started going to a different church congregation in our town. We feel one of the most important things a child needs is lots of Christian friends. And we are now at a place where they not only have great friends, but so do Robbie and I. We've got a great group of 3rd through 6th graders and once a month we meet in different homes for a meal and fellowship. We all look forward to those get-togethers because we all have great friends in this group.
Saturday night our group met at our friends, Brian and Amie's house for our May get-together. Brian grilled hot dogs for all of us, so we had our meal and were all sitting around talking. The kids were all outside playing and the adults were in the house being enlightened by Aaron's Wednesday night class teacher about what he's been teaching the boys lately. He told us that he likes to teach about very real issues that our kids may be facing right now.
Now I've always been for being truthful to my kids when questions come up (keeping it age appropriate),but Robbie and I were looking at each other during this discussion thinking about how much we need to talk to Aaron about so that maybe he could understand some of the Wednesday night classes better. In other words, THE TALK. He had part of the talk with Robbie in a deer stand last fall, but apparently we're running a little late in THE REST OF THE TALK.
At this point Robbie was sitting at the kitchen table and I was in the living room on the couch, but we could see each other and we were looking at each other and both thinking, OK, it is time for the talk. Tonight. We shouldn't wait anymore.
This thought had not even had time to soak in when one of the kids ran in the house and announced that Austin is hurt really bad and bleeding out of his eye. At this point we both jumped up and ran out the door, where we saw all of the kids standing there looking at Austin and my little guy had blood pouring down his face. It was all over his clothes and hands and I really couldn't even tell what was bleeding at that point. He was crying and I went into some kind of strange yelling panic mode trying to figure out what happened. I was trying to get someone to tell me what happened, but none of the kids answered me. Or at least I don't think they did. Everything is a bit of a blur after I saw all that blood.
Nothing hurts a momma more than seeing your child in pain. Nothing.
We jumped in the car and headed to the ER without even thinking. I sat in the back with Austin so I could hold a towel on his head and try to console him. I asked him what happened and he said that his friend Josh (also 6) was swinging a baseball bat and Austin just walked by at the wrong time and got hit in the head with the bat. Josh is such a sweet child and I felt horrible about yelling after I found out what happened. I'm sure that didn't help Josh's feelings at all.
That's one of those moments I'd like a re-do.
When I got a lot of the blood cleaned up, I could see a hole in his forehead, just above his right eye. The hole was large enough to fit a dime into. It made me ill to just look at it. And I knew what he was in for at the hospital was going to hurt him even more. This is where all I could do was make myself breathe and hold back tears.
When we walked in the ER and they saw all of us covered in blood, they took us right back. While the nurse was in there explaining to Austin what stitches were, he decided to show us every scar on his body. This included raising both of his pants legs. I think we all got the point after he showed us the 15 scars on his hands from dog bites, but he was determined to make sure we saw them all and heard about why they were there. I was actually a little uncomfortable with looking at scars all over this man's body, but I'm not sure he would have been satisfied had he been cut off before every scar was pointed out.
After the doctor looked at it, she said that he had a concussion, and then decided that the injury was too deep for gluing back together and it would definitely take stitches. At this point, Austin was given a choice. You can either get wrapped up really tight in a sheet and be held down, or you can be a big boy and lay still while your head is being sewed back together.
He chose the big boy route. And I could not be more proud. He had to get shots all around his eye and didn't even cry. And then the doctor got her little fish hook looking sewing tool thing and proceeded to fix him up. As she was doing it, she was going on and on about how big and brave he was being. He didn't even cry. The doctor was so impressed that she was ready to set up an arranged marriage between Austin and her 6 year old daughter.
To which he answered a very polite "no".
I decided that a trip to our favorite sno-cone place would be a nice reward for Austin choosing the big boy route, so we went straight there and made it 10 minutes before closing time.
I also told him that I would kick Robbie out of the bed for the night and he could sleep with me.
I also told him that I would buy him everything he asked for within the next 24 hours.
Ok, not really.
But that's how I felt.
When we got home we checked the mail and Austin had gotten mail from our church that he had been promoted to the first grade class at church. He was so excited about this. Not only did he get the letter, but there was even a few pieces of gum in with his letter.
And then Austin said something I couldn't believe while I was giving him his bath and trying to wipe off all of the dried blood off of his body. He said, "Momma, this is my lucky day. You know why? I got to have my favorite sno-cone, I get to sleep in bed with you tonight, AND I got mail that had gum in it!"
Oh my heart. And my thought at that moment was that this is why God tells us to be more childlike. This is the most traumatic thing he's been through in his 6 short years, but at the end of the day he was looking for the positive. And here I sit right now, tearing up all over again about this.
Here's a few updates on this from the last few days:
Sunday morning he woke up with his eye completely swollen shut. He looked like he was miserable. So he and I stayed home and played games and watched movies.
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| Josh made this card for Austin Sunday morning. How precious is this?! I can just imagine Josh and Austin together years from now joking about this together. He is one of Austin's favorite friends. |
Sunday evening we went out to the lake for a little while. This was the picture I took out there.
Monday morning...still couldn't open his eye.
Monday after school... eye would open if forced. And when I checked to make sure he could still see out of it, I cried tears of relief. I have been so worried about that. I just wish I would've waited until I was home to check it instead of the middle of the kindergarten hall at his school...embarrassed myself a bit with the crying.
Tuesday morning...better.
Tuesday afternoon...even better.
We will go back to the ER this Saturday and have the stitches removed.
At that point I may need to remind Robbie about what he and Aaron need to talk about before his next Wednesday night class, but for now, we'll take it one day at a time.
Or maybe I should let YOU have the talk with him! ;)
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