Wow! What a week!
Friday, I was getting ready to hang a painting that we just had framed. As I was checking the latches on the back, a piece of glass broke off and fell onto my foot. Although we didn't know it at the time, the cut was VERY small but happened to pierce the exact wrong place. It cut an artery in my foot. I have never seen anything like it, except maybe on TV. Blood came pouring out and literally spraying everywhere (gross I know)! Philip came in the room to find me standing in a puddle of blood and blood still shooting from my foot. I wasn't in pain, I just remember feeling very confused and light headed. I told him that I thought I spilled paint (which I'm sure was very alarming for him since there was no paint). He certainly had his hands full trying to keep Bella (who is now terrified and screaming) out of the room and stop the bleeding. Philip managed to keep Bella safe, and put pressure on the wound. I don't remember much, except being very concerned that Philip was trying to use our nice towels to stop the bleeding and insistent that he find something else. Then I started passing out and throwing up. Our bedroom looked like a murder scene.
We were able to call a friend to come get Bella and off we headed to see a doctor. Our city has a clinic with an American doctor. We decided that was the best place to go. It took about an hour to get there. But I was able to eat a little something and re-hydrate in the cab. By the time we got there, the bleeding had stopped and my color was coming back. Especially since I am pregnant, we decided to have everything checked out anyways.
The doctor said that I was incredibly unlucky (because of where the glass hit) but perfectly fine. Blood levels seemed to be returning on their own and I did not need a transfusion or any other treatment. Emma was perfectly safe and protected in my tummy, completely unaware of what was going on.
Yesterday, we started our day with the apartment shaking. Sichuan (the province we live in) was hit by an 6.9 Earthquake. We live about 70 miles from the epicenter, so we felt the effects of the Earthquake but the damage did not effect us directly. Our family and our apartment are completely safe! PLT.
We had all just woken up. Philip and Bella were getting a head start on breakfast and I was still laying in bed waiting for some morning sickness to pass when the apartment started shaking. Sometimes we start 'silly Saturdays' with family time playing in bed. When things first started to shake, I thought maybe they had come back into bed to play. But a couple seconds in and a quick look around the room. I knew that we were indeed having an Earthquake.
I'm from the midwest so I feel pretty comfortable with the safety procedures of a tornado. My husband is from the East coast so when it comes to hurricanes, we can defer to his knowledge. But a serious Earthquake was a first for either of us. We were really caught off guard with the appropriate response. Philip scooped up Bella and we both quickly moved to find each other. We met in the hall and calibrated on what to do.
In a tornado, you look for a bathtub, sturdy doorway, or a room without windows or glass. That place does not exist in our chinese apartment. They love mirrors and glass, and most of our furniture is made of glass. We decided to wait it out in the hallway with the doors closed. It finished relatively quickly from that point. We looked outside and saw that people were flooding outside from the apartment complex. I'm really not sure how effective standing outside in a small courtyard between two 7 story buildings actually is compared to staying inside. But that seemed to be the thing to do and we joined them. Again, not completely connivence of the safety factor, but it was a good bonding experience with out neighbors as we all stood outside together in our pjs. As we cuddled our babies wrapped up in blankets, we got to have good conversations and deepen relationships. We waited outside for a little over an hour and then people began to trickle inside. We are so thankful for His protection and are lifting up those in the area around us effected by the quake! Thanks so much for those of you who asked about us and were lifting us up. Please continue to lift others in Sichuan.
Between the bleeding artery and the earthquake, its been a very eventful few days on top of a very busy week of settling in to our new apartment, errands, a flat tire, kidney stones, morning sickness, language, and on and on. We really could use a good-ole boring 'nothing to do' sort of day around here. But whatever comes, we plan to face the day with joyful hearts. We do have so much to be thankful for.
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