Wild Ride

It has just been way too hectic to keep up a journal of the daily activities. Besides, when I start to run through the day it seems to just come out as facts and not as thoughts. SO here are some new thoughts.

This adoption journey has been a wild ride for the last few days in a couple of ways. First the chaos. We took the kids to the Sheraton hotel on Saturday (July 3) to hang out on the playground. I was in charge of hanging out with the younger four on the playground while Mendy, Megan and Kaylee got on the internet. I was not feeling that great – slight headache and just some real tiredness. The kids were shooting videos of each other playing on the playground and generally having a good time. I was keeping up with them but not too engaged. After a while we settled into one area – Tia and Lindsay were playing with the video camera and Jacob and Garrett were playing on a four-person structure that bounced around. They were both standing on the thing that was meant to be sat on, but they had been pushing the limits on every structure and I didn’t think much about it. In fact _ the thought did come to my mind “should I make them stop that and do it right,” but I immediately dismissed it.

About five minutes later I was sitting next to the girls looking at their video work and I heard Garrett smack the ground. He had fallen backwards and his feet could not catch him so he tried to break his fall with his arms. Immediately I knew it was bad. He put his arm between his legs and when I began to move him, his eyes rolled back into his head and he began to go limp. I don’t have any medical training, but I knew this was not good.

I picked him up in my arms and his head fell back and he was almost completely limp. I got him awake and he screamed and then said, “sleep.” I said, “no!” I said a quick prayer and got the other three to follow me as I carried Garrett up into the hotel. I told Jacob to run and get Mendy. By the time Mendy got downstairs, Garrett had about passed out a couple of times. Megan and Kaylee got downstairs and I asked them to say a quick prayer. Megan’s face turned white and she sat down. Mendy went to get the van and while she was gone – Tia and Jacob both began to cry. It was a pretty scary situation.

I called Nicco to find out where we should go to the hospital and he said he would meet us there. I began to take Garrett out to the van and Megan said, “Dad I can’t stand up, my ears are hurting and I can’t feel my legs.” She was having trouble breathing. I rushed with Garrett, Tia and Jacob out to the car. Lindsay stayed behind with Megan (even though I told her to come with me. As I reached Mendy, I told her to go and get Megan because she was “losing it.” A few minutes later Mendy returned to the van and said Megan isn’t doing well and can’t come right now. I left Jacob with Mendy and told her I would send our driver back for them after he took us to the hospital. So Garrett, Kaylee and I left for the Emergency Room.

We went to an ER in Addis. It was crazy. I sent our driver back to pick up Mendy and the other kids and I waited for Nicco to arrive. This left me at the ER with two kids that don’t speak English and doctors that don’t speak English… and no translators. At first I thought they wanted my insurance card, but it turned out they just wanted us to pay in advance for anything they did. There was an accident victim that came in just ahead of us. We were in the same 10X15 room with him while they were checking him out – blood and bandages everywhere!!! I sent Kaylee upstairs to pay for the initial exam and we sat and waited. Kaylee was on point – she knew what to do and knew what precautions to take. After a long wait, Nicco arrived and so did Mendy and the kids.

Geremew went back for some xrays and we saw what appeared to be a fracture and a bone chip in his elbow. However, the doctor would not be in until Monday to read the xrays and do the right treatment. We also had another issue. Geremew had a TB test done on that arm that had to be read on Monday morning, which meant that we could not cover his arm with any kind of cast until the TB test was read by the doctor. They ended up putting a half cast on the outside of his arm and made a rough sling.

We got back home that night completely exhausted with one son in a half cast, Megan recovering from some kind of stress induced shock and all of us wanting to be back in the States.

I know God has plans for all of this time. I am trusting that we can see past this days chaos to see God’s plan in all of it.