There Will Be Blood

As a parent I think one of the hardest things to deal with is your child being sick or hurt. I didn’t realize the truth in this until recently. As a baby, Zane was sick often with earaches and colds. As first time parents we would get alarmed with a spike in his temperature, a funny sounding cough, or excessive fussiness but we were pretty rationale and low key. Along came Eli and I think second child syndrome kicked in because we didn’t get as alarmed. We still attended to the boys as normal but it was more routine. We knew what needed to be done and did it. We went to the doctor when we needed help. Both boys have had cuts and bruises along the way. They will be boys.

Now to the blood. . . Zane was playing in the kitchen as he often does. On this particular Saturday afternoon he had a pair of kitchen tongs that he was pretending to pick berries or tomatoes with. I was washing something in the sink and all of a sudden I hear this scream and I turn to see him dancing around grabbing his finger. I look over at him and I start to see blood. I try to comfort him thinking that maybe he just pinched his finger or something but he is screaming like he is dying. The routine first aid father figure gear shifts into panicked dad that has a son that could have cut his finger off.

At this point Zane is “gushing” blood. (defined as non stop red blood dripping from a screaming child) I tell Leslie that this may be serious because it has not stopped bleeding and Zane is usually not one to cry non-stop once he has the necessary attention and comfort. Let me insert a time reference for you. It seemed like 20 minutes of bleeding but I guess a screaming child and red blood has a way of multiplying 5 into 20. After I couldn’t control the bleeding I uttered these words for the first time since the birth of our children: “I think we need to go to the emergency room, this is serious, and it is a major gash that may need stitches.” Zane’s reaction as he screams and blood drips, “I can’t feel my finger”. The thought running through my head “My son is going to lose one of his fingers”. Of course this was not vocalized because my rational wife says, “Just apply pressure” then scoops Zane up and applies pressure. Within a few minutes Zane is fine, a band-aid is applied and we go about our day.

What caused such a low key dad and son to give an Oscar winning performance? I’ve thought about this over the last couple of days and have no response. I’m just glad to have a wife who knows that there will be blood.

Lancaster County with Granny

We went to Reading, PA and to Lancaster County, PA. It's not a trip to Lancaster unless you stop at Kitchen Kettle Village to decorate a cookie!

Granny & Zane decorating a cookie.

Zane enjoying some birch beer (like root beer). We stop at this Amish Farm and buy the birch beer.

We stopped at a new place where we enjoyed some ice cream, playing on the playground and feeding the animals!

With His help, I know I can do big things!

Tonight while putting Zane to bed, I was reminded of an important lesson. Our night routine involves a story of his choice and a bible story. Zane has a new Veggie Tales bible that he loves, so we’ve been reading from it.  Tonight, after reading our story about forgiveness and talking about the lesson he asked me. “Daddy, what is your favorite Bible story?” I thought about it for a minute and then I told him that I like the story of David & Goliath. He said that is nice. “I love the story of the giant Pickle that crashes.” For those of you who don’t watch Veggie Tales it is the story of David & Goliath.  I reminded Zane that it is the same as David & Goliath.  He then said “He’s big but God is bigger”. How true is that? Often times we get so focused on the problem and forget about God.  I don’t mean that everything is going to turn out the way we want because it often doesn’t. But I take comfort in knowing that He is bigger than anything that I face.