Latter part of Easter Week

On Wednesday, Andrew had an Easter Egg Hunt at school. Cherish, Hope, and I were among the volunteers who helped hide the eggs. Each child's parents sent in a dozen filled eggs with their child's name on the eggs. Part of the hunting challenge was for each child to find ONLY his/her eggs among the 200+ eggs that were hidden. What a challenge!

The girls were so proud of him. He had to work very hard to find his eggs.

While Andrew was having his Easter party, the girls and I went to our church's Family Prayer Vigil for a short time. The girls acted out the scenes from the last week of Jesus' life, but we only completed part of the vigil. We came back on Thursday evening to officially go through the whole vigil with Daddy and Andrew.

Acting out Palm Sunday:

The Last Supper:

Trying Matzo bread:

 Nailing sins to cross:

 The tomb is empty! The stone is rolled away!

On Thursday morning, all the children went to the dentist for their cleaning and check-ups. After lunch, Cherish and Andrew went to visit Pappy and Nanny while the rest of us spent the afternoon at Nemours. Hope rocked her appointments!

It was extra special having daddy with us this time!

On Friday Derek had to return to work. My sister Jennifer came to our house to drop off a dresser, bunk bed, mattresses, and sheets for our boys' room. WHAT a PRECIOUS GIFT!!

After we unloaded the furniture, we went to visit Grandma before Jen headed back home. (Grandma and Jen live out-of-town, so it was wonderful to get to spend time with them!) We decided to picnic at a park, and Jen snapped this picture with her phone:

There are actually two picnic tables stationed end-to-end with a gap in between the tables.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Cherish was standing between the two picnic tables. She propped herself up on her arms and began swinging her legs. Her legs went too high, and she became unbalanced, sending her face to the concrete before her body.

When she came off the concrete, the look on her face did me in. I became instantly ill, wanting to vomit and pass out. My sister Jen ran to Cherish, getting her an ice pack from the ice chest and paper towels from the table.

I couldn't pull it together. All I could assume was that Cherish had broken her nose, her jaw, and her teeth. Jen was her nurse while I knelt on the ground with my head down forcing myself to stay conscious. I knew if I threw up and/or passed out, the situation would escalate for Cherish.

At the same time all this was happening, I kept thinking of Jesus’ sacrifice and wondered how his mother stayed conscious as she saw her son bleeding from every part of his body. I couldn’t even look at Cherish without feeling like I was going to vomit and pass out at the same time. And, to think that Jesus' unimaginable pain and suffering were due to Him standing as a substitute. A substitute! I could not even fathom such great sacrifice! Such great love! Such great grace!

After 30 minutes of fast-flow blood, I called our dentist--who was already closed for the Easter weekend. They suggested we head to the ER.

At the ER, there were no x-rays taken, no pain meds given, just a look to see if the blood was coming from something that could be stitched. It wasn't. The gums were bleeding. The ER doctor suggested I get to Cherish's dentist right away and dismissed us to get on the road.

The dentist said she would meet us when we got back in town. After 3.5 hours of fast-flow bleeding, we were finally back in town and headed to the dentist.

The dentist splinted Cherish's broken teeth together but was greatly concerned about a fractured jaw. We were told to keep an eye out for swelling as a sign of fracture.

Since we were just at the dentist the day before, the dentist had x-rays of Cherish's teeth. So, she knew Cherish's side teeth were still moving down into position, and she could not splint Cherish's two front broken teeth to other stable teeth. Thus, they were splinted together. (This created an interesting weekend, as the teeth kept shifting around.)

Cherish was put on a liquid diet and told to wait until the following Friday to have the broken teeth bonded into place.

She remained brave and sweet through the whole ordeal!

On Saturday morning, our family was to attend an Easter egg hunt. I went to the store looking for Easter-egg-flavored baby food or any baby food with a dessert flavor. I found none.

Cherish still wanted to go to hunt eggs, so we went. She gave all her candy away. Thankfully, some of the eggs had toys in them, and there were toy prizes. The other two children saved about three pieces of candy and gave all their other candy away, too.

Saturday afternoon was a leisurely day spent with Derek's family.

 Cherish enjoyed dying eggs as a way to keep her mind occupied.

Sunday, the children woke up to surprises that had arrived in the mail from their other grandparents! Most of the surprises were toys, along with cotton candy. Who knew that Cherish would ONLY be allowed to have cotton candy--by dissolving it in her mouth?! She was so happy for the gift!!!

As you can see from Sunday, a person could hardly tell Cherish had endured trauma. Thanks to so much praying and to Jen's quick response to Cherish's care, she sustained no swelling or black, green, or purple bruises. And, with the camera pulled far enough back, no splint is visible. J

I praise God for sending Jen to us at a time when I could not physically be with Cherish. When I was too sick to help, Jen was a solid rock taking such great care of my sweet girl. What a blessing she has been to our family!

Happy Easter, sweet blog family!

Update: Today Cherish's dentist gave her permission to eat soggy, soft foods place behind the front teeth since her jaw no longer hurts. However, nothing is allowed to touch her front teeth, so she puts everything in from the side of her mouth. Additionally, she drinks through a straw placed in the side of her mouth to by-pass the front teeth.