First camping trip and first ER visit!

It was an eventful weekend for our family! At 7:00 Saturday morning, we decided to go camping. I had only tent camped in the back yard growing up, and Micah hadn't been camping in years. But, we figured it couldn't be that big of an undertaking, so we threw every camping-related thing we could find in the van, drove to Cabela's and picked up our tent, and off we went. We had fun, but we would do several things differently next time. We're looking forward to our next trip so we can perfect this budget-friendly family outing.

When we got home, we were unloading our stuff, and Joel was riding his trike on the back patio. He tripped while getting off of it and landed head first on the corner of our brick doorway. Micah and I were both standing right inside, and by the time Joel stood up, things weren't looking pretty. After a call to the nurse, we headed to the ER at the childrens' hospital for what we assumed would be a quick glue job.

After we were told that the injury would require a plastic surgeon, we left the other two kids with our wonderful neighbor so Micah and I could be with Joel. Things are done very differently at the childrens' hospital than they were back home. We both actually stood by Joel's bed during the surgery. That was the strangest 15 minutes of my life. We're thankful that we could be with him, but I don't know that I would make that choice again in the future. Nonetheless, the doctors and nurses did a wonderful job and we're very blessed that Joel is as good as new now.

One of the funnier moments of our experience was when the hospital's PR person asked if they could document Joel's visit in an upcoming hospital publication. So, she and the photographer also were in the room for the surgery. When Joel woke up, he looked at the PR person and said, "you have two heads." I'm interested to see what kind of article she comes up with! She said she'd send us the pictures and the magazine for our scrapbook. I'll scan it and share it with all of you!

All in all we're thankful that the weekend turned out as well as it did. There was a high potential for disaster from start to finish, but none of us are much worse for the wear. We hope you and yours had a blessed weekend. Thanks for reading!