On our way out to the car Wednesday night, the 18th, from the rodeo, Calli had a fall and we had the most scary, traumatizing moments of our lives. We are so thankful the God chose for Calli to be ok and that today she is completely normal, with no lasting impact from the accident, other than some activity restrictions that are hard to keep a 4 year old to. I've been putting off blogging about her accident, but wanted to write about it for the girls' blog books, and so we could all remember God's faithfulness and what he taught us during this scary time.
We got just one aisle over from the van and I clicked the unlock button on the keys. The girls asked if they could run ahead, I checked for cars, said ok, and Kendall and Calli started skipping ahead of me to the van. Both of them slipped in their new boots and went down. Kendall hopped up, but Calli didn't so I jogged over to her to help her up, thinking she was just needing a little help. When I bent down to reach for her hands, I saw that she was completely still and her eyes were half open, and not focused. I screamed for Randy and he ran over and laid down over her, trying to wake her up and listening for breathing. I absolutely lost it, started crying and reached for my phone to call 911. I got the girls in the van, but all I really remember about those next few moments was just panic and crying out to God for my baby to wake up. I couldn't even speak well to 911 - trying to tell them where we were in a massive parking lot outside NRG stadium. Sheriffs came up to help Randy, some onlookers came over to try to help, and eventually rodeo medical staff got there. 911 eventually told me I could hang up and I realized they were probably talking with the rodeo at that point, coordinating where they could get in and park closest to us. All this time, Calli wasn't waking up, and Randy and I honestly didn't know what to think, except that she had a brain injury, would she ever wake up, and what would she be like if she did wake up. We were terrified. Randy listened the whole time for breathing and she never stopped, but it did get very faint at times. I was standing back, crying, and praying, and trying to think about my big girls who were in the van and were scared just like us. It was awful. Eventually, when the rodeo medical team got there, they started moving Calli onto a stabilizing board and strapping her and her head still. This is when she woke up and I think I breathed for the first time. She started crying and fighting them and we knew she would be ok. Looking back at phone calls after the fact, we pieced together that she was out for 10-12 minutes, even though it felt like much longer.
I rode with Calli in a 4 wheeler up to the front gate of the rodeo, where they transferred us to the ambulance and took us to Texas Childrens Hospital. Randy followed behind with the girls in the van, and I remember thinking it would probably take him forever to get through all the rodeo traffic. Calli was so scared in the ambulance and when we got to the hospital. She kept asking over and over again "Are you going to leave me?" It just broke my heart even more, and I just kept telling her, through tears, that I was not leaving her and I would be right with her the whole time. We got checked in to the ER to a room, and Randy and the girls got there shortly after. He had already called the Pickerings and they were on their way to Houston (at 10pm) to come and get our big girls. I was so thankful to know that not only would our big girls be taken care of, but that we would have people there with us. Calli was evaluated by several doctors and then taken to have a CT scan done of her head and her neck. She was in a neck cuff at this point and hated it. She was also very sleepy, and kept falling asleep, which eventually the doctors said was ok. They had her hooked up to monitors and were able to watch her activity as she rested. Greg and Kathy came for the girls, took them home and Michelle met them at our house and spent the night with them. We were so thankful for all our sweet friends that took such good care of us during this scary time!
The neuro doctor came in to evaluate Calli and they decided to admit her overnight to just watch her. Her CT scan showed a skull fracture, two areas of hemorhagging,and a contusion. But she was ok cognitively, and everything else seemed normal. We were so relieved but still so in shock about what had just happened. We were taken up to a room at around 3am, and switched into a better bed and able to get settled for the rest of the night. I stayed in the bed with Calli the whole time we were in the hospital, and Randy slept on the couch. We got a couple hours of sleep before doctors started coming in at 6.
That next day, we just let Calli rest and the doctors and nurses checked on her every so often. They left the neck cuff on her to stabilize her head, and by that afternoon she was more than ready when they took it off. Mary and Debbie came up that morning with a change of clothes for us, contact solution, and toothbrushes. It had been a long night. We were thankful for that change of clothes! We didn't ask for them to bring a whole lot else, because all the doctors had been saying we would probably go home that afternoon. But 5:00 rolled around and they said that they wanted to keep us one more night. We were frustrated at first, but when we started thinking about how Calli had really been asleep more than she had been awake all day, it made us feel better that they wanted to watch her one more night. That evening, after a good nap, she woke up more alert than she had been the whole time. We pulled her in a wagon to the outdoor garden, ate a little dinner, gave her a bath, which was a little tricky with her IV, but made her feel better, and then watched Frozen. That was the most like herself that she had been and we were thankful to see that.
That night, she slept all night and when we woke up Friday morning, the doctors came to see her and said we could take her home. She got her IV out, and she was ready to be home. We have to come back in a few weeks for them to re-evaluate her and check her fracture, and she also has some strong restrictions. No running, cartwheels, jumping on the trampoline, swinging, climbing - we can't have her falling and hitting her head as it is healing so we just have to be very careful as she heals - for 3 months! That's a long time for a 4 year old! But we are so thankful she is ok and are so aware of how bad it could be if she re-injures herself. And she has done really well so far in knowing her limitations right now. 
Calli came home feeling better and with no lasting impact. Randy and I were not as quick to heal. The whole thing was very traumatic, and it took us (mostly me) awhile to be ok. For the next few days, I cried a lot, thought back to the accident a lot, and just really grieved a lot. It was hard and I wondered if life would ever feel "normal" again. We talked about it a lot though with each other and with friends, we prayed a lot, and life got back to normal and we started feeling better. Walking from having such a wonderful time, to all of the sudden thinking we had lost our baby, and then to her being ok, was just a lot to work through. My prayer those few days came from my one year Bible reading Thursday, from Psalm 61 and it was "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." I needed a Rock that was higher than where I was. I was sinking in fear and grief and uncertainty and I was so thankful to have a Rock I could call out to who was higher than where I was. I am thankful that I can say God is good and Calli is healed. God is not good because Calli is healed - we know he is good all the time. But oh how thankful we are that she is ok!
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