Our sweet little Addey

For those that don't know, my sweet little Addey is doing fine after a freak accident Monday evening.

It was about five in the evening when we started our first fire of the season outside in our fire pit. The kids and I were all standing around (except T who was in the house) enjoying the warmth, as the fire started really heating up there was a very loud sudden pop. Everyone jumped this way and that. As I jumped back I caught sight of what looked like a piece of brass casing from a 22 cal. bullet. Before I could look further, from behind me I heard Addey yell a panicked, "Mommy!" As I turned around I was faced with see my sweet little girl with blood all over her eye and face. Em, who was next to me and saw the same sight, ran to the house screaming. Poor Em, I wish she didn’t have to that. I quickly pulled Ad to my chest to keep anyone else from seeing her and to stop the blood. All I could do while I whisked her to the house was to pray, very loud scattered prayers and push away the fear of her losing her eye. As I entered the house I barked out for someone to call our very close friend and neighbor, Duane, who just happens to be a local Depute Sheriff. Tirz held herself together and made the called. He came right over with his wife, Wendy, following in their second car. As we walked to the car I yelled back for Tirz to call Dad and let him know. I jumped in the car with Ad on my lap holding a towel to her face. Staying with the other children, Wendy made a call for an ambulance to meet us en route on the main road; informing them her husband was driving. About five minutes into our ride Duane turned to me and asked if the bleeding was beginning to let up. I had not yet been able to bring myself to look under that towel to see how much damage had been done. I took a deep breath and gently pulled the towel away. I was immediately relieved to see her eye was totally intact. I let out a deep sign and many prayers of thanks to the Lord.

After about twenty minutes of driving one of Duane's buddies from the Sheriff office went whizzing by. He began turning around to meet us as we watched in dismay as the ambulance turn off the main road, driving away from us. Duane looked at me and said, "We're not waiting for them." and we continued driving. The Sheriff’s car caught up with us and escorted us to the hospital.

At the hospital Addey was so brave. She did everything the nurses and doctors asked of her. With the initial pain and shock of the event over she was relatively comfortable and amazingly not in that much pain. Rick arrived about 10 minutes after we did. Our friend and another neighbor Todd Panabaker came to show his support too. My Aunt and Uncle, who we forgot to call, arrived about a half an hour later. They preformed a CAT Scan and found a "foreign object" mostly in her nasal passage with tip of it in the lower eye area. But not the eye it’s self. This piece of shrapnel (I hate to even use that term in conjunction with my six-year-old daughter) missed the eye muscles, a couple of arteries, and her tier duct. Basically anything major. The ER doctors needed to call in the specialist to know what to do with piece of metal in my daughter nose. However, the Specialists are 2 hours away from us. It was decided to leave it in until the next day. At that point my uncle made the statement of the evening or at least the one that got Ad to smile and laugh a little. “Well Addey,” he said, “ now you can tell everyone you have a metal booger in your nose.” Thanks Uncle Dick. They cleaned the area at the point of entry (another word I never expected to use). At first the doctor wasn’t going to do anything, no stitches not even a bandage to keep things clean. But after cleaning the area well he decided to put two “loose“ stitches in. We were sent home with all the info we needed to go into the “big city” and hear what the Specialists hand to say.

On Tuesday we saw an Ophthalmologist who confirmed that her eyes are working perfectly. Thank You Lord. He also took out the “loose” stitches and put in nice little neat stitches. On Wednesday we saw an ENT (the ear, nose, throat guy). His advice was to put Ad on antibiotics for a month and scheduled another CAT Scan in about that same time. With most of the swelling and inflammation reduced in a month time he thinks it would be a better time to decide what to do, to take it out or leave it in. Yes I said, “Leave it in.” He thinks it might cause more damage to try and take it out. But all those decision will be made in a month. Right now Rick and I and the other kids are just thankful to have Addey here and looking at us with both eyes. Thank you for all your prayers. Through all of this I have been over whelmed with the Lord’s Great Mercy. I have felt the love of God hold us and support us. I thank Him and Praise him. Though we don’t know why this had to happen. We do know the Lord has spared little Ad and us from so much. Thank you Lord!