Always

I guess Gabe couldn't have been more than 4 years old. If my memory serves me correctly, Kristina was 9 years old and was playing softball for her first and last time. Her friends were playing and she just wanted to fit in so badly that she decided she wanted to play and after the first game she realized that softball was not her thing. But, like parents always do, we made her finish out the season. So, half heartily we traveled around to all the parks that Spring playing ball.

.

Upon arriving at this particular park Gabe immediately noticed there was a playground right beside the field we would be playing on. He began to beg to go play. Those of you who know Gabe can envision him begging me and for those of you who don't know him, I'll describe it. Gabe is a very persistent little fella and always has been. When he sets his mind to something there is no stopping him. He jumps up and down, clasps his hands together as if he is praying, turns those big brown eyes into watery pools of chocolate and begins with the puh-leeeeeeeeze over and over and over and over and over and over.... I think you get the point now. So, what's a Mom to do? I cave! Nearly every single time...I cave. The older Gabe has gotten I have learned to build a force field so as not to be affected by his begging but still, there are days I just cave.

.

So, anyway, I agreed to let him go down to the playground by himself and play but told him that he had to stay within my eyesight. "If you can't see me then I can't see you and that won't work!" I instructed. I positioned myself at the top of the bleachers and began the motherly task of switching my head back and forth in between the playground and the ball field.

.

After about the 3rd or 4th inning I looked over and did not see Gabe. I sat there for a moment and waited thinking he may have been in the slide or climbing the ladder but he never appeared. I leaned over to another Mom telling her where I was going, hopped off the back of the bleachers and started towards the playground.

.

As I reached the edge of the playground I saw Gabe stooped down at the bottom of the slide with his hands underneath his chin. "Gabe!" I yelled. He looked up, not a tear in his eyes and said "I sink I'd hurt myshelf." I heard him say. So, I sort of picked up the pace and the closer I got to him the more blood I saw. He had decided to go down the slide on his tummy head first and upon reaching the end of the slide, shot off like a rocket and landed in the pea gravel splitting his chin wide open!

.

I picked him and carried him over to the ball field. Another Mom came over and started looking at him and the umpire who was a nurse called time in the game, jumped the fence and started helping. Blood was going everywhere and there was no stopping it. The decision was made to take Gabe to Children's Hospital so he could get stitches. Shane was at work so I grabbed Kristina, a ton of paper towels and we left. I can remember driving down I-65 towards Birmingham and Kristina leaning over towards Gabe with a wad of paper towels under his chin trying to stop the bleeding.

.

Shane met us at the hospital and as we entered the emergency room we realized it was packed. We sat for what seemed like forever and eventually were called up to the nurse. She coded Gabe as "white" and told us to have a seat. As I looked up at the chart I realized that "white" meant red, yellow and green colors would all go before we did. So, we found a spot and decided to wait. Within the hour a young man came in with his baseball uniform on. He had a pack of ice on his head and seemed a little dazed. His Mother began to tell us how he had slid into 2nd base trying to steal, his helmet had come off and he was hit in the head with the baseball. She removed the ice pack and showed us where he was hit and instead of the knot coming out he had a huge place where it was sunk in. I cringed as I looked at it and my stomach immediately turned into a bundle of knots.

.

The nurse called the young boy and his Mother up to the next and they gave him a code "green." I looked over at Shane and said "This poor boy is a code green, we are a code white...we're here forever." We made the decision to call Gabe's pediatrician who sent us to an after hours clinic. We were in and out within an hour with 4 stitches. Gabe still has the scar to prove his injury and I have often said that if he injuries himself anymore in life he is going to look like a Raggedy Andy doll all sewed up.

.

Aren't you glad that we as Christians aren't "coded"? No matter what is going on in our lives our Savior never fails. No matter the heartache, no matter the sin, no matter the mountain top we are standing on or the valley we have fallen into he never fails us! Big mistakes, little mistakes. Wonderful acts of kindness, small quiet ways we serve. He is there!

.

"...I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20 (NLT). He doesn't say that he is with us sometimes, every once in a while, only on Mondays...he is with us always!!