I love holidays. I love making fun and exciting foods. I love been near family, talking, joking, playing games and all the other good stuff that comes from being surrounded by the people you love. Yes, they can be stressful times as well but only if you let small things pester and annoy. I am trying harder each year to focus on the good parts of holidays and so "oh well" when those small pests try and ruin good times and relationships.
We enjoyed 2 dinners again this year. First up was with the Watterson's, who I am pretty sure have never started a Thanksgiving dinner at the time they say, ever. Regardless, they are tons of fun. Jake's cousins hosted again this year and held, what will probably be a tradition from now on, a dessert contest. Luckily for us living so far away and generally staying with family for the holidays, we generally receive easy assignments. Because of that, we try to make up for it with dessert. For that reason, we won the dessert contest this year. However, in the 2 years we've had the contest, both our desserts were more Christmasy because of peppermint flavor but who cares, right?
Watterson dinners are just like the ones I grew up with so its easy for me to feel at home and comfortable. There are lots of people and most of them are talking. Plenty of conversations going on and plenty of good food to go along with it.
I am so grateful to have married into such a great family, who enjoys spending time together and who tries to do it often. They always try to be the best support and offer such great help to us.
After winning the dessert competition, we packed up and headed down to spend some time with my family. We had been invited to eat with my uncle (dad's brother), his family, my family, and my dad's sister's family. My girls love going to their house. They have 2 different kids play areas tucked underneath stairs with toys to spare and a dog. Sammi enjoys smaller animals but Ellie loves all animals, big or small.
We arrived shortly after dinner had started but because we had just eaten we mostly just snacked. The girls took off and played without eating. After everything was cleaned up, we played a few rounds of Telestrations and then ate dessert. We have a traditional family dessert; steamed chocolate pudding with a sweet cream sauce. It has a different taste and texture so isn't always popular. Sammi loves it though.
About this time, things start to take on a surreal feeling in my memory. I don't remember how much time passed or even what I was doing at the exact moment when it happened. I remember sitting in a chair, watching the kids play with the dog, a golden lab. I remember a vague sense of knowing I am surrounded by family. I look up to see Ellie kneeling on the ground and reach up to give the dog a hug around the neck. Without warning, the dog turns, bites down on Ellie's cheek, and starts to shake his head back and forth. In what seems like both seconds and minutes, the dog has released her, she is in my arms, my aunt is holding her hand to Ellie's cheek walking with me out the door. Jake has run to the car, my sister has grabbed a fresh, damp wash cloth to cover her cheek, and we jump into the car to rush to the hospital. Jake is about as panicked as a worried parent can be, however I feel as though I am in a daze. Ellie sits in my lap almost in hysterics.
As we drive, I ask Ellie if we can say a prayer. I begin to pray; asking for safe passage to the hospital, asking for a calm reassurance over us and the hospital, asking for comfort for our families, etc. During the prayer, Ellie quiets down and sits calmly in my lap. We arrive a few short minutes later as the hospital isn't very far. I walk in with Ellie as Jake parks and we are immediately taken back. Amazingly, there isn't another person in the ER waiting room.
I won't detail too much more. My parents showed up to the hospital little bit later. Jake and my dad gave Ellie a blessing and then my parents left to take Sammi to their house. Ellie ended up with at least 20 visible stitches on her face. After the prayer, the only time she cried or acted scared was when they put in and took out the IV. She was laughing and giggling by the time we arrived back to my parents' house and making jokes about how funny she talked (they had put her completely under and deadened the cheek while placing the stitches). Four days later, the plastic surgeon removed the stitches.
Through all of this, I haven't felt angry, annoyed, or upset with the dog or anyone in my uncle's family. Mostly I have felt grateful for all that I have learned and sometimes sad knowing the pain and sadness other feeling knowing Ellie had to go through this. Ellie still loves dogs, has petted several large ones, and even still asked for one for Christmas (however my sister's kids who witnessed this removed dogs from their lists). She is a little jumpy if a larger dog startles her or one jumps a little too quickly without warning towards her face but she still loves to scratch, pet, and give loves to just about any dog that she sees.
I feel I am a little closer to my uncle, aunt, and cousins and in subsequent conversations have learned that they feel like they have received blessings, learned new lessons, or gained something of spiritual nature from this experience. I share the same feeling. I hope as I share a few things I learned, I can explain them well and hope you can recognize the same things in your life.
Ellie, and almost all children, act and react to situations based on how adults treat them or react to those same situations. The day after this happened, Ellie wanted to come with me to a wedding shower. She had a giant bandage on her face to protect the stitches. I was worried how she would react when people asked what happened because we hadn't really discussed with her what happened, I wasn't sure what she remembered, and I had barely slept the previous night for every time I closed my eyes I saw the dog turn on her again and again. I also wasn't sure how she would feel as people looked at her cheek instead of her eyes or any other part of her face. As we walked, I tried to prepare her and talk with her about what people might do or say. She told me she knew what happened and understood that people would ask questions. The first person we see stops and asks what happened. Ellie glanced at me for reassurance so I nodded at her and she tells them she was bit on the face by a dog. It was so matter of fact and so brave. She still tells anyone who asks and she doesn't seem bothered when people are curious and want a closer look. She bases the way she acts on the way Jake or I react to how people ask or treat her. I realized that she has a greater understanding of who she is than I did from about age 8 until almost 20.
This experience has also reinforced what I have recently started to figure out about God's plan. Enveloped in God's all encompassing plan are individual plans for each of us that are interconnected. Sometimes we experience trials because they are for us. Sometimes others experience trials so that we may learn from them. Although Ellie, me, Jake, my family, my uncle's family all have had to go through this, each of us have something to learn and to gain. Its hurts a little to know she experienced this but I know that both she and I would choose to go through this experience again, feel the pain and fear and anything else that happens because of this experience if we knew and understood what benefits, lessons, and blessings it would bring to all the people involved. If given the choice, Ellie would sacrifice and do this over and over again just so others could learn and grow and become better. Because she is that kind of girl and she has that kind of love for others. I have gained greater insight to what the Savior must feel for us because of this trial.
I am grateful to Heavenly Father for answered prayers. Our prayers wouldn't be able to change this experience or make it so it never happened but because of faith and prayers, those involved have been able to move past this experience, learn something they may have never learned any other way, and Ellie's cheek is healing faster and better than I could have imagined. She may or may not have scars, but I hope that either way all of us will remember the things we learned because of her trial to which we were all witnesses.
