Latenight Trip...

The ER. It's never been a place that I think of with fond memories....

Driving home around 7pm last night, we went through a major downpour, and I knew it was going to hit our house right around the time that we got there. Sure enough, as soon as we parked the car and opened the back door to get the girls out of their car seats, the skies OPENED UP.

Charis and Selah ran for the porch.

The next thing I heard were piercing screams from Charis. I walked around the car to see Jet was grabbing her up, cradling her. It was dark enough that I couldn't see what was going on. Her and Jet's yelling was so intense that I was sincerely looking around for an animal that had bitten her. Her screams were that terrified. Jet's eyes were that panicked.

Charis had, at a FULL run, tripped and hit the corner of the jagged cement steps with her face. Her nose was literally spurting blood. She was covered in red. Jet yelled to be heard over her screams, "We have to go back out. To the ER."

All I could do was stand there. I didn't know what to do.

Jet had run into the house because Charis was choking on blood. I was left on the porch in a daze. Do I follow him? Do I get the girls in the car?

I grabbed up Raegan, who was still in her infant car seat, and quickly put her back into the seat. I grabbed Selah and told her to get in. Drenching, I went inside. Leaving my two other girls out in the car, feeling like I had no other choice. I had to help Jet.

Inside, Jet was struggling with Charis, trying to calm her...and his own nerves. I've never seen him like this. He was shaking. panicked.

By this time, blood is coming out of her nose in large bubbles. She was refusing to let us put ice on it. She had reached a whole new level of panic. Unable to talk. Only babbling one word syllables. BaBaBaBaBaBa. MaMaMaMa.

I started to worry about brain damage.

Running upstairs, I grab the Ibuprofen and all the girls' special blankets, knowing that we could be in the ER waiting room for HOURS before even being seen. It was already the girls' bedtime. Who knew when we'd be getting home.

Jet drove. The rain was still coming down in dark sheets. I sat in the back, cradling Charis's head and face. Trying to hold ice to her nose. Attempting to keep her calm by making up stories about caterpillars and butterflies. Selah cried softly. Raegan sat in silence, taking it all in. She would later break down and sob from the trauma of it all.

At this point, Charis's nose/face was so swollen that she didn't look like my little girl anymore. Her whole face would contort as she cried. Her eyes were starting to roll back into her head. She was fighting sleep and still babbling nonsensical words. All I could do was look into the unrecognizable face of my little girl, and pray. Thankful for my prayer language. One where the Holy Spirit groans with words too deep for me. (Romans 8:26). One where I don't have to have the words to pray. Just the heart to.

And suddenly in the midst of all of this, Charis stopped and prayed, "Jesus. Please heal me." Her first sentence, at least to me, since it all happened. The sweetness of this little girl is overwhelming at times.

By the time we got there, the bleeding had slowed tremendously. Only small drips needed to be wiped away every few minutes. In comparison to the drenched towels only 10-15 minutes earlier.

My parents were waiting for us at the ER. Ironically enough, my sister was on the 3rd floor in labor. So they were already at the hospital. Charis took GREAT comfort knowing that Grandma and Granddaddy were going to be there to meet her. And I was thankful for anything that would distract her.

By the time we got back to a room, her swelling had started to GO DOWN. Less than an hour past the time she fell and it was already going back to normal!! WHEN it should have been still swelling!!!

By the end of the night, every one was convinced that God had performed a miracle. Even the people in the ER Waiting Room said as much. Being that they had watched us rush in, sat with my parents while we were in the room, and watched Charis *skip* back out, laughing because she had an arm full of stickers. The end result didn't line up with where we started from!

Jet, who watched Charis take the fall said that it's truly a miracle that nothing else happened. Her nose, without divine intervention, should have been broken. To have fallen into a corner of cement with your face, at a full run... it doesn't make logical sense to only come away with minimal swelling, instead of the need for facial reconstruction.

My mom, who has been a nurse for longer than I've been alive, said that for her nose to have been SPURTING blood an artery was obviously hit. It's a miracle that it stopped bleeding on its own. And so quickly.

And this morning, not even 12 hours past the incident, her face isn't black and blue as you would expect. There are absolutely NO scuff marks. And with only minimal swelling, the only real discoloration is the dried up blood in the nose.

After all that she went through last night, there's no way to look at this except to say that God performed a miracle. And answered the sincere prayer of a 5 year old. My Dad, who isn't one to throw around talk of the miraculous, said after hearing that her nose wasn't broken, "Maybe it was...and God just healed it on the drive in."

I don't know the underground workings of the Lord on this one. But I do know, upfront, that a miracle occurred last night. There is NO way around that. She is healthy. She slept through the night without any recurrence of blood. She's talking in complete sentences and riding her bike and touching her nose...

Our God is GOOD. No. That word just doesn't cut it. Our God is immeasurably more than I can ever say. AND He, in all his graciousness, protected my baby.

...the next time I think of the ER, I will think of the miraculous intervention of a big God.