Trinity's Stitches

Friday of our camping trip brought quite a bit of excitement. Craig's friend, Rance, and his adorable daughter, Tessie, came over to our campsite to visit for a while. It was tons of fun watching Tessie, who is 18 months old, toddle around and be entertained by Trinity's smiles and tickles. After our kids finished lunch, they headed off to the playground while Craig, Rance, Tessie and I began to fix our lunch and catch up. That lasted about five minutes.

the culprit stair

Suddenly, we heard Trinity begin to cry and scream. We looked up and saw her with her hands over her forehead in obvious pain. I headed over to give her the comfort I thought she needed before getting back into the fun of the playground. However, that was not the case. As I got there, I could see blood and knew it was bigger than a little kiss to make it feel better. I called back to Craig and told him that I need some help. We headed back to our camper and Craig had the wet paper towel ready to clean up her head. We checked out her forehead and saw a little gash just above her right eye. It was one time that we knew immediately that we needed medical help. We loaded up the car with the kids, and quickly said good-bye to Rance and Tessie.

on the way to the ER

Rance was so generous to offer to clean up the food that was out so we could get on our way to the ER. On the way, we called Craig's parents and had them meet us at the ER to take Kalyn and Xander to their house. Poor Trinity was in such pain, but she was such a great trooper. Trinity and I headed into the hospital while Craig moved the kids to his parents' car and the wait began.

waiting to be called back

We got into a room pretty quickly, but then we waited. Thankfully, we grabbed Yatzee on the way out of the campground, so we had something to keep us busy on the wait. Trinity decided to do a lotion-type topical anesthetic instead of a shot, so we got to wait a little longer. Unfortunately, the cream was not as pain-free as we expected, but Trinity did a great job. About 45 minutes, and a few games of Yatzee later, her stitches were in and we were on our way with our care instructions.

waiting for the anesthetic to take effect

completed stitches and ready to head back to camp

Unfortunately, her stitches kept her from going underwater while she was swimming, but it didn't damper her spirits too much. It was amazing to see how quickly she was healing. It was looking great by Monday!

I Thessalonians 5:18a reads, "give thanks in all circumstances" and we tried very hard to use this time to teach Trinity how to be thankful regardless of the situation. Here are just some of the ways we were thankful during her painful ordeal:

1. Where she hit - if she had hit a little bit higher or a little bit lower, the damage could have been much, much worse
2. Where we were - we were close enough to call Craig's parents and not have to take all three kids and sit in the emergency room
3. For Rance's visit - while we were sad to not be able to visit for as long as we wanted, since he was at the campsite, we were able to leave immediately and he cleaned up the food (we didn't have to put food away before we could leave
4. For our wait - while we did have to wait a little time, we got in pretty quickly and had time to enjoy a few Yatzee games, and in the grand scheme of life, the wait really wasn't too bad

Thank you, God for reminding us of your blessings, even in the midst of pain and struggles.