ambulances, tornados, and God's protection

Yesterday I got through the day SOLELY on God's grace. But reflecting back, I can see His divine protection, provision and grace. And I'm so thankful for that.

Bare with me and keep reading to the end, because I want to share all of God's SUPERNATURAL provision for me through all we dealt with yesterday.

Abigail has really never hurt herself, never had a big fall or injury, never had anything bleeding.

But yesterday morning she was running to the back door, excited to go to story time at the library, and I didn't see her coming so we bumped into each other.

She fell face first into the leg of our TV table.

Blood just started pouring from her nose and mouth and she was screaming for a good 20 minutes straight.

It was horrible to watch her in so much pain, and feel so helpless.

(thankfully no teeth were broken, and she just busted her lip and scraped up her nose and face pretty bad)

Little did I know, this was just the start to the day.

A little later, after she was calmed down and we had played and distracted and gotten the bleeding to stop, we headed up to the city to return some of her shoes and stop by Babies R Us.

(oh my heart aches just thinking about this again)

I was speaking with someone in Customer Service about a return, and I looked over right as Abigail was falling out of the back of the shopping cart, head first.

(I think she had stood up for a second to look at a toy she had dropped on the floor.)

I did what I could to catch her but was too late.

It was seriously like I saw her falling in slow motion.

head. first.

Right into the concrete floor.

she SCREAMED and and I scooped her up, looked at her and she had the biggest knot I've ever seen right on the front of her head.

She screamed and cried and screamed more...louder than I have ever heard her.

The woman behind me in line came over, told me she was a doctor, and recommended we call the paramedics to come take a look since she had hit her head so hard.

as you can imagine, I was just SHAKING with fear.

Long story short (well, kind of)...the paramedics came, evaluated her and said she seemed to be ok, but just to keep a close eye on her over the next 24 hours.

Having a stretcher brought into Babies R Us, with people staring, was very traumatic, but not near as bad as taking my screaming toddler, and now screaming 3 month old, into the ambulance to be evaluated.

Abigail would not calm down and I did what I could to ease her fear and pain but it took about 45 minutes until she finally calmed.

it was awful. just awful.

But she finally calmed down when i got her to listen to baby's "heart beep" with the stethoscope...

she loved doing that and it really helped to distract her.

Daddy finally got there (he was 30 min away at work) and she was MUCH better with him there...while I did paperwork in the ambulance, he took her to get a Jamba Juice.

When I pulled up, she was like her normal self, playing and drinking her smoothie.

SO so thankful.

Of course having to call 911 for your child is not exactly easy.

ooooo, but this wonderful day did not end there my friends.

As we drove home from dealing with all this, it started raining and became dark very quickly.

About 30 minutes after we got home, the tornado sirens started going off and we hunkered down (yes, I am from Texas so I can say that) in our stairwell closet with a bunch of cushions and a tiny lantern.

Our small city made national news yesterday as a tornado swept right through town.

As we hid in the closet with the TV turned way up to listen to reports, we literally heard them saying that the tornado was now crossing the intersection which is about 1/4 mile from our house. SO scary.

We are obviously okay, and our home is okay..thank the Lord!

But the roof of Parker's office building was ripped off, and it basically just rained right into the building.

He spent a lot of the evening there trying to salvage and cover things.

They had just moved into this new office 2 weeks ago.

We are still praying that they did not lose anything that cannot be replaced for clients.

(btw, keeping a toddler and a newborn in a dark closet is a WHOLE other blog post!)

but. BUT.

I want to tell you ALL the ways God met us in this crazy day yesterday.

I've been trying to "wean" Abigail off of her Paci this past week, but I had let her have it yesterday morning because she was throwing a fit and I just didn't feel like dealing with it.

But that paci probably prevented her from knocking teeth out when she fell.

When Abigail fell from the shopping cart, I had NO idea what to do. Like I was sitting there holding her just clueless.

I've never even imagined in my head how I would handle something like this.

But the lady behind me in line was a doctor. She told me what to do. She was there with her own kids but stayed with me the entire time.

Abigail fell head first right into the concrete floor. I can't even think about all the possibilities of what could have happened. (head injury, broken neck, etc)

But she only got a huge knot on her head, and it already looks much better today.

When she fell, she was screaming for a paci but I didn't have one with me (remember, I was trying to wean her). I was so upset bc I knew it would help her feel more secure.

But the manager at Babies R Us, who had already brought me ice for her head, asked me what kind of pacis she used, and went and got me a pack of them, and gave her one. He even brought her a stuffed animal when we were in the ambulance.

Sweet Bethany cried the whole time we were in the ambulance, but I could not help her because I needed to hold Abigail who was still screaming.

But one of the paramedics rocked her, gave her her paci, distracted her and helped her calm down. He later shared with me he has 6 kids of his own.

A tornado touched down very close to our home, and caused damage all over town.

But we are safe.

I had LOTS of moments yesterday where I could have completely lost it, been angry, been scared, been totally crazy.

BUT.

God's grace got us through. He protected, He provided, He showed up.

{If you need to find us, we might be hunkered down again, as more tornados are expected tonight}

I finally had a good cry about everything last night as I climbed into bed, but I woke up this morning thankful and hopeful for a new day. Thanks for yalls prayers and concern for us!

and thanks for listening to me process all this today.

Basically, I am just overwhelmed today at His goodness towards us.