Looking Good

As horrible as this x-ray looks, it's actually much better than the first where the bone is broken and not aligned, or displaced. This was taken on Monday of last week, exactly one week after Linsey broke her arm. The Human body is amazing. Children especially have an incredible ability to heal. This bone actually grows together and over time, all that will remain is a small bump.

Yesterday we went to another doctor appointment and we were thrilled to hear that Linsey has made "remarkable progress" in one week. Her x-rays show that new bone is already beginning to grow. She is more comfortable now because things aren't moving around in there anymore. She has also started to regain slight movement in her wrist and thumb, enough that her doctor was quite surprised. All branches of the nerve are working now, not perfectly, not great, but working. We are SO grateful! With her drastic improvement in one week, the doctor thinks she may be better much sooner than the original 2-4 months.

We are so grateful for all of our family and friends that have been keeping Linsey in their prayers. She is very loved and has great faith. I know that her progress is not coincidence or good luck. This is an answer to our prayers and fasting, a blessing for our family.

The Beach

I LOVE the beach! It's my favorite place to go and staying for a week seemed like the perfect vacation. My kids all love to play in the water and sand and can be entertained for hours. They love spending time with their cousins so planning this trip with my brothers family only made our perfect vacation that much more fun!




The beach was in our backyard, literally. It really was the perfect set up.

On the beach behind our beach house, the kids discovered a small river.

It was perfect. Not too deep and a little warmer than the ocean waves.

I loved that the backyard was nothing but sand and it was fenced. The kids spent hours digging in the dirt and playing with the hose. We didn't care how dirty they got and no one got after them to turn the water off. Best of all, we got to spray them down with the hose before they came in.

The dad's spent a fair share of time playing in the backyard as well.

By the end of the week we had a hot tub and a cave. There was a sign in our beach house that encouraged digging. I wonder if we went too far with that.


Austin had the time of his life. He loved the water and sand and all the older kids SPOILED him rotten.

All the boys went crabbing. Here they are enjoying their catch! Yum!

Later in the week when Linsey was feeling a little better, we ventured out to the Tilamook Cheese factory.

I love cheese curd and everyone loves ice cream!

especially Austin.

We spent lots of time relaxing and lounging at the beach.

Even Linsey found her way back down to the beach by the end of our near perfect trip.

My parents and my brother Anthony joined us for the last 2 days of our vacation.

Grandma and Grandpa showed up with puzzles for Linsey to do (which were a hit for everyone), a fun craft, and goodies. Anthony is very popular with the kids, they LOVE him.

I love this picture of Emma and Anthony. It's hard to see unless you enlarge it, but you can tell that they just adore each other.


Some of my favorite pictures from the trip were of Emma throwing a frisbee. She does a little hop in the air as she throws it and it's just plain hilarious.

This next one is my favorite.

Austin had been walking a little these last few weeks, but this trip he made the switch to walking all the time. I loved watching him chase the seagulls.

It's so fun to have a bonfire on the beach and this was the best spot.

Ahh, smores!

Poor Linsey, she really was a trooper.

Jared caught some great shots of Emma dancing on the beach. She is such a fun little girl.

Here Hunter is running from the waves, that never gets old.

It's too bad that Linsey broke her arm, other that the accident, this trip was absolutely perfect!

Update

Every time we go to an appointment, Linsey leaves with different braces and slings. All my kids have been having fun taking turns trying them on. Now we have enough to outfit the entire family.

Monday I took Linsey to an orthopedist where we thought she would get a cast put on. Turns out that they typically don't use a cast for a break on this part of the arm, but prefer a fracture brace and sling. As we were about to leave the doctor asked Linsey to move her fingers and wrist around. She was unable to pick up her wrist or move her thumb. This means that the radial nerve that runs down her arm was damaged at some point. He wanted me to take her to the local Children's Hospital for further examination. We saw a pediatric orthopedist that specializes in surgery. She was great, very thorough, very competent and answered
the ten thousand questions we had.

Basically the Radial nerve in Linsey's arm was either stretched or bruised during the
accident. So it stopped working. However, she still has sensation in her fingers and
hand so it's not severed. Linsey even said that originally she felt some numbness in her
hand but that's gone away now. So she's improving. The doctor said that the treatment
for this is to just wait and see if the nerve heals itself, 3 to 4 months. Doing anything else
is too risky and wouldn't help much. Linsey has to wear the brace for at least 2.5 months
but, once it's started to heal, she can take it off to shower and stuff.

We feel much better about her prognosis. We are sure with all the prayers and fasting from concerned family and friends, she's going to pull through this. It's a little weird to see her hand so lifeless but we're confident it will improve.

Thanks for all your help, phone calls and concern. We really do appreciate it.

The Accident

It was only a broken arm and a couple scratches.

It could have been much worse.

We’re lucky.

