Alice's Stitches

Alice’s Stitches

11-8-14

The morning started out like any other Saturday with the mad rush to clean the house, get dressed, fold laundry and put it away, eat breakfast, etc.  All this is doable until you add Alice into the mix.  Abby was trying to clean the toy room and Alice was messing it up as fast as Abby was cleaning it.  In all of this, Alice tripped over Abby’s foot and hit her chin on a wood box.  The cut needed stitches and the girls felt so bad for Alice that they were trying to make her feel better about getting stitches (not that she knew what stitches were) and so they pulled out their baby books and started to show Alice their stitches, staples, etc. to make her feel like it was all going to be ok.  Then they put a show on for her, made her a stuffed bear and a stuffed heart and cards. 

The appt. at the Dr. office finally arrived three hours after the incident and we dropped the girls off at a friend’s house since we didn’t want them to see this traumatic experience of Alice getting stitches.  The Dr. explained to us that they would have to wash out the wound by squirting saline solution straight into the cut and then they would put some numbing gel on it for 20 minutes and then suture it up.  It was just a superficial type tear, so a shot was not needed.  The Dr. said that kids this age just scream and we have to make sure we hold her head still and keep her arms out of the sterile field while they sew.  The nurse came in and shut the door behind her and said, “We don’t want to scare all the other kids with her screaming.”  We held down Alice, gave her a binky, and prepared for the worst as they washed out the cut multiple times.  No tears, just worried looks.  Then the cold numbing medicine was placed on her chin and she was just fine.  We waited the 20 minutes in the waiting room and read multiple books.  At this point I asked Brian, “Did you say a prayer?”  He said, “yes”.  I replied, “That explains why that went so well.  Hopefully she does ok with the sutures.”  I had not prayed thinking that it wouldn’t do much since Madison and Abigail’s experiences with stitches had been so horrendous.  I was expecting the worst.  When we laid Alice on the table for stitches and gave her a binky, Alice was looking at Brian with wide eyes and a scared look on her face.  I made sure Alice could see me as I tickled her head.  As the Dr. began to prepare the first stitch, I started to sing to her.  I sang “Twinkle, Twinkle little star” and Brian joined in.  There were no tears and the needle had gone in.  We continued to sing, “I am a Child of God”, “I love to see the Temple”, “Teach me to walk in the Light”, and “Popcorn popping on the apricot tree”.  These are the song we sing to her for bedtime and she loves them.  The final stitch was done and we picked Alice up and held her.  She didn’t make a sound and laid perfectly still.  The Dr. and nurse were both so amazed and so were we. 

We picked up the girls after this and told them that Alice didn’t even cry.  That is when Madison said, “I said a prayer for Alice.”  Abby then said, “I did too.”  I said, “In your heart?  Or did you kneel down and pray?”  Madison said, “I knelt down and said a prayer and Abby saw me and said one too.” It was then that I realized that this was a Miracle of three peoples prayers.  What a tender mercy from the Lord.  He gave us this experience to show that he does answer prayers, even things that one might think are impossible.  We had a family prayer to Thank Heavenly Father when we got home and then ate ice cream with sprinkles (Alice picked it out after the appt.).   I hope to never forget this experience when it comes to praying for what I may think is the impossible.  I feel I had the most to learn from this.