Things I Will Laugh About One Day

So it's 7:30 p.m. on a Sunday night and I have actually found time to sit at the computer...

I am feeling inspired to write a blog. Don't know what about. Don't know where to start. I think I will just start to write about all of the wonderful experiences I have had recently and try to laugh about them, if I am at that point...


First of all, many people have asked, "What happened to Clay and why is he in a body cast?" Before I start, here's a picture:

















He looks WAY too happy for a 2 year-old in a body cast. But that's my son. He can put on that cheesy smile in the worst of circumstances. We should all learn from him.



So it happened in October. It started out like any other day, except that Anna stayed home from school. She and I were supposed to take a trip out of town that afternoon and she had been having seizures the day before, so I kept her home. As usual , Clay rushed through breakfast and darted for the back door. I wasn't finished feeding Anna, yet, so I let him go out by himself and watched him through the window.

BIG No-No! According to the nurse at the hospital who obviously does NOT have multiple children, you are NEVER supposed to let your children out of your sight. So forget peeing in private, Mommas! And if you have 5 kids, I hope you have a BIG bathroom!

Shortly after he went outside, I popped my head out the door just to make sure he was still playing on the ground. We have a large wooden playscape in the backyard and my son is quite the daredevil, so I really try to keep a close eye on him. He was fine. Back to feeding Anna.

I finished feeding Anna and took her to the living room. When I returned to the backyard, I found Clay lying flat on his back under the playscape. And Boy Wonder was not moving! I did what any mother would do- I freaked!

I called 911 because I had no idea what was broken. The boy who doesn't have a still bone in his body would not move an inch. We took a ride in the ambulance to the Children's Hospital and began the tedious process of elimination to find out what was wrong. And since my son is 2 and has no desire to talk in words, he couldn't tell them what hurt. He DID manage to say, "Ow, ow, ow!" to everything they touched, so it was safe to say he was hurt somewhere. Okay, I'm laughing now!

After MRI's, x-rays, and CAT scans, he had a dislocated shoulder and broken rib (apparently caught the swing on the way down from the monkey bars) and a spiral fracture to the right femur (big bone in the thigh). Praise God his neck and spine were fine!!

Later that evening, he was put under anesthesia to cast the leg and further examine the shoulder and rib. When the doctor came out, he had a puzzled look on his face as he told us that the shoulder was fine and he couldn't see a break in the rib any longer. See, God still ceases to amaze the medical profession!

Clay spent the night in the hospital and came home the next day. The cast is huge, I mean HUGE!! It must weigh 10 lbs. alone. I'm trying to look at the positive and focus on how buff my biceps are getting by lifting him in it every day.


(I would put a picture of my buff arms here if I had one)


Anyways, 1 1/2 weeks later was Halloween. What to do with a boy in a blue body cast? Hmm...




It's Superman Clay!!!

So, looking back and laughing about this, I'm wondering what this experience has taught me...

He's still in the body cast, but we have had many opportunities to laugh. As I am writing this, I can hear Clay in the other room, crying because he hit his head on something. Chances are he was being a daredevil again. Currently, he has figured out how to walk in the cast. He also belly crawls on the concrete to the extent of tearing holes in every one of his shirts. Last weekend, our friends from out of town got to witness my son climbing the very playscape that he fell from. And don't think for a minute that it has slowed him down a bit. The boy is clever!

So what I have learned is that, like my son Clay, we each choose how we will handle the difficulties that come our way. Despite his huge cast and broken bone, he has chosen to keep on going. He didn't let it slow him down. He just improvised how he would keep moving. We ALL get broken and bruised. Our casts may not be physically apparent, but we ALL wear them. How we will deal with them is up to us. We can just lie down and give up or we can get up and improvise.

God called every one of us to be warriors. He doesn't MAKE us get up and fight. That will always be our choice. But if we choose to fight, we have Him inside to help us keep going.