We took a trip to the beach with my brother Chris’s family. It’s always fun to get our kids together. Monday morning it was a little cool, too cool to play in the water, but perfect for a bike ride. We had brought all the older kids bikes and one adult bike. Jared volunteered to take the kids for a bike ride; I stayed at the beach house with Austin, Emma and her cousin Gavin. Chris and Tally took a walk along the beach hoping to catch a few pictures as the kids came back. They waited, and waited…

Jared and the 5 oldest kids headed off on their adventure. I’ve never taken a bike ride along the beach, it must have been pretty cool. They rode as far down the beach as they could until they reached a big rock jetty that stopped their progress. They hopped off their bikes and began to play in the water. They all stood on a big log that looked embedded in the sand. Some small waves came in and splashed them a little. It was a fun game and the log never moved. Then, a really big wave came. This time the log moved. The kids began to panic and run, but Linsey slipped. The huge log caught her and rolled right over her little body.

The kids said they’ve never seen Jared run so fast. He raced over to Linsey and scooped her up. Screaming and crying she tried to wipe her hair off her face and that's when she realized her arm wouldn't move. She looked down and could see that her shoulder was moving, but the rest of her arm hung limp. It was obvious to Jared that her arm was broken. She was sobbing and scared and in shock. Her face went white. Jared sent Hunter and Zach off on their bikes to tell us she was hurt. Jared realized that he couldn’t just put Linsey in a car and drive her to the hospital, besides, the beach was far from the road. So he sent Braydon to find an adult and ask for help. But it was all taking too long. He made a bed for Linsey in the sand using piles of sand to secure her arm, elevate her feet (thanks to Eagle Scout training) and rest her head. He headed up the big rock wall where there was some construction going on.

He was able to find help. A construction worker radioed for an ambulance and another grabbed blankets and headed back to the beach with Jared. Not long after, an ambulance, 3 fire trucks, two rescue vehicles and a bucket load of volunteer vehicles all showed up.

One of the construction workers let Jared use his phone and he was able to contact Chris and Tally as they were strolling along the beach waiting for a picture they would never get. Jared described where on the beach he was leaving all the kids and bikes. Chris and Tally got there just as Linsey was all loaded up and they were ready to pull away. It was pretty traumatic. All the kids had swollen red eyes and were pretty shaken up.

Nearly 15 people surrounded Linsey as they secured her neck in a brace and put her on a stretcher. They flattened the tires of an emergency vehicle so they could drive right down onto the beach and then they loaded her into an ambulance and raced her off to the hospital labeled as a trauma patient.

Once Chris and Tally got back with the other kids and all the bikes, I hopped in the car with Chris and we got to the hospital just after Linsey had gotten back from X-ray. My heart ached. I kept hoping it wasn’t really true, and that she was fine. I had been getting bits and pieces of the story from 7 year olds. To see her lying on a stretcher with her clothes cut made me feel sick to my stomach.

Pretty quickly after a doctor looked her over, he downgraded her trauma status to just a broken arm. She must have put her arm up just as the log came over because she had a clean humerus break right between her shoulder and elbow. Thankfully it’s below the growth plate and can easily be fixed with 6 weeks of being in a cast (too bad that’s the ENTIRE summer). It’s amazing how fast kids heal. We are so grateful she is okay.

I failed to mention that in Jared’s super-hero rescue, he took on that same log and battered up both of his shins. One was much worse that the other. As we sat in the ER, Linsey on a stretcher and Jared with an ice pack on his bruised and bloodied shin, I felt so bad for both of them and I wondered if our vacation was over.

The accident did put a damper on our plans, but Linsey did NOT want to come home. We decided that as uncomfortable as she was, it was probably better for her to lie on the couch at the beach house rather than in a car for hours. We are lucky that the beach was right out our back door. Linsey even ended up back on that beach by the end of the week. I'll post more about all of the fun things we did on our week long trip to the beach soon!

Celebrating

Linsey's 10th Birthday!

A new bike and a fun party, what more could a girl want?

Linsey loves how her teacher at school has a raffle so we came up with some fun ideas and had a raffle birthday party. Each of the girls got raffle tickets with their invitation and also a list of some other ways they could earn extra tickets.

Simple things like wear a fashion scarf or be one of the first 5 guests to the party (they started coming 40 minutes early), or wear Linsey's favorite colors (turquoise and green). We also awarded an extra ticket to the person who brought the heaviest gift, had the cutest hair-do, and wore the most jewelry. I didn't expect all the girls to get into it as much as they did, but it really turned out to be a lot of fun!

We played some fun games and the girls continued to earn more and more tickets....

...until finally it was time to do our raffle.

Linsey had fun holding out each prize and drawing the winners.

Then it was time for cake and ice cream.

Since Linsey loves soccer, we made soccer ball cupcakes.

Linsey has lots of great friends and got so many fun, thoughtful gifts. Another way the girls could earn an extra raffle ticket was to make Linsey a homemade card, which they all did.
So sweet.

Linsey has been putting together a scrapbook (she got a scrapbook kit from one of her friends), and she is including each card, they really do mean a lot to her. Because everyone knew Linsey's favorite colors (they earned extra tickets for wearing them), she got clothes, nail polish, jewelry, hair accessories, lotions and other fun things all in turquoise and green. It was perfect!

Aunt Bri took Linsey shopping for her birthday gift. They went to Linsey's favorite store and between a gift card Linsey got from her friend and Aunt Bri's generosity, she got a whole new outfit!

Linsey is a wonderful daughter and I love spending time with her. She is a great sister to Hunter and Emma and she is a huge help with Austin. We love her so much. Happy Birthday!