Daddy's out of town

We are roughing it with just the three of us for the night and all day tomorrow as Doug is in Melbourne with NS. Joshua's lip is looking better, although, a couple of boys at school were teasing him about it at recess and it made him cry a little bit (which made my heart cry). Kids can be so harsh and cruel at times! I told him that we need to pray for them to feel better about themselves so that they don't have to hurt others to make themselves feel better. I told Joshua that he is a lovable and likeable boy and that he has many friends...this is not something he has any control over. I pray that tomorrow will be a better day for he and these two boys. His lip really is looking better and it's only been 4 full days. It's amazing how fast the mouth heals from such a traumatic blow. Taylor and I spent some quality time this afternoon working on homework that she missed from last week when she wasn't feeling good one day at school and came home and then had a bloody nose in the carpool line the next morning and refused to go back to school once I got her home to change her. She worked very diligently on her homework today and finished every single sheet sent home (and there were at least 6 sheets). She was very focused and did a great job. She does not follow the arrows in which it tries to teach how to write the letters and numbers, but she does trace them and colors the areas she is supposed to (I had to remind her to use the colors that it says to use...this concept is not one she enjoys). I can tell that her skills are increasing and she seems to enjoy doing the sheets. Her teacher wrote an email to me yesterday saying that she has really good fine motor skills and that she is coming along in the classroom. I'm so glad that she seems to be settling into a routine at school and getting used to the structure a bit more. She still has her moments where she would rather stay home, but we are slowly getting there! Great job, kids! I love you both and am so proud of you!

Joshua's first stitches!

We had a roller coaster of a weekend with Joshua. On Saturday, while I was busy trying to get the house organized for family coming the following weekend, Doug took Taylor and Joshua to the park. Joshua really wanted to go to Kidscape Park...so that's where they ended up. They had been playing for a couple of hours when Joshua got up onto the 4 feet tall monkey bars (not the first time this trip per Doug) and was walking on top of them when he slipped and his mouth collided with the metal. Doug heard the thud of his face hitting the bars and turned to see him on the ground crying and holding his mouth. As Doug ran over there, Joshua's mouth was gushing with blood and Doug couldn't tell how bad the damage was, but by the amount of blood, he figured that they were heading to the ER. When he squirted water on his mouth, he saw that his left side of his lower lip had been fileted open and his was afraid of what his teeth might look like. He called me on the way to the ER and I met them there. After 45 minutes of Joshua holding napkins to his mouth in the waiting room, we were called. They were really busy that night and so it ended up being a four hour ER visit. Taylor was a trooper through most of the stay. Joshua held up pretty well, but started declining as he got hungrier and hungrier. At 8:45 they started stitching up his lip and Taylor and I stayed in the waiting room for the first 15 minutes while Doug held Joshua's hand through the stitching. He couldn't feel anything as they kept putting Lidocaine on his lip and had given him Loratab elixir painkiller which made him really relaxed. He didn't even realize what they were doing to his lip. They covered his eyes with a paper towel so all he could see was scissors. They thought his teeth looked ok, but told us to take him to the dentist within 5 days. Taylor and I left and went to McDonald's to get her some cookies and him a milkshake. They got home shortly after us and he gladly drank most of the milkshake. He ended up sleeping on the couch that night (falling asleep to "Sinbad"). His lip made me quite queasy to look at, but thank goodness that all can be healed and he will be fine! I took him to the dentist today and they ended up pulling a tooth that was starting to get loose on it's own, but got twisted into an odd position upon impact. The tooth behind this one on top had been shoved up into his gums and was impacted, but she told us that it should come back down on it's own and we'll have to watch it to see if there's any nerve damage from the impact. It will be a wait and see game. I held his hand through part of the procedure b/c he wanted me there, although, they really didn't want Taylor in the room, so I was needed in two places at once. They decided to let Taylor stay in the room so I could be with him and he did great. So...we are very thankful that both teeth that were affected are baby teeth and that no permanent damage seems to have occurred from this other than a small scar that he will have on his lip. He is a blessed boy!!!

Guardian angel!

The most amazing and beautiful thing happened this morning! I was doing the early morning school routine and made my way upstairs to wake Joshua up. I opened his door (which usually startles and wakes him up) and he peeped his eyes open at me and then shut them again. The room was dim, but there was enough light to see each other. He opened his eyes again and said, "Mommy, your angel is above you". I said, "What?" And he said, "I saw your angel above you when I first opened my eyes". I said, "What did it look like?" He told me that he didn't remember and didn't know if it was a man or woman, but that he saw the wings and it was above my head. He said it so calmly and matter of factly, like he sees angels all of the time. It made me wonder if he does see angels frequently. And, was this my guardian angel, or an angel that had been watching over him while he slept who hovered over me when I walked in the room. Either way, it was the most amazing gift that he gave me. I have never seen an angel (that I know of!) and so to know that right there in that moment...where I wasn't in any iminent danger...just a typical day in the Harding household, that God sends his angels to watch over us. It was very humbling and it made me so grateful to have such a loving Father to give us such a special gift here on Earth. Thank you, Joshua, for sharing this with me. It means more to me than you know! Your heart for God is so beautiful and we love watching you bloom and grow in your faith.