Not a good night

Tonight was not a good night. Sabrina fell off her bike at about 3:00 in the afternoon and face planted pretty badly. After a moment of understandable panic while blood was dripping everywhere we noticed that her upper lip and gums were cut up pretty badly and one of her front teeth looked to be in pretty bad shape. We took Sabrina to her dentist and he said that since the tooth was only a baby-tooth it wasn't much of an emergency, but he thought there could be additional damage and recommended that we go to the emergency room.

After several hours there we discovered that she had, in fact, fractured her nose (thankfully the fractures were not displaced) as well as her upper maxillary (upper jaw bone). Neither appear to be serious fractures, but are nevertheless something to keep our eyes on.

We are all very grateful that it wasn't any worse. She wasn't wearing a helmet at the time - despite repeated warnings - and had she fallen more on head and less on her face we would probably be looking at a very serious skull fracture and concussion.

Earlier in the day Marci and I went to the temple and as I was leaving I went to write down some names to put on the prayer rolls. There were several names that I always put down and I was trying to think if there were anyone else and it occurred to me to put Sabrina's name down. I know that her name wouldn't have been on the official roles after just a few hours, but I still can't help but be grateful that she will now have the support of all of the prayers of those that attend the temple for the next few days.

As soon as the word was out that Sabrina was at the hospital getting tested many friends called to see if they could do anything to help. Tiffany walker came by to get a phone charger for my wife's phone that was about to die, and while she was here asked if there was any food she could bring to her since she was probably hungry - something I hadn't thought of. Mary Davis came by with some Mesa FroYo just to be nice since there were others out that night and they were thinking of Marci and Sabrina. Still other friends offered to come and watch our boys in case I wanted to go down to the hospital to be with Sabrina.

So...despite not having a pleasant night, and despite the fact that this whole episode will set us back financially by somewhere between $500 - $700, and despite the fact that all I could think about for several hours was how stupid the night had been and how much our life sucks right now...the generosity and caring attitudes of good friends helped me see that there are lots of things to be grateful for. This is just one more bump in the road.

I'm grateful today for loving family and friends who through their generosity and service bless our lives in innumerable ways.