Scare

Timothy was in Austria this weekend to practice (praise band) for the upcoming School of the Word in a few weeks. It's a week long conference where all the churches we're associated with will get together for teaching, fellowship, worship, etc. He called from the office just before I put the boys in the bath saying that he was on his way home. The plan was that he would walk in the door and Clay would hand him the hand made birthday card and I would present him with my pitiful looking red velvet cake.

Ivana is cruising up and down the Croatian coast this week on her dad's boat. We don't know when exactly she's coming back.

The boys were having such a good time in the tub, splashing and playing and just enjoying themselves. Thadeus started to get tired of it all so I began to wash his hair and get him out. I laid him back on the bath pillow to start shampooing and thought the right side of his head was unusually soft. Upon further investigation I realized there was swelling.

"Oh! Dear Heavenly Father...!" The rest was in tongues. It's kind of hard to pray in English when you discover something like that.

Last Sunday night he had fallen off of the couch. I'm not sure if that's where this bruise and swelling came from or not. I got the boys and myself cleaned up and dressed in record time and Timothy called again from the office. There was trouble with the security alarm and he didn't feel right just leaving.

"Um, okay. Well, hurry home because I think we should take Thadeus to the ER." I explained what I'd found and he promised to get home as quick as he could. While I waited I'm thinking over the symptoms of brain injury or concussion and the ones I know about Thadeus was not showing. He hadn't vomited at all and he was trying new things all week; acting normal. One day we were even playing and I was spinning him around in circles. He enjoyed that a lot. I resisted the temptation to start looking things up on the internet. I was already scared; I didn't need any extra information at the moment.

I did talk to my dad and our pastor on Skype and told them what I had just found. Steve prayed for him right away, and I'm sure Dad did too.

I got all our cards, passports and stuff together and had the boys in the car when Timothy pulled in the drive. He felt Thad's head and agreed we'd better go get it looked at.

We didn't have to wait but a minute when we got to the ER. A doctor, or EMT, felt it and said it was just a bruise and would probably go away in a week. She said to just keep an eye on it and if we wanted to we could go see our pediatrician and ask for the papers to go get x-rays made. I asked her what precautions we should take and she said not to worry too much and then laughed at her advice. She's a mommy too. She confirmed that the swelling was between the skin and scull and another doctor also felt it and said the same thing.

The hospital personnel were friendly and ended up not even charging us anything b/c all they did was feel his head. Both the boys were well behaved through the evening. They just seem to know don't they?

This morning just as we were leaving for church the boys were playing by themselves. I heard a thud and Clay say, "Uh-oh! He bumped his head!" I came in and found Thadeus with his second bloody lip of the week. It swelled a little, but it's gone down already. It's a good thing the kid has a high pain tolerance. I think he's going to need it.

We're back in the tiny hamlet of Jama (pr: Yama). My cousin-in-law, Lacca, did a pretty good job of describing the jist of the North Dakota section of our trip on her blog. My sister, Mary, did more than good at telling what happened in Michigan on her blog. So, now I feel like I don't have to blog!

I was relieved to find that we still had things growing in our garden when we got home last night. Ivana confessed that she didn't pay as much attention to our plants as we would have liked, but she is completely done with her school work, which is a higher priority.

Ivana got a phone call this afternoon from Alexandra, the girl we had helped get to the center. Alexandra has left the center and is back in Slovenia. You win some, you lose some.

I'm unpacked, but about half of our things are sorted into piles around the living room. "Tomorrow is another day."

So far on our trip...

Our twenty-four hour trip to the U.S. was..."right on time". We got to the first three of our four gates just as our planes were boarding. The layover in Minneapolis was something like six hours so while we were there we took the train to the Mall of America. That was neat, but we only saw a fraction of it. We were sooooo tired! Karen did get a manicure and pedicure there and I sat with Thadeus in one of the massage chairs beside her.

Clay loved being on airplanes! We made sure he had a window seat on each flight so he could have the best view. The guy is sold.

We're at the Best Western in Minot, North Dakota. There's a pool and hot tub and I saw a chiropractic office down the road and went there the other day. The weather is mild and wonderful, but the farmers are starting to complain about the lack of rain. We think it's beautiful; rolling green hills going on for miles and miles. I used to love this country, but now that I live so close to the mountains I would get tired of the prairie.

One cute story, whenever we say grace Karen will sigh and say, "Halleluja." Monday Timothy, the boys and I went to lunch just the four of us. When Timothy started praying Clay mimicked his Grandma exactly! "Mmm...halleluja."

Christina, or Aunt Spanky, flies in this morning and her husband Barry will arrive tonight. Then our little family will be all together.