What a way to start vacation

As soon as dad started his week of "vacation" guess who was back in the ER? Yep, the Reinert family. It was Noah's turn to sport the war wound. This time it required a lot more than hospital super glue to do the trick.

I had run upstairs to put some socks on and heard the heart stopping scream, the one that you know someone is really hurt, not just another bump. I ran downstairs and their stood Noah, blood pouring from his mouth, tears streaming down his face. I grabbed a paper towel and put it to his mouth to try to discern where the bleeding was coming from. The moment I removed the paper towel to inspect, my heart stopped and I felt as if my stomach was going to come through my mouth. Noah had split his bottom lip all the way through to the skin below his lip line. His bottom lip just hung open in the most un-natural way. I wanted to pass out and am quite surprised I didn't. I guess the adrenaline kicked in and I knew we needed to get to the hospital fast. Through his tears he tried to explain what he did, but it was no use, we could not understand him due to his pieced apart lip. I gathered he somehow fell on the space dome, but I couldn't figure out how he fell so hard to do this amount of damage. We get to the ER and get through triage. Finally the ER doctor comes in, and yes it was the same doc. as before. He even recognized me. He confirmed that Noah did a number on his lip and quietly pulled me aside to let me know how important it was to stitch it up correctly otherwise he may have a permanently deformed lip. Those were very hard words to ingest. I knew I was placing my full trust in his hands to repair Noah's lip to the best of his ability. I had already been praying nonstop about this entire incidence, now I began to pray for the Lord to guide the doctor's hand while he mended my son's battered lip. I watched cautiously as the doctor meticulously stitched Noah back together. He took his time and was very calm, knowing he could directly affect how Noah's scar would turn out. Noah did an amazing job. He was so patient and calm, I had to keep checking if he was breathing. The doctor had put a sterile sheet over his face with an opening at the site of the wound. Today I heard Noah explaining to his siblings that he was pretending that he was looking up at the blue sky (that was the color of the sheet). Amazing! A six year showed such confidence and character. Finally 45min. later, the doctor was done. He carefully showed me his work and explained that there was an area that had lost a chunk of skin in which he couldn't really do anything to help. This is where is believes the most scarring would occur. However, he reminded me that like Nathaniel, with his eye injury, Noah was young and has time on his side. Hopefully the scar will be minimal.

When we arrived home, Noah proudly proclaimed how brave he was. It wasn't until he looked into the mirror that my heart broke even more. He was not prepared for what he would see. As he looked at himself tears swelled in his eyes. I asked him if he was sad and he quietly nodded his head. I explained that with time it will look better and told him how important it was for us to take really good care of it. Later in the evening we talked about how boys get war wounds and he certainly had received his. I told him how this will just make him stronger as he grows into a man. I explained that all men have war wounds to tell about and that someday he could tell his kids about his. Finally, something returned to him that had been missing all day, a gleam of hope, a tiny smile. He liked the idea of having a war wound. He connected with this thought of becoming stronger and braver. He was ready to share his story! With lots of prayer and tedious care of his "war wound" in time it will just be a memory to share.