Good News and Bad news

The good news first. I will probably put in 10 recruits this month. I am taking 5 down to MEPS on Monday, have 2 Prior Service guys enlisting in two weeks and have 12 or more good prospects for the rest of this month.

The bad news is... I am going to have to quit posting on the blog. I have very little time to get online at home much less post. Also my husband and I have decided we can do without a landline (phone line) and DSL at home. It will save us $120 a month and over $1200 a year. That is $1200 that can be applied to debt. Since my computer at work WILL NOT access blogspot, I will be able to post once in a blue moon from my husband's office or my MIL's computer. Trust me, I am not going to make special trips to blog. I just can't. So this is a farewell letter. I won't close down the blog because the original intent was to have a chronicle my kids could read of my National Guard years.

The worst news is what happened yesterday. My dear darling beautiful daughter had a really bad accident. She was riding a little toddler scooter, the kind you sit on and scoot around with your legs. It has four wheels and she would coast down a small incline to land safely on my MIL's back lawn. Knowing how 3 year olds are, I would follow her to make sure she stayed on the path and didn't hit a bump and get knocked off. When I left for work I was a hair's breath close to telling Grandma "Don't let her ride the scooter." But I decided she probably would be ok.

I was at work and got a call from my husband telling me to stay at work because they would be coming to meet me. "Grace has a cut." I was confused and thought; so?? WHy would that mean they would come meet me? Then I hear his brother in the background saying "No, tell her to come here..." and the sound of grandma shouting (praying) "Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus!" I am still confused and ask what the hell is going on. My very calm husband says "You need to come to mother's. We will wait on you."

I race to my car and make the 30 minute trip in 15 minutes. I see Grace with a huge bandage covering her left eye, blood everywhere and my brother-in-law (MD) saying "The surgeon is going to meet us at the clinic to let us know what we need to do." My husband drives as I sit in the back seat with Grace. He explains that the surgeon will decide if we need to head to Atlanta (to Scottish Rite Children's Hospital) and see a more highly qualified surgeon than he.

I learn that Grace was happily riding her scooter while Grandma sat and watched her. Her little scooter veered right and she went down a steep incline landing in a page wire & barbed wire fence.

We arrive at the clinic, he examines Grace breifly and says "I can take care of this, head to the Regional Hospital." We pile back into vehicles and head for the local regional hospital. We are escorted through a back entrance, bypassing the emergency room and all that chaos, to the pediatric center where my baby is prepped for surgery.

Let me tell you, I am a tough old solider, but seeing that little tiny baby girl sitting up on a gurney clutching her barbie doll to her chest and looking so incredibly lost and scared.... Well, my heart about ripped in two. My husband and I hugged each other thinking that we had such small problems compared to this. I left to go out to the car and got lost in the parking lot. Stress. I had to call my brother -in-law (who had left) to ask where we had parked. For the life of me I could not orient my mind to where we were parked. I wandered aimlessly looking before my mind realized I could do the car horn on the key fob and find my dammed car! I found my car and had to make two more trips before my mind would register what exactly I was out to get!

After 2 HOURS of plastic surgery, the surgeon came out to say it was deeper than he had anticipated but he did a good job. She was fine, recovering fine and we could meet her up in pediatrics. They wanted to keep her overnight since she had been under general an...anes... drugs for so long. Oh my baby looked so pityful! They wheeled her in and she was still asleep. You could see the injuries more clearly and she looked pretty banged up. She woke breifly while they moved her and she cried out for mommy! I gingerly picked her, hugged her and told her in my softest mommy voice "Mama's here, baby, mama's here!".

My husband went home to sleep and bring change of clothes to the hospital the next mroning. Needless to say I did not sleep. I kept an eye on her and my mind would just not stop. She woke at 6 am wanting to go to the potty. Then slept till 0730. She sat up and saw that the sun was up outside and began to cry out in an agitated voice "The dark is gone, oh noooo, the dark is gone!" I think that the realization that it was another day at we were STILL at this horrid place was too much for her.

Soon her IV was removed as well as the pulse monitor. I put on her fresh clothes and showed her how the bed worked. She had a BALL making the bed rise and lower and change shape.

I will be close to home over the next few days. I am so very glad that she did not lose her eye or worse, much worse. God is good.