It's been a week filled with blessings. But it didn't start out that way. Last weekend, while playing with some of the other missionary kids, Hannah collided with a friend and toppled, breaking her fall with her left hand. At first we thought the main injury was a thorn she put through the pad of her hand, just below her middle finger.
A day later, her hand was still swollen and she could not bend her fingers. The pain was getting worse instead of better. We're so blessed to have a fantastic doctor right here on the mission grounds, so Melissa took Hannah to see Dr. Rodney and get an X-ray.
Dr. Rodney said several bones were dislocated in the palm of Hannah's hand. He pulled her middle finger into place and splinted the whole thing with a "Popsicle stick" - as her brothers called it.
On Monday night, Melissa and I were blessed to spend the evening with Pastor Storly Michel, who was getting ready to fly back to Columbus, Indiana soon. He took us to our favorite restaurant in Cap Haitien, The Picolet. Melissa had lobster and I had curried goat and we both thoroughly enjoyed some uninterrupted alone time with Storly. (Our neighbors, Erin, Elida and Jen, were kind enough to babysit our kids back at home.)
By Tuesday evening, Melissa and I were back to being concerned about Hannah's hand. The pain was not letting up at all and the finger was not bendable in the least. Melissa and I began to worry that something more was going on than what was showing on the local X-ray. Hannah is left-handed and we feared that her dominant hand was going to be permanently affected - were we doing everything that we could to assure complete healing? Friends counseled us to visit the hospital in Milot, which is big enough to have doctors who specialize in orthopedics. So Wednesday morning, Melissa and I missed school to take Hannah to Milot.
Here she is getting ready for another X-ray. (Side note: The more I look at this picture, the more I like it. In Hannah's apprehension, there is something childlike in her looks - and because she is next to a large machine in an empty room, she looks a bit smaller ... except for her feet. So she actually looks more her age:12. We've had visitors recently ask if she's getting ready to head off the college soon. Our reply: "No, we're thinking she should finish middle school first.")
Hannah with Dr. Pierre and his assistant, Maxi. I was surprised that they smiled for the photo.
What Melissa and I got was peace of mind: the Milot confirmed Dr. Rodney's diagnosis and approach. The new X-ray showed the dislocated bones had moved back into place. Now, though, he felt the sprained tendon would do better with the finger splinted in a bent position. It took several pain shots before he could get the finger bent as far as he wanted it.
So Hannah got her first cast. It's supposed to be on for the next three weeks and the splint is to be bent a few degrees straighter each week.
Thursday afternoon, I was home from school with Sarah, who was having some minor tummy trouble. She felt good enough to work on a birthday cake for Melissa, though, and in a moment of inspiration, wanting to occupy her while we waited for the cake to cool, I asked her to design what it should look like. She gladly broke out the markers and came up with this:
Her design made my decorating job easy. Sarah was so proud at school on Friday, telling everyone she had been the artist behind the cake.
On Friday, Melissa was surprised to find that I had had the foresight to smuggle a couple of birthday presents for her into our luggage two months ago. One was a Christmas ornament for this year with a family photo taken this summer by our West Virginia friend, Kylee.
What a blessing for the whole family to be together at school for occasions like this. Birthday cake is a big, BIG deal around here and everyone was pretty happy to get a bit of cake.
It's a BIG deal.
When we got home, even Madam Arnold (who helps us with work around the house each week) had gone all out to recognize Melissa's birthday. She even set the lawn furniture up out front with its own flower arrangement.
The fun continued that evening with an invitation to dine with the Heckmans and Ayars out at Emmaus Seminary. Melissa had requested Mexican food and Emily and Stacey had gone all out.
Even a cake with candles ... and ICE CREAM.
On Saturday morning, we hit Dhaloo Beach. What a blessing this place is to us - an opportunity to get away and enjoy the beauty of God's creation and a bit of uninterrupted family time.
Usually the beach is quite empty, but this time there were a number of other folks there, including Enoch, a friend who recently became Hannah's piano teacher. She got one entire lesson in before the hand injury!
Hannah didn't seem to mind more time with her Nook. She's done even more reading than normal over this past week. (The beach reading was nice, but I think she's found it especially enjoyable to read at home this week while her brothers are doing all the dish washing and drying and laundry folding around her.)
Meanwhile, her siblings got a lot of extra exercise.
And we were ALL reminded again just how blessed we are.
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