a week since it happened

His gift shop pups in the hospital playroom

Last Friday, my youngest son had an accident with some of our shop equipment. He was diagnosed with a spinal injury, and is now in a halo brace for the next four months. We were in the hospital for five days, and came back home Wednesday afternoon. He is doing very well, and getting back into his normal routine. We are so thankful that he was spared a more serious injury. We appreciate all the intercession on his behalf from our friends and family, and know God is good.

He has an upbeat attitude and general acceptance of his situation. As of now, he doesn't want to be seen in his contraption. I have some nice photos that I took of him in the hospital, but I know it would upset him to post so I decided to protect his privacy online.

At the moment, I'm enjoying having a completely cleared schedule, so that I can focus on caring for him, the other kids, and nesting at home. The lying down harness that he must use in order to go in the car is a huge pain - literally, it pinches him - and so I'm thinking our trips outside the house will be few and only by necessity. So, this fall may be the first semester in years that we don't participate in 4H, and probably not co-op, either.

Before this happened, I was already feeling a strong sense of cutting back on everything because of my chronic fatigue/autoimmune stuff. Having the energy to get through each day was hard enough. This is all just an unfortunate confirmation.