Noah is home!

Well as most of you know the last few days have been challenging to say the least. I want to start with a HUGE thank you for all of your prayers and words of encouragement. We felt them and the Lord graciously answered them. Noah is home from the hospital beginning his recovery.

I'll will back up a bit and fill you in on what happened. Sunday afternoon Noah was at a neighbors house. They were riding bikes and Noah somehow crashed hard. Putting the stories together, we think he held on the the handle bars, trying to correct the bike. Unfortunately this prevented him breaking his fall. He fell face first into the curb. His poor little face took the full impact of the fall. He was knocked out for a moment and also knocked out one of his adult front teeth. We of course got him to the hospital as quick as we could, not knowing if anything else was broken or wrong. At the hospital they thoroughly checked him out head to toe, with scans, test and all that stuff to determine just how bad things were. Thanks be to God, Noah had no broken bones and no bleeding on the brain. He did have a concussion. And bless his heart he majorly banged up his face and mouth. He lost one tooth for sure and we are waiting to see if 3 other adult teeth will make it or have to come out. Thankfully he had an oral surgeon who treated Noah like his own and did his best to tighten up the other three teeth that were very loose and questionable. He stitched up Noah's gums and both lips. They decided (thankfully) to keep him overnight on Sunday to observe him because of the face and head trauma. He ended up having a reaction to the sedation meds and pain meds, but because of the concussion they had to keep in mind that his reaction could be from that as well. So Monday morning they decided to transfer him to a bigger hospital that would have better equipment to handle the situation just in case it was something from the concussion. So Noah got to have his first ambulance ride and hopefully his last. He continued to have these reactions so the doctors decided to keep him overnight again. Finally we started recognizing a pattern and thought that he was most likely having reactions to the pain med. Once they took him off of that, he started coming around. I am very thankful it wasn't complications due to his concussion. So after who knows how many doctors clearing him, he was able to go home last night. They sent us home with a list of things to watch for and very specific instructions. We made it through our first night at home. I feel like he is over his first big hump to recovery.

Noah is going to have a long road to recovery, but we are so thankful that it wasn't any worse. Yesterday he got the first glimpse of himself. As a mother, it was hard to see the sadness that took over his face. However, he looked at me and said, "It could have been much worse. I could have broken my neck and died." He is trying hard to recognize that although he looks and feels miserable, he was actually very blessed to get by with relatively minor injuries. He knows that his Lord and Savior was protecting him. Thanks be to God!

Throughout his hospital stay, I learned a few things. First the bond between my kids is so much stronger than I would have ever known. The one thing Noah ask for over and over in the hospital was to see his sister and brothers. I also heard how often Cari, Nate and Luke asked to see Noah. I feel so blessed to have such deeply connected kids. I pray they will hold on to this love for one another. Second, I learned a lot about Noah. He has always been our compassionate child. However to see his compassion shine through, when he was in the middle of his own pain was remarkable. He used much of his time in the hospital to think of things he could invent to make things better for kids that were worse off than himself. He was very concerned about how this accident was going to affect others around him. My prayer as his mother is that I can continue to nurture this compassion so that he can use it throughout his life.

We are glad to be home. Please pray for his recovery. Pray that his spirit remains strong. He is going to have a lot of emotions to face especially concerning how different he looks. One day at a time we will get through this. Thank you so much for all of the love and support you have shown to our family.