Friday, September 2, 2016

scariest day ever and beautiful hidden blessings

the first weekend of august we went to pat's parents lake house with them. they already had the 3 younger boys there. and the rest of us joined them for the weekend.

Saturday morning I woke up and went for a LONG walk. I've never done that before while we're there. I wasn't planning on it, I just woke up and felt like it, so I did. it was like God knew I needed some extra peace before the day ahead...
pat's parents treat us so well while we're there...they plan everything ahead of time and we just get to come and enjoy! we had a yummy breakfast on the back deck.
then we packed lunches and headed out on the boat! the kids LOVE to tube. some more than others...

about 2 minutes after that picture above was taken, we stopped and levi got off the tube and Lincoln got on.

a few minutes after that, the scariest moment I've ever lived through as a mom happened. Lincoln was propelled off the tube and into a cement post. he hit the cement post with his head. he was knocked out. we all saw it happen. pat jumped off the boat and swam to him. he had "come to" by the time pat got to him. but he was not ok. we drove the boat back to the marina and I took off to the emergency room with him. pat stayed behind to help the rest of the kids - they were ALL shaken up and crying. it was terrible.

Lincoln and I spend the next few hours in the emergency room. he had a CT scan done of his head and neck. everything ended up looking good and he was sent away with a nasty concussion and rules to lay low and rest - the first 48 hours being the most important.
he was feeling pretty crummy...upset stomach, HUGE headache (DUH!) but we had some REALLY sweet moments that I will always remember. I would NEVER wish for something like this to happen, but it allowed me to BE HIS MOM in ways I typically don't get to. I held him, prayed for and with him, listened to him, and told him that I was SO glad to be there with him to take care of him...that there was NOWHERE else i'd rather be.
he fell asleep in the middle of this room with beeps and lights and movement. THAT says a LOT about how bad he was feeling. he has such a hard time sleeping in his bed at NIGHT!
not what any of us were expecting our weekend to look like...but we were SO SO thankful that he was ok. it definitely could have been a different ending very easily. he is one brave boy.
we stayed at the lake house until sunday afternoon. we all tried to make the best of the remainder of our time. we did our best to follow the doctor's orders even though we weren't at home. but it was good to get home and truly be able to follow the doctor's orders...and have him sleep in his bed (the kids are mostly in sleeping bags on the floor there...). his recovery was incredible. I watched him closely and asked him how he felt a lot...and his survival skills are just incredible. I don't think ANYONE else would have survived that as well as he did.

the weather was AMAZING.

lots of fishing...


a little jetskiing...



the days following this were hard. Rebekah didn't sleep well for many nights...she was closest in proximity to Lincoln when it happened and it really shook her up.

but it was also a really sweet thing for our family (sounds weird, I know). but it made us all appreciate each other in new ways, and be thankful that Lincoln was ok. for DAYS, everything I did I was just so THANKFUL for...that I was doing NORMAL, "everyday" things...that week after the weekend could have looked very different. I've never been so glad to have NORMAL days.

it was a hard, hard thing to go through. but I pray that God continues to use it for GOOD.

2 comments:

Nana said...

We will be forever thankful to God for protecting Lincoln from being more seriously injured.

Courtney said...

oh Courtney. I've been praying for y'all since you posted the initial prayer request when this happened. I can't stop crying now reading the details. What a scary momma-moment and what an amazing gift of God's protection and redemption. Whew. Continued prayers in the memory of this time.