Crazy Sunday, Crazy Broken Arm

Sunday started out as normal as usual.  A nice couple of hours at church, home for lunch and naps.  ViEtta had cancelled our normal Sunday dinner, so Glade suggested we invite our friends over for dinner.  So I did!  They came at 5, the Bryants, Rapiers, Kettrings, Chelsey and Johnsons.  Jake had just ran a marathon the day before, so we were anxious to hear about it.  But when they got here, Jenny was on the phone with her sister from Washington who is taking care of her oldest daughter.  So we went ahead and ate without her.  After, I went out to check on her and she was still on the phone so I sat beside her on the porch swing.  Jake came out right after and so did Melanie.  Once she hung up, she started telling us what was going on up there.  It was then that we heard a weird kind of screaming.  At first we thought it was just the kids making a lot of noise.  But then it was repeated and intense.  We ran inside to find Kimball (their 12 yr old son) and more of the group in a huddle at the bottom of the stairs.

He was hysterical and yelling "I broke my arm!"  The other adults that were in the house were tending to him and trying to calm him down.  I couldn't see much, but what I could see was a very twisted arm.  Everyone was so great at caring for him.  We found rubber spatulas and ace bandages to try to immobilize it.  He just kept crying that it hurt so bad.  They gave him a blessing and helped Jake get him to the car to get him to the hospital.  It was all very scary.

Then we found little Bo outside sobbing on the tramp.  "It's all my fault!  I was a bad example!"  They had gotten into laundry baskets and were riding them down the stairs.  Bo got lucky and made it down, but Kimball wasn't so fortunate.  I hugged him a lot and tried to comfort him.  We talked a lot about obedience and rules and choice and forgiveness.  He had a really hard time pulling it together, so Glade gave him a blessing as well.  He spent most of the evening on my lap with on and off tears.  He wouldn't even eat a cookie.

Before everyone went home, we all knelt together in prayer.  It was a very sweet experience. As we continued to get the kids ready for bed, Bo came back down and asked if Glade and I would say a prayer with him one more time.  I felt so bad that he was carrying such a weight and at the same time, I hope he truly learned the importance of obeying the rules.  He struggles with that anyway.

Because Kimball had eaten that night, they had to wait to do surgery on it and then the surgeon couldn't make it so he had to spend the night in the hospital.  He had surgery the next evening, they had to use pins to keep it all in place.  I kept their kids for dinner so Jake and Jenny could be at the hospital.  We made signs with balloons to welcome him home.  I'm including a picture, but it's not for the weak....