Thursday, April 15, 2010

When Babies Attack

A few mornings ago, Jason was holding Grace. As she flapped her arms like babies do, resembling a crazed chicken, she scratched his eye. Like, gouged his cornea. Yikes. It started to hurt. And as the morning went on, it really started to hurt. And then it started to hurt to look at him. Know what I mean? Where someone else's eye looks so red and sore that it makes your eyes water? In my opinion, an injury to any part of your face always hurts way more than you think it will. Every few minutes, he would wince and hold his hand over his eye. It was hurting so badly he said he was feeling a little sick to his stomach. Yikes again.

He had a busy day planned and was planning to just push through. But after another round of searing pain, he asked me to call our GP. They squeezed him in. Yup, the doctor agreed, it was a doozy of a scratch. He regaled Jason with stories of his own shockingly painful eye injury and gave him some eye drops and a prescription for pain medication.

Jason went on to his meetings and by dinnertime was exhausted. Nate was asking us questions about what happened, about why Grace did it, about when Daddy would feel better. Later, as I sat with Grace and Ava in the living room, Nate came up to me and said in a quivering voice, "I feel bad about what baby Grace did to Daddy. I feel bad about his eye." And then he started to cry.

And I thought, "Do you know how completely endearing and adorable that is? Would you like a pony?" I called Jason over and we reassured Nate that he was okay. I think Nate was a little freaked out--usually if Jason is sick, he doesn't look any different. But this time, it was obvious that something was wrong. I asked Nate, "Why don't you pray for Daddy's eye to get better?" He wanted me to do it instead. I encouraged him to pray. Then Ava stepped in. "To be fair," she said grandly, "I'll do it."

"Dear Lord," she said, "Please help Daddy and make his eye not hurt and feel better. And Lord, please help Grace with her cheekiness."

And sitting there, I thought: this, here, is a moment to remember.

Lord forgive me for my cheekiness, and help me forgive those who are cheeky against me.




14 comments:

  1. Brilliant!! I love it. What an awesome girl!

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  2. Ouch! That hurt, I know! But the hurt eye was a vehicle for God's Grace. First ,by giving Nate an opportunity to feel empathy, and second by leading Ava to pray. Her prayer for Grace is just too precious for words. That is a bunch of special kids!! You two have done a marvelous job of raising them to feel close to God.

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  3. Oh my goodness!!! Could Ava be any cuter????? I love the cheekiness of Grace, that little ladybug!
    Your family is very precious, you have done such a wonderful job raising them.

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  4. Cute, cute and cute.

    I think that maybe Nate was a little upset by the fragility of his dad, that it was possible for him to be injured in such a random way. And that even a tiny baby had to power to accidentally injure someone that way. Does kind of make you painfully aware of human frailty.

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  5. Definitely moments to remember! So good that you have a blog to record it all in!

    I think I need to remember that prayer...cheekiness is a nice way to put it!

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  6. Kudos to the awesome parents of those wonderful children!
    I've always heard that a scrape on the cornea is one of the most painful injuries. I'm glad Jason was treated right away. He could have developed scar tissue.
    Love y'all! XOXO

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  7. Kudos to the awesome parents of those wonderful children!
    I've always heard that a scrape on the cornea is one of the most painful injuries. I'm glad Jason was treated right away. He could have developed scar tissue.
    Love y'all! XOXO

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  8. Thanks guys--but for full disclosure's sake, I will tell you that they are not always wanting to pray and empathize with each other! That's why it was a moment to remember! ;) Lord, THAT's for sure.

    And Gretchen--I think you hit the nail on the head! I think it really disturbed him to see his Dad like that.

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  9. Ouchy!!

    My favorite part of this is Ava's "to be fair . . ."

    I see a little of myself in that girl. Lord help us all with our cheekiness.

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  10. They are adorable kids. I like the mention of Nate asking "why" Grace did it... like it might have been an attack!

    I had one eye clenched in sympathy pain while reading this post.

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  11. That was awesome.

    Glad the injury isn't more serious, of course! I swear, injuries and pain in the head region are the worst.

    Hearing these stories about your fam is such a treat. Love it.

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  12. That is an amazing story. I love it!

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