Memories for the Book

My beautiful first born and only daughter is celebrating her ninth birthday tomorrow!  She is horse-crazy, so we had her birthday party on Saturday at a horse farm in town.  She and her friends loved riding under a gorgeous blue sky and a perfect afternoon.  Everyone had lots of fun!

This day was supposed to be a recorded memory for Lindsay’s baby book, however, I will have to add a page in Luke’s baby book as well.  On the morning of the party while I was “doing” my hair and having a conversation with my husband, I suddenly became aware of a dooming quiet.  I said to Brad, “I don’t trust a quiet toddler.”  I called for Luke about three times before he came running into our bedroom.  He had guilt written all over his face.  I went into the playroom to see what he had been into, and discovered with horror what had been entertaining him so intently.  He had gotten into his Nana’s bag and opened two bottles of pills.  Pills were scattered across the bed, and my heart pounded out of my chest.  I grabbed Luke and looked in his mouth.  I could tell he had chewed at least one blue pill and probably had swallowed it.  As I surveyed the scene, I saw where he had also chewed a pink pill, but had spit it out.   I started crying and screaming for Brad saying, “We’ve got to take him somewhere.”  My pediatrician’s office was closed (of course this happened on a Saturday), and I told Brad to head for the ER.  Calm-headed, he took us to Urgent Care nearby to ask their opinion.  They said they would evaluate him and send him on if necessary.  I scooped him up out of his car seat and into the building.  The nurse met me in the hallway and showed me to a room.

Nana was able to recall the number of pills she had for each of the two medications and the number that were missing.  We deduced that Luke had ingested 10 mg of valium.  The doctor who saw us was very kind, personable, and good with Luke.  All of Luke’s vitals were normal, and they encouraged us to keep a close eye on him for respiratory distress.  We returned home, very relieved and praising God!

Luke, Nana, and I sat on the sofa watching cartoons with our increasingly sleepy little boy.  The valium was kicking in and Luke acted as giddy as I’d ever seen anyone!  He kept grinning and talking silly.  He could not walk or stand up straight.  After lunch, he happily went to bed and slept soundly until I had to wake him for Lindsay’s party.

He was pretty much back to normal by party time.  At the farm, he walked over to the fence to pet a miniature pony and it bit him on the arm.  Luke cried and cried.  Poor little guy…it just wasn’t his day!!  He found a truck to play with in the sand, but when he started to chase the huge bumblebee, I intervened quite quickly!

Some days are just like that…it seems like everything goes wrong!  No matter how careful and protective I try to be as a mom, I have discovered that I cannot protect my children from everything.  That’s why I have to turn their well being over to the Lord.  He has the power and wisdom to protect my children!  I pray that God would divinely intervene at any moment necessary to protect them.  I know God has big plans for Luke…He has saved him too many times!  Thank you, Lord!