All right... I know you are all dying to know about our excitement the night before Easter. If you are on Facebook you might have already seen. Okay... I am going to start by telling you about our day first. On Friday I got a call from my visiting teacher asking if I would like to go to the temple with her, another sister, and her mom. Going to the temple here is an all day excursion and by all day I mean ALL DAY! I knew this would be a hard one to get by Clay, but it actually wasn't. He said I could go! I was so excited. We left at 5:30 am to drive 3 1/2 hours to Lubbock. It was so wonderful being in the temple. Of course before we drove I offered the prayer and made sure I mentioned to keep our families SAFE while we were away. Of course, Heavenly Father answers prayers when you are doing what you should be doing. I had a nice day at the temple. Things came to me that I never thought of before and I think after 4 years I am starting to gain a better understanding. Yeah!
Clay spent the day with girls. From what I understand they had a fabulous day. A little girl in our ward had her birthday party at the park with an Easter Egg Hunt. I was happy because I felt I could check off the Easter Egg Hunt off my to do list. I knew that there were a few things that I wanted to do with the girls when I got home. I didn't get home until about 6:30. We ate dinner and then started our pre-Easter festivities. We had a Saturday Night Family Home Evening. I could feel the spirit and I could tell that Elyse was learning. We talked about Jesus and how he can heal us and make us feel comforted because of the atonement. We then talked about his death and resurrection. It was a wonderful night. Afterwards we decorated Easter Eggs. That was fun! The girls loved it! We only did 6 eggs because that was all we had. Honestly, 6 was enough! We put Mady to bed and I sat on the couch with Elyse.
It was getting close to Elyse's bedtime when I told her that she needed to get a book to read. Of course she told me she didn't want to go to bed. (This is a nightly ritual.) I then explained to her that the Easter Bunny wouldn't come if she was awake. So she immediately became really excited and jumped up to go pick out her story.
DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVE QUEASY STOMACH! She was so excited that she jumped off the couch (we have told her numerous times NOT to do this). We have a tile landing leading up to the kitchen with a tile edge. Elyse jumped...tripped over her feet... and landed smack right on the edge of the tile with her head. Of course, I tried not to make a big deal out of it and went to her. She is screaming bloody murder. I am holding her and notice that my hands are becoming very wet. I turn her over and she is bleeding profusely. I see a whole in her forhead, next to her eyebrow, the size of a nickel maybe even a quarter. That scared me so I screamed at the top of my lungs for Clay. It has been almost 3 days and my throat feels so soar from my screams. Clay came running in and grabbed her and put pressure on her head. He made a head wrap for her. When he looked at it we knew that she was going to have to be taken to the hospital.We could see her skull bone from the wound.
IT'S OKAY TO READ NOW! I am so grateful for good friends. The Lord has blessed us with some good friends that live fairly close to us. We can call them day or night and they will come running. I called Brandi and her husband answered and he came over immediately. He and Clay gave Elyse a priesthood blessing. As soon as Clay asked Heavenly Father to comfort her she immediately calmed down and didn't cry until the anesthetic was put into her wound. Our friend Mike took Madyson over to there house to sleep while we took Elyse to the ER. He also came back to our house and cleaned our carpets for us where the blood was. What an amazing friend!
When the doctor looked at it they wanted to do an Xray to make sure there was no bone damage where she hit. It made me a little nervous especially when the word Facial Surgeon came up. Luckily Heavenly Father was watching out for my little girl and there was NO bone damage. Just stitches.
I was able to have a bonding moment with Elyse while she was laying on the bed in the room at the hospital. I asked her if she wanted me to sing to her. I started to sing to her
I Am A Child of God. I felt the spirit very strongly and I began to cry. Elyse just looks up at me and I can tell she feel the spirit too because she has a tear drop rolling down her cheek. We then had the discussion of what it feels like when we can feel the Holy Ghost. It was a neat moment for me that I will cherish and remember Forever.
Elyse did get stitches. 8 total. It looks much better, although her eye did begin to swell and bruise today. I am so proud of my little girl! She is so brave. I am so proud of my husband who holds the priesthood and was so willing to give her a blessing before we went to the hospital. I am so thankful to good friends who are so willing to help. Most of all I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ who listens to prayers and waited for me to be at home when this happened. I would have been a basket case if this happened while I was at the temple. We are so blessed. I realized how blessed we truly have been because nothing like this ever happened when Clay was out of work and we didn't have insurance!
One more small story. The next morning Elyse saw her booboo in the mirror and said, "Mommy, I don't like this booboo. I want Jesus to come down and heal me." We had a talk about the priesthood blessing she was given and how that was acting on behalf of Jesus. I also told her that she could say a prayer and ask Jesus to help heal her. She said the sweetest prayer without any help asking for Jesus to heal her. These experiences are meant to strengthen our testimonies. I truly feel like my testimony has been strengthened this Easter weekend. We truly learned the meaning of Easter and what Jesus Christ was sent here to do.
