Accident

Lydie had an accident.

It always breaks my heart when one of our kiddos gets hurt – but Lydie always feels extra hard because that means that one of us was part of it.  That’s a hard one.  But bless this sweet little angel for loving us despite the mistakes we make. 

The accident happened as we were leaving church with the kiddos and me (Mark was working at the hospital).  I had gathered all the kids, and we were heading to the car, but someone stopped me in the hallway to talk (for probably only 30 seconds), and one of the kiddos was pushing Lydie in her wheelchair and continued on. 

We always go out a side door of the church because it leads straight out to the handicapped parking spots.  When we got to this door, I looked out and didn’t see the two kids at the car, and so I assumed they were still in the building.  But for some reason, I opened the door.  First tender mercy.  And then I heard the worst sound. 

Beyond what I had seen from the door, was Lydie’s wheelchair (with her in it), face first tipped over off the curb with my other kiddo desperately trying to pull her up.  It was horrible.  I ran out and we were able to lift Lydie up (which is no small feat because her wheelchair is very heavy).  Lydie’s whole face was covered in blood. 

It was one of those moments when time slowed down.  But I felt surprisingly calm – very focused, but calm.  Another tender mercy. 

The kiddo that had been with Lydie was silently crying and apologizing to Lydie.  We grabbed the baby wipes, and I tried to clean up Lydie and access what was wrong.  She had hit her nose so there was a lot of blood which was making it hard to tell exactly where the injuries were from. 

Surprisingly, no one ever came into the parking lot, which might have been another tender mercy to not have given more attention to the situation and my kiddos’ emotions. 

I decided the best thing to do was get Lydie home as fast as I could because I knew that would calm her down and go from there. 

Lydie immediately settled down as soon as we got home.  I called Mark and showed her what Lydie looked like, and he told me I should take her down to the emergency room.  We were worried about the possibility of a concussion or maybe needing stitches. 

I was also able to sit down with the kiddo that had been with Lydie and learn what had happened.  It was simple, they had just forgotten to put the brake on her wheelchair, and she had rolled off the curb.  Things can happen so quickly with Lydie.  And it was just an accident. 

I left the three bigs at home and drove Lydie to the hospital.  She slept the whole way.  Another tender mercy was Mark was already at the hospital and the other pharmacists covered for him so that he could be with us.  I was so grateful for that. 

We immediately got taken back and it was probably the best ER experience I have had (which sounds weird to write, but we’ve had some rough ones).  Everyone was so kind and attentive.  I loved our ER doctor.  Lydie got snuggled up with a new stuffie, heated blankets, and we put on some of her music and she was content.  They decided to take a CT scan of her skull, face, and neck just to make sure there wasn’t more damage that we weren’t seeing.  Lydie was a champion and laid so still for the scan. 

Everything came back good!  Another tender mercy. 

Lydie had a pretty good scrap on her forehead and down her nose, a fat lip, and two scraped knees, but no broken teeth, nose, or anything else.  It could have been a lot worse and we are so grateful. 

We came home to some very relieved kiddos and Lydie was given about a million loves that night.  And, of course, Lydie was giving all of her angelic smiles that night, letting us all know it was okay.  

She looked pretty intense for about two weeks but is healing so nicely.  We are grateful that both of the kiddos involved are doing okay and the many tender mercies that happened that day.