What a weekend! It was full of blessings, even amidst the trials. I'll start with the major upset of the weekend - our first broken limb. I can hardly believe it still, but our second daughter, 4th child, broke her arm on Saturday. According to the doctor it was a bad break, too (are there good breaks?).
We were all at our friend's party, having a great time. They had bouncy castles set up for the kids and things got a little out of hand in the racing up and down the slides in the bouncy castle. My daughter was racing down the slide determined to win against another girl. The first one down won. My daughter got to the bottom of the slide and then did a somersault accidentally off the slide, landing on the ground below on her arm. She looked down and her arm was facing the wrong way! Yuck! Unbelievably, she took it and turned it back into place, hearing a "pop" sound at the same time. I think at that time it was dislocated, too. I'm so glad I didn't see that, I might add.
At this point, she wasn't even crying, hyperventilating, but not crying! She told us later, she knew it was broken and actually told my other daughter that, too, "I just broke my arm." My other daughter saw what was going on and ran over to us, "Uh, S needs you really badly." I just froze. I didn't move a muscle. The way my daughter said that, I knew it was bad. I, in fact, hid behind a tree while my husband ran over. I looked over once in a while to see if there was blood or screaming and saw nothing and heard nothing. I sent my youngest daughter to see if we needed to call 911. She returned mad, "Dad won't even answer me!"
Then, I saw them coming towards me. She was panicky and still breathing crazily, tears were starting. You couldn't go anywhere near her arm without her getting very upset. We knew it was hurt badly. I told my husband, "Get the truck." The hospital was literally 1 minute down the street. I had to miss out on gelato and cappuccino, but hey, that's how parties go! It went from hanging out, listening to a band, kicking back on a Saturday night, to 3 hours in emerg in a matter of seconds. Life can change that quickly. But this is where we start counting our blessings. She didn't land on her head and break her neck. She was able to have the presence of mind to put her arm back in place. The doctor couldn't understand how she thought to do that as much more damage could have happened if she hadn't done that right then and there. We were minutes away from help and got a cast on within a couple hours of being there. We live in a province where the care was "free" (well, you know what I mean, sort of free! We didn't have to hand over any cash at the hospital anyway), barely any line-ups that night..... the list could go on and on. She'll go to a fracture clinic this week which is also very close to us at a top notch children's hospital. We're so grateful!
As we entered into one of the waiting rooms, a nurse assisted us. Right away I recognized her from two years earlier when we had that same daughter in for her appendix. I said, "Hey, I recognize you from last time we were here!" Sure enough, she recognized us, too, as we had talked last time about where we lived and we had found out her grandma lived down the street from us! Turns out, her grandma had moved out and she and her family had moved in, so we are now neighbours with this nurse! This is where it gets interesting. I had dropped off Christmas baking at that house last year, knowing new neighbours had moved in, but not realizing it was her. I had included a gospel tract in the card simply suggesting that we hoped they would consider the eternal significance of Christmas that year. I had debated putting in the tract thinking "I don't even know who these people are. They are going to think I'm nuts. They'll never want to meet me after this!" But I did it anyway, with the encouragement of my daughter who gives tracts to everyone she meets. I made sure I had included our address so they knew who gave it to them. Then, I show up at the hospital.
She came into the room while we were waiting for the doctor and she said how sorry she was that she hadn't stopped in. She explained how touched she was that I had dropped off the baking and how she had been meaning to come and visit us, but just never had. Then, she said, "Look, I still have this." At that point, she pulled out a journal, and there at the front of the journal was the tract I have given her! She had been keeping it with her all this time! My broken-arm daughter didn't see it and said, "What's that?" In front of the nurse, I said, "It's the gospel tract I gave them, asking them to consider eternal things last Christmas." The nurse just smiled and said, "I love Christmas." Once everything was all taken care of with my daughter and we were getting ready to go, she came in one more time and met my husband and a few of my other kids and we talked about getting together again. She even said, "It's so unusual that I'm here in tonight. I'm not in very often." Coincidence? I don't think so.
As we left the hospital that night, my daughter said, "Why do you think these things happen to me?" I told her, "It was so we could meet our neighbour!" I had been thinking about that neighbour ever since I had dropped off the baking. I had thought it had been a wrong move. I still don't know exactly how she received it. I'm not sure if she kept it because she wants to speak to me about it or if she just thought it was a bookmark, but I feel like a window has been opened. God may be working in her and I just need to be available.
Interestingly, that Saturday morning, two of my older kids and my husband went to Niagara Falls to hand out tracts with a few others. Sometimes it doesn't seem like anyone wants them or even reads them. I was able to tell them that night about the nurse and how she still had the one I had given her months later. We just don't know how people will receive these things, once they are out of our hands and into their's, but we just have to trust God that He'll use them for His purposes. I am now so excited to connect with this neighbour and I'm already praying for boldness and that God will give me an opportunity to share my faith with her. All because of a broken arm!
I just love how God uses everything in our lives, from Christmas baking to broken arms. It's strange what it'll take to get people connected and I'm sorry that it did take a broken arm, but I know God has a plan even in that. How else do you meet a nurse? You've got to go to a hospital! At least I know I've got good care now, just down the street! Well, there's much more to write, but the world has woken up......
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