Alone in the Rain

   

     When I went into labor with all of my children I had contractions that were confusing. They would get really hard but not regular and then sometimes stop for a day or two, which always kept me confused about whether I was ready to have a baby or not. I was overdue to have my fourth child Cory. I had contractions all night one night, very hard and painful but 10 minutes apart. By morning I was in tears because the pain was so bad I thought the bones in my back and pelvis were going to shatter. I even broke the towel rack in the bathroom it felt so bad. I had a 10:00 doctor appointment but I was in too much pain to wait until 10:00 so I had Winn take me to the hospital. The nurse checked me and said I wasn't ready at all. She said she would talk to the doctor but most likely he would send me home. She left the room and I started crying and told Winn I couldn't stand the degree of pain I was in anymore. I said a quick prayer to tell my Heavenly Father the same thing. Right after my prayer, 5 minutes after the nurse left, I had another strong painful contraction, felt my water break and felt the baby coming. I yelled for Winn to get the nurse. She came running in when she heard me, just in time to deliver Cory, with my doctor being paged over the loud speaker to come to labor and delivery STAT. Cory and I showed the nurse that Cory really was ready to come. Little did I know that 5 years later on the exact same date it would happen again. It must be something about the 13^th, even though it wasn't a Friday. Cory came at 10:25, so if I had waited for my doctor appointment I would have had him in the waiting room. I guess Cory didn't want his brother Brett to have all the adventures.

     I was thankful that Cory was not a reckless child like Brett had been. Cory was more content to watch cartoons and read books. I was relieved. But with each one of my children there have been some tough things they have gone through that have built a stronger bond with them and make me even more thankful for them than I already was. With Cory it was a lot of bad bouts with croup. We were up a lot of nights with his barking cough and sitting outside in the cold with him so he could breath better. His first case as a baby was so bad he turned blue. It is scary when a baby is so small and their life is threatened.

Winn took turns with me when Cory was sick

     Cory was also allergic to mosquito bites and the mosquitoes loved him. His bites would always swell up a lot bigger than any bites I had seen and regularly his eyes would swell shut. His bites would also get blisters. Once his hand swelled up so big his fingers started turning purple and he got streaks up his arm and we had to call the doctor and keep it elevated through the night. I got so I was constantly putting repellant on him.

He had a bite on his left ear and it got pretty big

This bite later swelled his right eye shut

One on the right side of his face

His hand later swelled up so tight he couldn't bend his fingers and it turned purple

     He also had 2 bad cases of hives and he would scratch himself so hard non-stop he would end up all bruised from it. The itch drove him crazy. We never did figure out what he was allergic to and he hasn't had problems since he was little.

The start of hives

He scratched it so much it turned black

His second bout with hives

He wanted his little sister Haley to scratch his back

    He only got stitches once when he was playing with the other kids and fell into the corner of the stairs and took a chunk out of his forehead. Even healthy and well I would have appreciated my children but when they are sick it makes you reflect even more on their value and know you love them so intensely life would be horrible without them.

Stitches in his forehead

    When Cory was a toddler my four children were watching cartoons one morning and I was busy doing laundry. I got a sudden unshakable fear fill me for some unknown reason and without even checking on the kids I ran outside into the front yard, propelled by a power not my own. In the middle of the street stood Cory. We lived on a busy street because our street was the only way to get to a lot of the cul-de-sacs in the neighborhood. The street was busy that morning. One lane of traffic had stopped with several cars backed up with this little boy of mine in only a diaper blocking their way. He was just about to walk into the next lane of traffic when I grabbed him. Right after I grabbed him a car came speeding around the curve at the base of the road. I felt thankful that he was not hurt and the spirit guided me when I needed it to.

So glad we kept Cory safe through it all

     A neighbor on one side of us had a low fence my children could climb over and have access to get out on the street. I always locked the front door and constantly checked on my children if they were playing in the back yard. One day I looked around and could not find Cory anywhere. We all searched the house, yard and neighborhood several times and yelled his name and no Cory. Panic set in as I imagined him lost, hurt or kidnapped. I didn't know what to do. Then one of my children told me we should say a prayer for him. We all knelt down and prayed for Cory. As soon as the prayer ended I felt calm and I knew Cory was in the house. We searched the house again and I found him sound asleep in Winn's closet, a place I never would have thought of. I'm glad I taught my children to pray. 

Cory was found in the closet with the door closed

It looks like his Dad's pants made a good blanket

     A few months later, during a terrible snowstorm, I had to take Cory to a busy part of Denver to see a specialist my regular doctor had referred us to. Cory had one foot that turned in and when he tried to walk he kept tripping over his own foot. We drove to this doctor's office in a bad snowstorm in rush hour. The traffic was heavy and the roads slippery. As I was driving I slid at one point and slid across 3 lanes of traffic going the opposite direction and shot off the road and missed a telephone pole by an inch. I got out of the car shaking and looked at the lanes of traffic I had just shot through a road of non-stop traffic. I knew it was a miracle I wasn't hit by a single car and I missed the telephone pole. It is these kinds of experiences that have confirmed in my heart there is a God. I was also grateful our family knelt in prayer every morning to pray that we would all be safe.

Hanging out with Haley and his robot until it is time to go to kindergarten

    The next experience is one Cory wrote down in his journal when he got older: "One recess I was playing in the gravel near the cement tube. The whistle was blown and all of the kindergartners rushed inside to begin class. I didn't. I don't remember why, but I believed I just missed the memo (didn't hear the whistle). I continued to play in my own little world. I soon noticed, however, that all of the kids running around seemed bigger. The sky also seemed to be getting darker. Soon it began to rain. I ran and took shelter under a stone table. Several large kids walked by and poked fun at me. I was scared. After just a little bit of time I was left alone under the stone table, no one in sight. The rain poured down on the empty playground and I was afraid that if I went in late to class I would get in trouble. There was only one place I could think of going where I would be safe and not get in trouble, home. I climbed out from under the table and into the rain and started walking towards the parking lot, sobbing the whole way.  To this day I am surprised no one saw me or heard me, a tear and rain drenched kindergartener walking the neighborhood streets crying. I prayed almost the whole way home. I don't know if I would have made it otherwise. My mother was inside our house reading to my brother and sister when she heard crying outside. She didn't know what it was at first, but got up to find out where it was coming from. To this day I remember her walking out of the house and then wrapping me in a warm blanket and being hugged tightly by a mother who loves me more than I may ever understand. I have the best mom in the world. I have yet to find someone more loving and kind than her. Soon the rain stopped and my mother took me over to the school where she talked to the kindergarten teacher. They never even noticed I was missing after recess. It was after that day that they counted all the children before starting class again after recess. In other words, I  was never left on the playground again." We lived about a mile from the school with quite a few turns and Cory had never walked home from school before. He could so easily have gotten lost. I was thankful his prayer was answered and he made his way home safely to the mother who loves him more than he could ever understand. I am thankful for Cory.

I am so thankful for my children, including the oldest and youngest who aren't in this picture.