Scary moment!

What a crazy weekend. I don’t even know where to begin. On Friday afternoon, I was headed up to the school to get Grace so we could go to piano lessons. I was running a few minutes late, and by the time I pulled out of my driveway, my friend Lianne was coming down the street with Grace in her car. They had picked her up and were bringing her home, which was very nice of them and something they had done many times before. We stopped our cars on either side of the street just 2 doors down from our house and Grace got out of their vehicle and started across the street to get into ours. She was a little excited and wanted to hurry, as it seems we are always in a rush to get to our piano lessons, and did not look before darting out from in front of Lianne’s car and into the street. I could see that she didn’t look and saw a vehicle coming and yelled at her to stop just as the van passed. Grace hesitated and tried to stop, but was clipped by the van going by. What a heartstopping moment. I jumped out of my van and raced across the street as I could see Grace on the ground and I could tell that her leg was broken. I have never seen a broken bone up close, but there was an obvious deformity. Lianne and I scooped her up and put her in my van, and I had Anna and Rebecca hop out and go back home to stay with Brendan. He was already there with Sarah as she was sleeping when it was time to leave and so I had Brendan babysitting her while we were going to be gone. The driver of the van stopped and wondered if there was anything she could do. I know she was a bit traumatized too – but there was nothing that could have been done. It all happened so fast!! Lianne gave me a big hug and helped calm me down before I drove Grace up to the hospital that is about 5 minutes away. The nurses were great and they helped me get her out and got her into a trauma room right away. They had an IV going for pain within half an hour and then for x-rays just after that. Grace has broken both bones in her lower right leg. After the x-rays it was a waiting game. The hospital does not have any pediatric orthopedic specialists, so the doctors were trying to go back and forth with a specialist from a different hospital trying to decide what to do. Finally at 11:30pm they set her leg and put a cast on it, and then at 3am they transferred her to the University of Alberta Hospital to bee seen by a specialist. I am so extremely fortunate that Rachel was there to help me out. I phoned her on my way to the hospital to let her know we were not going to be there for piano lessons and she immediately came down and stayed with my kids, made them supper, cleaned my house, folded my laundry and put my kids to bed. Then she came to the hospital and let me take Gideon home and go to bed myself and stayed with Grace ALL NIGHT. They were releasing Grace at 8am the next morning and I just loaded up all my kids to go and pick them up. Rachel is such an amazing sister and one of my best friends and I know I couldn't have done this without her. Matt was still camping and I tried to call his friend’s cell phone, but it wasn’t turned on. Matt got home around 3pm and then we got to tell him all the news and drama! Rachel took care of letting family know what had been happening and with the aid of facebook; soon our whole ward knew too! My visiting teacher had a meal over here before 2pm yesterday, another friend took Brendan, Anna, and Rebecca to the ward picnic, and we have had several phone calls and people checking up on us since then. Our bishop called and joked that it was our family again looking for attention - - it does seem like we have had our fair share of it lately! I have had a hard time turning my brain off and I have that moment on continuous replay in my head right now. I have a scripture that I keep thinking about too. It is D&C 122:7, “…know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” I have been trying to find the good in all this and I can actually see some things. Not that it is good that it happened, but I KNOW that Grace will NEVER run out into the road again without looking. I KNOW that Grace was protected from any further injuries. I KNOW that the power of prayer is undeniable and really does work. I KNOW that I still have my beautiful little girl with me and for that I am truly, truly grateful.