The Day We Got The Call

WARNING: Don't read this if you're squeamish. It makes me feel a little funny to write about it.

Ok, so as promised I'd tell you about the day as it unfolded when we got the Korea Call. I was shopping at Meijer feeling pretty happy about the disposable toilet seat covers I found for the airplane ride for Audrey. I returned home to find that our social worker had called for the both of us. She usually doesn't do that. Immediately after, Todd called sounding quite giddy on the answering machine (he NEVER does that). I called our social worker and left her a message. I called Todd and left him a message. I called Todd's secretary at work and asked for Todd. She stated he was in a meeting, and I explained that I wouldn't normally be calling, but I was wondering if we had gotten the Korea Call and couldn't get a hold of anyone to tell me if we had. She reluctantly told me that we in fact did get the Korea call because if the shoe was on her foot, she'd want to know (I probably already wrote this, sorry). So I was excited, but still knew nothing about the situation. Things unfolded rather quickly. Todd got plane tickets for the next morning and then we had to finish packing and getting the house in order.

Audrey had a few friends over as well. It would be a long time until she got to see them, so it was very nice of their parents to bring them over for a little bit to say hi and bye to her. Elijah Corner was over, and as his mother came to pick him up, Emma and Megan Baker came over to see Audrey. They were all playing together as us moms talked. Then they decided to play outside in the back. Everyone by Megan, that is. Megan is afraid of Wallace, our dog. Emma and Elijah are not. Elijah wanted to take the women out for a ride on Audrey's new power wheel thing (new to her, not a new one). He likes to be the stud driving the chics around :) I think he digs the suped up condition it's in. It's only supposed to be a 6V battery, but Todd and his friend hooked it up with a 12V one. They really should be wearing helmets.

As we were finishing up and I was putting the car away, Emma started screaming and crying. My back was turned and I had no idea what was going on. I immediately thought Wallace bit her, but couldn't figure out why because he doesn't ever go after children. Kids can pull his tail and fall on him and hit him and he walks away. I also didn't hear any growling. He also didn't look at me as if he had done something wrong. Usually he'll cower or something. He was very happy-go-lucky having no clue he just hurt someone somehow. I asked Elijah's mom if he had bitten Emma, but she said that she didn't think he had.

When I saw Emma's lip, my stomach turned. It was pretty bad. She had a "V" shaped gap, hole, slice, cut, whatever you want to call it above her lip. Her mother put her finger underneath the other side to see if it had gone through, but thankfully it hadn't (but barely). We still didn't know what had happened. Then Elijah's mother commented that it looked like it could have been his collar that snagged on her upper lip. Wallace was licking cheese off my patio (gross, I know - Audrey can reach the cheese and will give him treats when I don't know it), and Emma was petting him. She leaned down as he came up to play or to kiss her or whatever, and their bodies just collided. It was a fast movement, so it appeared that she bit her lip inside pretty good. It was awful. I felt horrible for Emma. I also felt terrible because here she was coming to say goodbye to Audrey and she ends up getting hurt.

It was chaos to say the least. I was thankful that both Elijah's mom and Emma's mom were relatively calm during the whole ordeal, as my insides felt like crap. Once it stopped bleeding it was decided that it should be looked at at the med center. I offered to watch the kid Emma's mom was babysitting (he's 10 months or so) and Megan while she took Emma to the med center. We had to call the baby's father to give him directions to my house and ask his permission if I could take care of his baby. Then we had to call Emma and Megan's dad to have him pick up Megan on his way home from work.

Thankfully Elijah's mom likes babies, so she held the baby for me while I cleaned out my freezer. I couldn't have done it without her! He's heavy too, and she held him the whole time. I meant to give her credit when his father picked him up, but I forgot in the chaos of it all. So I'm giving her credit here for all to see!!

As it turns out, the doctor confirmed what Elijah's mom had suggested: the hole in Emma's face did not come from a dog bite (thankfully!!) but it does appear that it came from a dog collar. Emma ended up having 5 stitches in her poor little face. I feel horrible, but apparently Emma was a trooper and was awesome at just taking it like a man. Which, let me just say, if it were my husband, he'd be brave, for sure, but the whole needle thing would put him on the floor, and other guys I know, while brave and strong and awesome men, sometimes they are a little on the wimpy side. That being said, "taking it like a man," isn't the best saying. Emma did awesome!!!

Later I'll tell you about our trip. Audrey is soooooo tired right now, and so she's going to bed. She chose to skip the shower and dinner because she's so tired. She hasn't complained at all about being tired today, so we're very thankful. It's not too far from her bedtime at ten to 7. She usually goes to bed at 7 when she's naughty. We just won't tell her what time it is. It's dark and it seems like wicked late to her, and she can't tell time yet. :)

Thank you for praying for us!!