Our Miracle!!!

I woke up at 7am to Henry's cries. My first thought was a Facebook post about how miraculous it was that both my blessed children slept all night!! It's rare, and feels just shy of miraculous.

But friends, I have a more amazing miracle to describe.

After Henry's morning cuddles in my bed, he got up and wandered around my bedroom, as usual, while Tim got up to use the bathroom, and I checked "the news" on my phone. I was in the middle of skimming a blog post on FB about "comforting your child" when I looked up and to my HORROR, I saw our tall heavy dresser, falling over, in slow motion. Henry was somewhere in the mix, assumedly climbing an open drawer. I screamed his name, and jumped up, but too late as I watched that dresser fall ONTO my baby boy. In the millisecond that I watched this happen, I thought..."this is how it ends???" He had to be dead. Beckoned by my deafening cry, Tim was there in a flash, and with super human strength, he pulled the dresser off of him in one fell swoop. I picked Henry up, and already heard him crying. He was crying!!!! He's alive. I couldn't assess anything else about him. Inhuman sounds continued to come out of my mouth, from the depths of some place inside of me I've never known. I rushed him to his room, cause there was a chair to sit in, and held him while I sobbed, screamed, howled and shook. I tried to get control to look at my child, and I couldn't. I think this scared Henry to tears more than the fall itself. Tim came and sat by my side, panting I think. Eventually he took Henry from my arms, much to Henry's delight I think as he clung to Daddy's neck. I was calming down in one way, but some other shock was taking over and I couldn't catch my breath. There was no "nurse" in me whatsoever. I kept trying to tell myself "he's alive!!" but the near miss that he could have, perhaps should have been dead kept pulsating through my mind and my heart. Tim was rubbing my arm (much like the way he did when I was screaming during labor, which by the way was peaceful bliss compared to the pain my heart was feeling), and I knew I had to get control. Eventually I could speak, and asked what do we do, and Tim helped me decide we should go to the ER just in case. Henry was alert and had stopped crying, and he seemed well. HOW????!!!!!

I sat next to him in the back seat, while Tim drove. Henry was timid and shy, probably because it was so weird that I was squeezed between their car seats in the back seat. I always drive!! It's only a 10 minute or less drive to Seattle Children's Hospital, and we were able to point out the water, and "BIG cars" as we drove. I was calming down. We met an empty ER waiting room,and a kind nurse to check us in. The next two hours were effecient, compassionate and reassuring. The short version is he checked out just fine! They did a chest xray just to be sure his "fragile lungs" didn't have any hidden damage, and it looked perfect. By the end, he was trying to climb their equipment, walking around the halls, laughing and being his same old self. He has a decent abrasion on his neck, and a bruise to his outer right eye, and a tiny one on the top of his right ear. Looking back he probably fell on to his left side and his right side took the brunt of the dresser. No other marks anywhere on his body.

here he is in the ER, entranced by "Planes" on the tv, holding his sticker for being a good boy in the xray.

I don't know why we are so lucky. We feel terribly guilty that we haven't bolted our big furniture like everyone suggests! I feel guilty that I was on my damn phone instead of watching Henry's every move. Tim assures me I wouldn't have been able to stop it from the bed anyway. But I do know that my son's life was spared. And I'm so thankful.

Thank you thank you thank you Jesus that you spared my son's life.
Thank you that Tim was home and nearby to use his super human strength to lift that dresser.
Thank you that Lucy slept thru that nightmare....HOW??
Thank you that Martha (Tim's mom) was here to stay with Lucy and be a reassuring voice to her when we were all missing when she woke up.
Thank you that someone's life will be spared because a parent will read this, and BOLT their heavy furniture to the wall, even though it's inconvenient and taxing and probably "unnecesary".
Thank you for children's hospital, and modern xrays and health care providers who bring so much care and reassurance.

When we got home, I didn't realize how terrible our room looked. Shards of broken piggy banks and tea sets that were "safely" out of reach on top of our dresser. It's my "crafts" and "gifts" dresser, not nice soft clothes. It was still on its side, and Tim and I tried to get it upright: I couldn't even budge my side. OH MY GOD!!! Thank you that Tim was here! He stayed home today, bringing comfort and presence, and of course hunting for supplies to stabilize the dresser and any other potential disaster furniture.

We've been given another day, and believe me I do not take that lightly. On a light hearted note, I must confess two things. One is I was just saying to my friend Chrissie yesterday that I hadn't really written any blogs about Henry and I needed to get on that. (I was thinking more along the lines of funny things he is starting to say!!). And the other is that he has given me a few scares in life, due to running off, escaping the confines of his stroller, his crib, high chairs etc...such that I was doubtful that we would make it to his 2nd birthday without a trip to the ER. We missed the deadline by just 5 days!!! We will be celebrating big time next Monday!!!