There but for the grace of God go I

Yesterday one of my dear friends lived out a waking nightmare. Her beautiful 7 month old baby girl took a tumble out of her chair and onto the kitchen floor. She had the presence of mind, that I am not sure I would have had, to call 911 right away. Not only did she call 911, she called me to tell another neighbor that she was not going to be able to bring her dinner tonight. "What?!" This is how sweet, and kind my friend is, in the midst of her crisis she wanted to be sure that her friends were not left hanging... One of the many reasons I love her. She is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met in my life!

So after the fall her daughter was awake and crying, but getting sleepy. The paramedics arrived and determined that they should air lift the baby to the ER just to be safe. As if my heart wasn't aching and my stomach were not already in knots... Feeling about as helpless as my friend must have, I did the only thing I could think to do and I swooped up her sleeping 3 year old and brought her back to play with Grace and Lily. The poor thing had no idea why 'Miss Shelbi' was waking her from her nap and taking her to Grace's house, but I was relieved to see how happy she was to be here. Even with the bed snatching, walking past paramedics and 2 big fire trucks, helicopter buzzing over head and landing at the top of the street, the girls were oblivious that anything was wrong and for that I was so thankful.

As I was entertaining the girls, making dinner and willing my friend and her baby to be okay, I couldn't help but think 'There but for the grace of God'... My friend is a world class mother. She is present and attentive. He life revolves around her children and like me (no offense to my friend) she lets the house cleaning, laundry, chores... take a back seat to her daily interaction with her kids. This is just not a woman you could ever say... "Well, she wasn't paying attention..." She was! She is always paying attention! She was feeding her baby and simply turned around for a second. We've all done it, looked away to answer another child, call out to our husband, look at the clock, grab the phone inches away... It was any one of us on any day of the week. It is simply not practical to feed your infant on the floor, so we use high chairs, bumbos, bouncy chairs...

So as the fire trucks and ambulance rolled in, the neighbors rolled out. I know we live in a quiet neighborhood and this was a big deal. I know that most, if not all were concerned and hopeful that this was not anything too serious, but I kept silently cursing all the looky-loos hoping they would respect that this is possibly the most painful moment in a mother's life and the last thing she needed was the masses gawking. I tried to tell myself that my friend was so wrapped up in the moment that she did not even notice all the people in the street, their driveways, on their cell phones, but the truth of the matter is, she did. I even received a call from a neighbor, who was not here, who got a phone call from a non-neighbor that this was all happening.

Anyway, about an hour and a half after the fall I received a call from the hospital. My friend's husband said that everything seemed okay. They were waiting for x-rays to be taken but they are pretty sure that this is all precautionary. "Wheew! Okay Shelbi, keep sending 'everything is okay' vibes out into the universe! Everything is going to be fine. It's fine... this was just scary, but fine... fine... fine... fine."

Grilled cheese....dolls....Pinnochio.... a little more than 2 hours after the fall, another call from the hospital. "Everything is okay. Big bump, bruise, but otherwise okay. We are on our way home." The news could not have been any better! This could have gone so horribly in the other direction.

Looks like I will be investing in another high chair. One that is designed for an infant...

Thank God everything is okay!