It's all fun and games 'til someone gets hurt!

This year three of the children brought their scooters along. There's a nice hill right outside the Villa. They were laughing and having a great time riding their scooters while I yelled from the side lines, "Be careful!" "Get off to the side of the road!" "Watch out for each other!" "You guys really need knee, elbow and head protection." "Try not to go so fast!" They kept insisting they would be fine. Then Brady hit a rough patch of loose gravel on the road and wiped out! He jumped up, left his scooter behind and ran limping back up the road calling, "Mom! Mom!" He ought to know by now that I am not the person to call when someone gets hurt! (I nearly passed out at Avery's ballgame two years ago when Avery got hit in the finger with the ball. It was more than seeing the blood, it was listening to them talk about how he'll loose the nail, how they couldn't get the bleeding to stop, etc.) After calling out to me, Brady fell to the ground. He later said he passed out. At that point I ran back into the villa to get Dale. My next move was upstairs to pray that Brady would be OK, and not seriously hurt. I was feeling very sick myself at this point and couldn't listen to Avery as he ran in the bedroom to give me a description of Brady's injuries. I felt weak, shaky and about to throw up! The last thing I need to hear is how bad it is! Once I calmed down some, I got up my nerve to peek out the window. I could see Dale helping Brady to walk and Brady was white as a ghost! My prayers were answered though, and his injuries weren't too bad. He had a bad scrape on his ankle and upper leg. The entire length of his back was also scraped and bleeding. No need for stitches, no broken bones, what a blessing!

No more riding scooters down steep hills unprotected again! Lesson learned -- the hard way!