STITCHES!

Below is a fuzzy picture of Hope's hospital bracelet. This marks

her first trip to the ER, and Brent and I are are kind of counting on making more.

Seven stitches :0(

But she's no worse for wear :)

I was headed out the door Tuesday evening for a relaxing hair cut when Brent raced in, Hope in his arms, crying, holding a blood-soaked towel to her chin. She had jumped off the side of our pool, but not jumped out far enough. As she came down, she was too close to the side and Whammo! she smacked her chin. It was a deep gash, very ugly. I held her as we raced to the nearest hospital, wet children in tow.

We were racing so fast, I'm pretty sure we got a red-light photo ticket too!

We walked into a very crowded emergency room and started to wait. Fortunately, Brent's parents were on their way to pick up Grace, and our sister-in-law, a nurse, called other hospitals inquiring as to the wait in their ER's. We found one with a 2-minute wait and got back in the car. Hope was doing pretty well, asking me lots of questions like, "Will you stay with me?" and "My neck and hair are itchy." (The blood had dried and was matted on her neck and hair - gross). The nurses and doctor took great care of us, bringing her goody bags, stickers and all sorts of things. She ended up getting 7 stitches - not fun, but she was very brave.

We're scheduled to get them removed Monday and we're thankful for good care. We're pretty sure this might be the first of many visits to the ER since Hope is quite adventurous!