No Better Place on Earth...

Today was one of those days. It started out difficult. Running late, rushing around and racing to meetings.

Life has been a little less than easy lately. Nothing huge or difficult, just hard. Lots of things going on, things changing, appointments, meetings...you name it. I try not to complain too often about life. I constantly remind myself that, it can always get worse. The Lord has blessed our lives richly and I am grateful. Please remember that as I whine and complain...I do so with those thoughts in mind.

Today, while at a work meeting (at McDonalds), I was sitting at the table with the boys. It was a newly remodeled McDonalds that had waist high bar stools. I was talking with some of the folks at work and not paying close enough attention I guess...poor O...feel backwards off the stool and cracked his head on the ceramic tile floor.

It was one of those moments in life, where it's like a movie in slow motion. You want to stop what is happening, but you can't. It just happens....

The noise silenced the dining area. People stopped eating and took a moment to look at the boy and the mom who let him fall off the chair. I immediately scooped my crying boy up. I checked him over and tried to stay calm. He had a bump already forming on the back of his large sweet head.

We finished the meeting. I had a knot in my stomach the whole time...trying not to worry and assure myself he was fine. I'm a natural born worry wort, which made this a tough situation.

We headed home and he fell asleep in the van. The doctors office, yes, I called, said it was ok for him to go to sleep as long as I could wake him up easily. We had to go for blood work so we stopped at the blood lab, had his blood work done -which by the way, he handled like a CHAMP! After his blood test, I decided (after calling a dozen people to help me decide what to do), to drive around the building to the ER in the building.

It's a relatively new ER, and it's hardly ever busy, so I decided we'd stop in and just have O checked out. Sheesh...they made me feel a bit like a tartlette to say the least and did very little to help me feel better about the situation. They assured me that he indeed was fine and that no CT scan was needed. They also informed me that all the media hype was nothing to worry about. They then told me that IF something serious were to go wrong the next 6 to 7 hours would be when it would happen...I thought you said he was fine?!?

Thankfully, O seems fine. He's been asleep for several hours and I've been able to wake him with only a few hundred wiggles and shakes. His behavior hasn't changed at all and he's not thrown up at all. I guess that means he's good.

S continues to struggle with going to school, church, soccer practice...anything that is out of the norm and away from me. I feel a bit like I'm at my wits end. It's been difficult for both Matt and myself. It's a fight every morning for school...but thankfully, thus far, it's not gotten any worse. He has a doctors appointment tomorrow to rule out any physical problems and we will go from there.

His behavior has even changed quite dramatically lately. It's a struggle for us to identify what is a "show" and what is genuine. Poor behavior is never acceptable and we know that, but discipline in these situations has proven to be difficult.

I still wonder why children didn't come with a full manual. An individualized one at that!