Mary's first triage injury

Mary had a special pancake this morning. Last night was pretty rough for her. It began when she dropped Ivan's "Razor" metal scooter across her toes, bruising three of the five piggies. We decided it was a nice evening for a walk (not quite as humid), and that it might cheer her up as well.

The boys were up ahead of us on their bikes, and I was pushing Mary in her plastic "car" stroller (from your garage sale years ago, Heather!). As we were walking along, Bill and I were talking... when the stroller stopped and sounded like something was dragging under the wheel. All in an instant, Mary pulls her hand out from under the wheel and it is covered in blood - I couldn't even see the top of her finger, besides it looking a little disfigured. I scooped her up and headed home in a hurry, as Bill gathered the boys.

I put her finger under running water, and had to carefully push her fingernail (what is left of it) back into place. She'd torn the skin off her finger from the end joint, upward, and the nail was cut in half and open like a book. Sounds lovely, right? Poor thing. I took her to the ER, not knowing what to do with it.

She had an x-ray (I knew it wasn't a bone issue), and they looked at it, but said they would do nothing at her age. I like that they don't want to traumatize... but when they told me that it may never grow back... not so good. So, we're praying for her little fingernail to heal and re-grow. I think she'll be fine... She just may not have a hand modeling career in her future!

Here she is, enjoying her "sunny" pancake. Chocolate chips first, of course!
She's sweetly displaying her owie for me (down here, they call it a Bo-Bo, not a Boo-Boo. I think that is hilarious.), as she attempts to eat a piece of turkey bacon. Thank goodness for "Hello Kitty" band-aids. She gets excited to have her bandage changed!
One of the sweetest things in this event was to see Ivan and Grant's reactions. Grant rode up to us on his bike really fast and was looking to see her finger. He locked eyes with me, backed up, and started to pray quietly, "Dear Jesus, please help Mary's finger to not be bloody and please help it to be OK, Amen." Ivan cruised up ahead of me, took one look, and went into fix-it mode. "Mom - will she need stitches? Should we take her to the hospital?" I love to see the differences in their God-given personalities, and in their compassion for each other as well. It is fun to have this little family - we're all in it together. I love that.