The day after the SIM team arrived in Kenya, was one of the hardest and most painful events I have yet experienced.
We had just finished discussing the plans for the next few weeks with the team (which I was really excited for). Afterwards a few of the team wanted to check out the town. We stayed behind with Valour as he doesn’t enjoy window shopping as much as everyone else does, and would rather run and play freely at home.
The constant prayer of protection over my little boy is an everyday non-negotiable. As a new mom of a cute, little, active boy who never stops and is always busy doing everything and anything. I am such a proud mommy and can’t even begin to describe my love for him.
The fear that something bad could happen to him at any time is always present, especially because he gets up to so much mischief. The number of times Josh and I have caught him from just before a major disaster is countless, walking around with a chainsaw that is switched on, or climbing up a 20ft ladder or finding a snake slithering around the compound.
When Valour fell backwards of the trampoline and Josh called me saying “Jess, this is bad!", My heart stood still. Everything stopped for a second and it felt like a waterfall of thoughts raced though my mind. Valour’s cute little arm was bent backwards, Josh was trying to hold him still as he began to flap, and his arm was flopping this way and that, we knew it was definitely broken. We wrapped his arm in a magazine to keep it from moving and rushed to the hospital. My heart was racing as I checked his body for other possible signs of serious injuries praying that the arm was the only injury. The X-ray showed a full brake of both bones in the lower arm, but the Dr was unable to proceed with surgery and casting as Valour had just eaten and would need to be at least 9 hrs without having taken anything to be under anaesthetic. This meant for Valour to stay with a temporary brace for the night without having his so loved milk bottle to suckle on as comfort.
Surgery was booked for the first thing in the morning. As you can imagine none of us slept a wink that night. Poor little Valour was kept from having any food, milk or water for 9 hrs. My heart was just bleeding inside as he tried to communicate with his few cute words he could speak and brining me all the bottles he could find in the house saying that he wanted food and his “mimi” (milk bottle). It was a very emotional and heartbreaking situation to be in, I just couldn’t wait for this day to be over and to be able to give him as much food and mimi as he wanted along with long cuddles. Poor little guy couldn’t understand what was happening and why all this was happening, Oh how I wished I could take his pain and go though it instead of him.
During the surgery the Dr was able to set both broken bones straight again without any pins or plates to be put in place praise God. I thought from there the hardest part was over, little did i know that Valour was still not allowed to have any drink or food for another 2hrs after he woke up from surgery, as there is high risk of vomiting. Those were the toughest two hrs. Valour woke up drowsy and very confused, as soon as he opened his eyes he was asking for “mimi...” keeping his “mimi” from him was tough. All I wanted was to comfort him and show him that everything is over and that everything will be ok again. But all Valour was thinking and wanting was to have his “Mimi” and he couldn’t understand why he was kept from having it. The moment we stepped out of that hospital was a huge relief. Finally Valour could have his “Mimi” again, and a huge reward for being such a brave boy.
Though out this difficult two days, the rest of the 6 weeks with the cast seemed not to much of a bother for Valour. He was back to his old self playing, wrestling and laughing faster then I expected. Through this terrible incident, I still give all the glory and praise to God. How his hand of protection was over Valour as he fell, the injury could have been so much more severe. God surely has so much love and a special hand of protection over our little ones, more so then we can ever imagine.
We really appreciated your prayers and kind words through this time !
Jess
