Sent by God

Last night was an extremely scary night for us! We picked the babies up out of bed and took them straight out to the van and put them in their car seats. We loaded up Mady and pulled out of the driveway. We got almost to the end of our street when we heard Sam starting to cough, what sounded like choke, and then vomit a very large amount. He did this a few times and then I flew into the back to see what was going on. I noticed that he was doing all of the above plus it was almost like he would stop breathing for a second after he coughed. I swept his mouth and felt something but couldn't tell what. Mark pulled over on the side of the road and I handed Sam out of the van...

Now, I'm almost in tears, Mady is crying and Hannah was starting to get fussy. Mark is on the side of the road (at the other entrance to our subdivision) patting him on the back and sweeping his mouth out. Sam is still continuing to choke, spit, cough and having trouble breathing. He's even coughing up a little bit of blood at this point. I looked up for a second and out of nowhere a there was a lady getting out of her truck (she was a state trooper) and a man with blue lights in his truck (he was a paramedic) getting out to assist us. They were off duty but stopped to help us. I know they were sent from God and were definitely angels sent to help us. I mean, they appeared out of nowhere! After a bit, Sam had calmed down and wasn't coughing or choking anymore. She told us that we needed to get him in to get checked out in case whatever was causing the issues had gotten caught somewhere else and later might get dislodged. We thanked them for stopping and then they were gone... almost as quick as they had arrived. It was definitely a God thing.

We put Sam back in his seat and started to head for the ER when he started having issues again. I took him out of his seat and sat in the back with him while Mark raced to the ER running through stop lights and stop signs. By the time we got to the ER, Sammy was acting normal but we wanted to get him checked out anyway.

I dropped Mark and Sam off at the door and went to park the van and get the girls out. When I walked in the ER, they were in the triage room with about 6 nurses. I started to get a little nervous but everything seemed ok. Our friend, Lindy, was working and was actually our nurse so that was nice.

They did an xray but didn't see anything on the xray. The doc said that if it was something small like a piece of cardboard or a bandaid that it wouldn't show up on the xray though so who knows. Mark said he felt something in his throat that resembled a band-aid. I thought I felt something a little more rough. There was a cut in the back of his throat when they examined him either due to something scratching him or us scratching his throat when we were doing the finger sweep?! We were just thankful that his lungs were clear and that there wasn't anything stuck in his esophagus or stomach. Praise God! A lady from peds came down and brought toys and crayons as we had all 3 kiddos in that tiny little ER room (fun!). We were released fairly quick and brought the kids home and put them to bed! What a night!!! Thank you Jesus that my little man is okay!

On a positive note, Sammy was weighed at the ER. His weight was 16lbs 4oz. He was weighed 3 weeks ago at his 1 year appt and was 14lbs 10oz. His weight has been a concern to us and so we've been praying for him. Praise! He's gained over a pound in 3 weeks!!!! Granted he had a diaper on and his wet shirt on last night but I'm still thankful that he's gaining so much weight! Hopefully by his 15 month appt he'll be close to 18lbs at this rate!!!! Go Buddy Go!!!!

What a blessing this little messy eater is! I love you so much, Samuel, and we're so thankful that you're okay!