Train Tracks, Tears, and a Little Trouper

We came up with the wonderful idea this afternoon to try to have a family photo taken before we move. My Understudy, Kori (didn't know you had a title, did ya Kori?) agreed to accompany us to an old abandoned train station she found and attempt to cajole smiles out of all 7 of us at once (Kori is not only generous with her time, but also a bit crazy...oops, i mean optimistic).

We took a few posed shots first. Charming snaps of my 5 little goobers...Asa standing behind me with his hand down the top of my dress, Astrid with her signature "I don't want to smile and you can't make me" look pasted on her chubby face, Ethan looking oh so "pretween" with every other shot catching him either mid eye roll or bored out of his mind, Ezra slumped in Justin's arms or rooting on his shirt in search of milk that he hasn't quite realized does not dispense from just any chest, and Julia with her dimples flashing but leaning a little too far to the left and covering half of Justin's face with her hair. Needless to say, you will not be receiving any of these photos in the mail.

We decided to give the kids a break to do a little caterpillar catching. We are infested with gypsy moth caterpillars right now and the kids love to turn themselves into caterpillar jungle gyms and see how many of the furry little creatures they can get crawling on them at one time. Bug catching quickly turned into big stick finding, which then turned into running with big sticks, which became chasing each other with big sticks, which is when IT happened. Ethan was in the lead and Julia was right on his heels, wielding a tree trunk (ok, maybe not an actual tree trunk, but it was a pretty big stick). They rounded the corner of an old train car and for a few seconds we couldn't see or hear them. Suddenly, the cheerful chirping of the birds was interrupted by a scream. Ethan and Asa quickly emerged from behind the train car but Julia was nowhere to be seen. Another, more urgent scream sent Justin into search mode and he took off running. I followed behind, carrying Astrid, and wincing as Ezra's head bounced in the crook of Justin's arm. Julia appeared on the muddy hill ahead of us. Justin and Kori reached her first and although I was still about 30 yards away, I heard Kori gasp, then saw her motion frantically for me to hurry. Justin handed Ezra off to Kori and swept Julia up in his arms as I rushed to them, the heels of my shoes catching on rocks and digging into the soggy terrain. I arrived at the scene panting and distressed and saw Justin tending to a huge gash on Julia's right leg, which was covered in blood, as crocodile tears rolled down her cheeks. Ethan was distraught and crying, fearing that his sister's injury was all his fault (she had been following him onto a train car, slipped, and sliced her leg open on the metal steps). While Justin cleaned the deep oozing wound, I tended to Ethan's emotional needs, and asked Kori to drive Justin and Julia to the hospital while I took the rest of the kids home.

Two and a half hours later Justin and Julia arrived home and I got the full report. On the 15 minute drive to the hospital Julia had not shed another tear for herself, but instead had spent the time worrying about how upset Ethan was. At the hospital she sat through the sewing of 14 stitches, without flinching. And when she and Justin had to go right back to the emergency room after being home for just 5 minutes (they had not given her a tetanus shot the first time) she returned with a smile and extra large character stickers for each of her siblings.

Now it's 9:52pm. All the kids are finally in bed, asleep. Although I regret that we didn't get a spectacular family photo out of this adventure, mostly I am just thanking God for the safety and sweet spirit of my cheerful little trouper.