Full Contact Family Home Evening

On Monday, we were invited to the Ball's house for a BBQ and Family Home Evening, which seems safe enough, right?

So, things were going well. The food was great and thanks again Aaron for the donation of a chicken breast for me :) Plenty of chatting and just hanging out. The bazillion kids were having fun running around the yard. Gabe thought he was in heaven with all the running and playing that was going on until he got kicked in the face and got a bloody nose. I tried to keep him on my lap long enough to stop the bleeding but he was just too anxious to get out and join the chaos going on around him. So, I let him go and just followed him around wiping his nose every so often. I finally sat down and began to enjoy myself again when I heard a very familiar cry. I glanced over and Gabe was in tears again. It turned out that he had gotten hit in the face with a full sized football and his nose was bleeding again. He sat in my lap a little bit longer after that injury but it wasn't long before he was up and running again. It's amazing how fast kids recover from being hurt. I would have soaked up the pity a bit longer :) So, I was sitting there watching Gabe, trying to keep a closer eye on him seeings how he seemed to be the accident magnet of the night, when I noticed he had climbed up the stairs of the back porch and was sitting with Aaron. As I was watching him I was debating if it was a good time to leave before he got hurt again. I could just see him falling down the stairs to top off the night. BUT I wanted to be lazy so I just sat there pondering my thoughts instead of acting on them. I noticed Aaron had left the porch leaving Gabe all by himself. My first instinct was to go get him before he fell but then I thought about how much better he was getting on stairs plus, he was using the rails to get down. He made it to the bottom step before the alarm went off in my head. I saw his little hand let go of the railing and his little foot lifting off the step and heading for the cement below. I moved as quickly as I could while yelling "NO BUDDY, NO!!!" over and over again BUT I was too slow. It became like slow motion and I saw his little arms swing back to try to correct the choice he had made (probably due to my screaming, not my smartest choice) but it was too late. He fell forward and landed directly on his forehead onto the hard cement. My gut dropped about 10 ft as I knew it was my fault he had just smashed his head open. I ran over and got him from Aaron who had picked him up. Then my mind went into hyper-gear because I knew I was about to cry because I was sooooooo mad at myself and I didn't want to cry in front of everyone. So, I grabbed what I could of our stuff and called to Hannah to come because we were leaving. By the time I went to go, there were several "angels" beside me, serving me and my injured son. Within moments Gabe's head was covered with frozen corn and a towel and my eyes were filled with tears. I couldn't stop them!! I tried really hard but they just kept coming. The bump on Gabe's head was enormous!! I felt like the worst mother, EVER!! Everyone around me was trying to make me feel better, informing me that this is just the first of many moments like this while raising a boy BUT I knew that it was my fault for NOT following the inspiration that was being given to me. The truth is, Gabe got hurt because I was being lazy not just because he's a boy, though I appreciate all of the support that I was receiving during that moment.

I want to thank each of you for helping me through that and for all of the follow-up calls that I have received. Gabe is fine, in fact his head looks great. I thought it would be black & blue but it's not, which I am grateful for because if someone was kidding with me and said "why you beating your child?", as if it were my fault, they'd be right (about it being my fault but not about the beating part).

So, anyway, I promised Aaron that I would put a helmet on Gabe the next time we come over to his house so he wouldn't have to deal with the drama my family caused at his nice shin-dig.....sorry about that :(