Um... yeah... life is ALWAYS crazy at our house...

Have you wondered what I have been up to the past couple weeks? Just posting FFF and a Wordless Wednesday and never really responding to my sweet Tags by my friends?

As you can see by the picture of my boy... he always manages to keep my life interesting and never dull. Grant has to be one of the most accident prone children that you could ever know of. And the drama that surrounds each week is such that I could write a book and you would probably hyperventilate trying to keep up with it all.

Our latest adventure began last Friday night. We were enjoying some fun days of summer with some wonderful friends visiting us from PA. My big kids had spent the day with their dad helping prepare food for the HUGE local orphanage picnic that is held every year. Grant even met his new "girlfriend" there that day, so maybe that is what made him lightheaded and a little off balance. But... after he arrived home, he rode his bike to a friend's house to wait for him to come home and hang out. Apparently, while waiting, he decided to walk along a low retaining wall (about 2-3 feet high) beside their driveway and lost his balance and fell into a shallow ditch. He doesn't remember falling but what he does remember was yelling and waving his arms for help. Luckily, a passing motorist (and guardian angel) saw him and pulled over to help. Grant was unable to move his legs and the gentleman called 911. I received a call on my cell phone from the 911 operator and was able to get to his side in about ten minutes.

To make a long story short... the ambulance took him to the hospital where the trauma team was activated and it was a sea of doctors and equipment that would scare the hair off a cat. They even sent the chaplain in to stand with me during his workup, which was a little unnerving. He went through x-rays, CAT scans and MRI's to determine what injury he had... and luckily, within about 5 hours, he was able to start wiggling his toes and eventually move his legs. Apparently, he either bruised his spinal cord or pinched a nerve near his neck that temporarily caused his legs to "go to sleep". We spent the night in the PICU as a precaution and then moved to a regular room where he was able to walk out of the hospital on Sunday afternoon with just a neck brace for two weeks.

The worst part of this experience was that his dad did not even make it to the hospital to see him. I could write a small novel about how much disappointment this child has had to endure at the hands of the person who is supposed to love him unconditionally. But, that is a novel for another day and a "Get Real" post that maybe someday I will have to sit down and write.

Grant is feeling just fine... just slightly annoyed that he must wear this brace for another week. Me, on the other hand... literally exhausted. This child has earned me every gray hair on my head that I must now go get re-highlighted every 8 weeks.

Anybody want to top that? I think in my former life, I must have coined the term "Parenting isn't for wimps"... and this boy would be the poster child.