Miracles

I don't know if I've ever truly believed that miracles were present in my life up until yesterday. I'm not saying I didn't believe in miracles before, like the birth of my daughters were miracles, but I'm talking about things that happen and can only be explained as a miracle.

Yesterday morning started out with some exciting news; Mike became a US citizen! So, we were excited about that and about other things coming up like Med school graduation. 

Later that evening, we were hanging out with Mike's mom and our niece when I noticed some friends of ours at our front door. They surprised Mike with red, white, and blue treats and by decorating our front door with Fourth of July decorations while playing "Proud to be an American." So, we were outside our front door talking with our friends and their kids were running around our yard playing. I was taking pictures of course to document how sweet our friends are for thinking about Mike. 

I didn't notice that Morgan and her cousin had opened the play room window to yell down to their friends who were down below. While I was taking pictures I hear, "OH MY GOSH! AUBREY FELL OUT THE WINDOW!" I turned the corner and Aubrey was on her back crying. Everything was kind of slow motion and things weren't really registering in my head. A million things were going through my head. I wondered if she had fallen out the downstairs window, I swear she was downstairs...Oh my gosh, did she break something, is she going to have a concussion, she fell out the window??? How did this happen? I should have noticed that they had the window open. 

Our friend scooped her up and Mike immediately grabbed her and said we have to go to the hospital. As I am running through the house to get the car keys, Morgan is screaming and sobbing as she runs down the stairs. She starts yelling over and over,  "Aubrey fell out the window!"Aubrey was screaming, that unnaturally pained scream that, as a parent, makes your heart sink into the pit of your stomach. Mike held her in the front seat while I drove. A minute into driving to the hospital the shock subsides and I really comprehend what had just happened. Then I start worrying and thinking about what COULD have happened. She could have broken her neck and died, she could be paralyzed, she could be bleeding internally, her back could be broken. My eyes pool with tears and I can't stop crying. Meanwhile Mike is calmly trying to console me and Aubrey at the same time. "You need to be calm, we need to make it to hospital safely," he says. I try to pull myself together and luckily we made it to the hospital safely.

While at the hospital she calms down, but is quiet. On the way to the hospital Mike and I were trying to get her to tell us her name, our name, where Morgan was and she new the answers. The nurse puts a cervical neck collar on her. She is a trooper and doesn't even complain about it. The doctor checked her out. The only evidence of the fall was the grass on her back and in her pull up. She wasn't bruised or even red where she had fallen. "She appears to be in good shape," the doc says. While we waited she slowly started acting like her normal self, being goofy and playing hide-n-seek around the room. Finally they took her to get x-rays and we helped her get a urine sample. Luckily, everything came back negative and she was released a couple hours later.

It's hard, when something like this happens, to not blame yourself and to think about the "what ifs." I remembered thinking about putting something in some of the windows upstairs because they are pretty low and Morgan can easily open them. I had disregarded that thought because I knew we'd be moving soon. If I had just done that, this wouldn't have happened. If I hadn't been taking pictures, I would have noticed that they opened the window and that they were in the window. I could have been there...I could have caught her. 

I found out later by my friends who saw her fall that she was falling head first toward the ground and at the very last second she flipped and landed on her lower back/bottom onto the grass. (miracle one) They both said they couldn't explain how she flipped like that. Also, the doctor mentioned that possibly since it had rained that the grass was soft and squishy enough to help cushion her landing a little bit (miracle two).  

Aubrey fell out of a window and the very best possible outcome from that fall is what we happened.

She fell probably about 15-18 feet and has walked away without a bump, bruise, or scratch on her. That is the biggest miracle I have personally witnessed. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for this miracle. I just can't help but think about all the mom's and dad's who this may have happened to and have either lost a child or their child is permanently injured from such accidents. Hold your kiddos tighter today...in an instant they can be taken away. I am so grateful I didn't lose my baby, I never thought something like this would happen, not to me, not my family.