Last night was a scary night. It was before dinner time and I was putting clothes away in the closet. I heard a big bang behind me followed by a loud, hurtful cry. When I turned around, I saw half of Christian’s face covered with flashy red blood. It was a lot of blood. And the bright red color was the scariest I’ve seen in my life. His forehead hit the corner of the bed when he was playing with Annabelle. Annabelle was so terrified that she wanted to cry but no voice was able to come out of her throat. I carried Christian down the stairs and yelled for my mom. Annabelle was holding his little hand, so worried that she would lose her little brother. Gratefully, we were able to stop the blood after a short while. But my heart got stabbed when  I saw the deep wound and his blood-soaked shirt.

Stitches. Yes, stitches. Scary but that was flashing in my mind.  I called Ricky at work and we went to the urgent care with him. Christian was still crying when we got into the car. And Annabelle started crying out loud with him. There were times when she would hit him in the face, but at that moment, she loved him so much.

Christian stopped crying when we were waiting in the surgery room. But he could not hide his nervousness. It was funny to see his little finger kept sliding on the iphone but his eyes were fixed on what the nurses were doing. It was indeed scary to hear the two nurses’ conversation. One of them said, “You hold his head and I hold his feet.” The other said,  “Oh may be I’ll hold his head and you strap his body down with a blanket.” Oh God, what are you doing to my boy!

So the doctor came. Christian was swaddled up with a blanket as planned. They covered his face with a piece of paper only showing the wound for the doctor to work on. That of course made him really upset.  It took Ricky and two nurses to hold him. My job was to talk to him and find ways to calm him. That was no easy job. He was hysterical. Even though he was held by three people, it was impossible to keep his head still when he kept crying and struggling furiously. I talked. I sang. I prayed. I counted. I played games with him. Nothing was working. But whenever I mentioned Annabelle, it seemed to catch his attention. So I called Annabelle and asked her to sing songs for Christian. I put her on speaker and there she was singing her favorite VBS song, “Ha-la-la-la-la-la-ha-le-lu-jah! Ha-la-la-la-la-la-ha-le-lu-jah!” YES! HALLELUJAH! It worked! Christian stopped crying and listened. But only for five seconds. Okay, next song Annabelle. “Today is the day You have made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. And I won’t worry about tomorrow and trust in what You say…” Christian stopped struggling again, and everyone in the room smiled.

Whew! After forever, five stitches were sewn onto his forehead. There was only one thing the doctor said afterwards. “He was strong!” The receptionists and patients waiting outside in the lobby could all hear his crying. As I was still putting together my heart that was broken into a million pieces, Christian was already playing again. He said proudly while poking at his forehead, “Daddy, I got bandage!”  What a fearless little rascal.