In Which I Decide Not To Go Camping This Weekend

Summer is fun; full of swimming, swinging, jumping, climbing and falling.

Isaac fell coming down from a tree house at a friends house this week. It was a ward activity, actually, so there were plenty of other kids and moms to witness the event and get a little freaked out.

I was completely freaked out, but as often happens during crisis and tragedy, the hand of the Lord was revealed over and over.

First, I'd invited a friend and her kids to come with us to the activity. I thought I was doing something nice for her, but as it turns out, she did something amazing for me.

She was with me when I first got to Isaac after the fall. Everything she did was calming and helpful. She started telling me what to do: "don't call the ambulance, are you calm enough to drive him to the emergency room? Reassure him, this same thing happened to my son and everything is going to be fine. I'll take your kids, here are my phone numbers. Don't worry about anything but getting him safely to the ER."

I get to the ER, pull up in front, park the car and help Isaac walk in. Then I hear my name. I turn to find another friend who has seemingly appeared out of nowhere. She said she saw me walk into the ER and asked if I needed help. I did, but I didn't know what it was. I was trying to hold it together, but really scared. "I'll park your car for you," she said. How did she know this was something I needed when I didn't even know myself?

We spent about 5 hours in the ER getting a temporary cast put on Isaac. Surgery was scheduled for the next morning.

When we got home, it wasn't long before our neighbor walked in with a casserole and a plate of cookies. The cookies were from another mom who'd been at the activity. The note said her kids were so worried about Isaac and hoped he was doing OK.

Then the phone calls started coming: what do we need? Can someone bring meals in? Do you need someone to watch the other kids during surgery tomorrow? We didn't need much, but the kindness and concern humbled me.

The next morning our neighbor came over at 6:45 to help Robert give Isaac a blessing, which probably helped calm me even more than it helped Isaac.

Surgery went well and we came home.

After naps all around except Ethan, (Jonah had come down with a fever, Robert had averaged 4 hours of sleep a night for a month and I had been up all night helping Isaac and having trouble falling asleep without seeing that little deformed wrist being cradled by Isaac's good arm as he sat at the bottom of the tree house ladder) the visitors started arriving.

Isaac got cookies, candy, a book, lots of cards and a few toys. I was overwhelmed.

Isaac is taking it all in stride.

Isaac checking out where the surgeon wrote on his arm

Other than a few complaints of pain (which seem to lessen after the meds kick in) Isaac is back to his normal self.

Well, not completely normal...he can't get his arm wet, I had to feed him his cereal for breakfast, and getting dressed has become a little challenging.

Just 4 to 6 more weeks though and he should be as good as new.

In the grand scheme, this arm break is a small thing. Millions of kids break their arms and recover. It happens everyday.

Receiving the love and support of friends and family, however, has been huge; a humbling, but very sweet blessing during a difficult time.