Lesson learned

I'm really not sure where to begin with this story, so I'll probably (in true Lisa form) give the long version.  Yesterday afternoon we made plans with our friends Kevin & Jenny to go see the new Indiana Jones movie.  We use the same babysitters, so they brought their youngest daughter over and we had 2 of our high school girls from church come over to watch the kids.  Both of our kids were sleeping and we were going to an early movie - no big deal.  About halfway through the movie Kevin's cell phone started ringing (Clay had 5 missed calls because his phone was on silent).  He answered, jumped up, and told us we had to go and started running out of the theater.  Never a good thing.  We get to the lobby and I heard him say "Ray-Ray," and then he handed the phone to Clay and said the EMT was on the phone.  Again - never a good thing.  As we are racing to Cook Children's to meet the ambulance, we call the girls (who at this point, bless their hearts, are just beside themselves) to get the story.  Apparently Ethan and Sophia were playing in our bathroom and got some water on the floor.  Rachel came in right behind them, slipped on the water, and fell straight back on her head on the slate floor.  Haley picked her up and said she started shaking, her eyes rolled back in her head, and Julianne said her lips were turning blue.  I'm not sure of the next course of events, but they called Haley's mom (who thankfully lives right up the road), called 911, and the paramedics were here in no time.  Rachel was crying when they got here and very agitated, and they went ahead and took her to the ER.  She apparently knocked her head so hard that it caused a seizure, and they took her in to get her all checked out.  We actually beat the ambulance to the hospital, so we were waiting on her when she came in - that is not a sight a mother should ever see.  I really knew she was going to be okay, but it just broke my heart to think of that precious girl on an ambulance all by herself - no familiar faces, no pink blanket - nothing.  The girls asked if they could go with her, but the paramedics said they couldn't ride in back with her so there really wasn't any point.  We were there a couple of hours, had a head CT which came back perfectly clear, and were released to go home with a very sleepy and very agitated little girl who had a pounding headache.  She was so miserable in the hospital that she really did let out a huge sigh of relief when we walked outside to the car.  And thankfully my parents met us at the hospital with a carseat so we could safely get her back home. 

She did really well last night but woke up this morning with a fever - completely unrelated to the incident last night.  So, she's resting a lot today and taking it easy and we're all okay with that.  Sweet Ethan just said, "Daddy, those fire police men came and took Rachel to make her all better!"  You have to love that innocence. 

Okay - so back to the title - lesson learned.  I always, always leave a notepad on the fridge with the info on where we're going, any special instructions for Ethan, and our home address.  Well, we left in such a hurry yesterday that I didn't put the note up there.  So, the poor girls called 911 and had no clue what our address was.  Thankfully I had a card ready to be mailed sitting on our end table, and they remembered to look there for the return address.  So, when you have a babysitter, even though you KNOW nothing will happen (yeah, right), leave your address and birthdates of your kids in an easy to find spot. 

Rachel really is going to be fine, and we're all slowly getting over the shock of the experience.  Most of all we're just thankful that it wasn't more serious.  And Haley and Julianne - we love you girls and we thank God that you did everything you did for our sweet girl.