Cousins and a broken bone.

WOW, what a busy two weeks. My sister, Marjolein and her family came to visit April 25Th from Holland. We had such a good time, but way too short. They stayed the first week here in SC and then the second week went to visit our other sister in Alabama. I wish we could have all gone and spend some more time together but since the kids were still in school that would have been pretty hard. I really wished we could have spend more time together and the kids had so much fun. The last time there were here was when Jesse was a week old. Riley doesn't remember since she was only 15 months old. Joel and Joran had so much fun. They were actually able to communicate this time around since Joran is learning English in school. Yara knew some English words but it was still amazing how the kids communicated. Yara and Jesse really got close. It was amazing. They just had so much fun together. One night while they were here the kids had a sleep over at our house. I was going to put the boys together in one room-Joran, Joel and Jesse and put the girls together in the other- Yara and Riley but Yara wanted to be with Jesse. So we put them together and Joel and Joran had a room together. It was fun:)

So then on Tuesday April 29Th while Marjolein and her family were visiting Charleston for a couple of days. I got a phone call from the school nurse and she told me that Joel hurt his finger playing football on the playground- it got jammed with the ball and she thought it would be a good idea to call the doctor and get it x-rayed. So Terry took him to Chapin and yep, it was broken. He made a appointment with a Pediatric orthopedic doctor for the next day to get it set. So Terry took him in the morning and after 3 hours of waiting in the waiting room they finally saw him and looked at the x-rays and told Terry that he needed SURGERY!!! No way, my 8 year old boy needs surgery???? WOW! So he scheduled the surgery for the next day.

We got there at 9:30am and while waiting we had some visitors. Our pastor Daryl stopped by and brought his son Eli. Joel and Eli have been friends since they were little. Eli was so cute, he brought a joke book and pretty much read all the jokes in that book. It was cute;) Then Daryl prayed for us and they left. Russell and Cathy McFarland also came by to visit. Cathy actually works in the ER so that was really nice. At around 11:30am they rolled him away and Terry and I went down stairs to the waiting room. While waiting, Stephanie Keisler (who also works in the ER) stopped by and so did Terri Hooper.

The surgery went very well. They had to put two pins in his finger and they will take them out in about a month. I actually have to take him to the doctor tomorrow and they will put a new cast on and make sure it is not infected. Then in 2 weeks they will permanently take off the cast and pull the pins out and put a splint on (for I don't know how long).

He is doing very well. He broke his right ring finger so that is nice, since he is a lefty:) Although he does use that right hand a lot.

I will keep everybody updated with everything. I hope to take a picture of his finger tomorrow while the cast is off and if that comes out well I will post it. I am sure it is going to looking pretty interesting.

Well, I hope everybody is well and we will talk with you soon.

Pauline