The space between

Before I share, I know that a couple of my reader's children have their own blogs now and follow mine occasionally, so I just want to warn you that this post should only be read by adults. With that being said,

I thought I would try to go to bed early this evening to catch up on some rest after a busy weekend, but I keep re-playing the horrible accident that happened last week in my head over and over again every night as soon as I lay down and close my eyes. So, I think I just need to write about it now as a way to try to free myself of the memory..

I have never allowed our children to play outside in the yard by themselves until this past month. We live in a town house where all of the backs of the homes form a U-shape around a large green space, with a golf course at the top and a playground in the middle. My concern in the past has always been about cars and here we don't have to worry about that unless they were to wander around to the front of our house, which they know not to. I can see them outside from our sliding glass door that goes out to the back patio, so I'm usually going in and out to check on them or at least looking out the door every 5 minutes in between getting housework done. The two kids (H & M) who they were playing with that evening go to school with E and I have known their mom since I was in elementary school myself.. although our paths hadn't crossed again until recently when we discovered we were living in the same apartment community. They are moving away in just a couple weeks, so I was outside taking pictures of all 4 kids together. I went inside to talk to J and was in our house for maybe 10-15 min when I heard all the kids screaming loudly. I always have to remind them not to yell because I worry that our child-less neighbors might not care so much for the noise, so I asked J to go outside and tell them to quiet down and that it was time to come inside. But while he was getting his shoes on the screams changed into a sound I had never heard before and instantly I felt a knot form in my stomach. I looked up to see their mom running across the yard followed my her daughter. Barefooted, I quickly took off out the door after them. She reached the playground before me and because they were on the side I couldn't see, all I heard was her screaming for help. Now, let me stop here and say that when you hear another parent screaming for help.. you know that something must be severely wrong. Instantly I thought someone must have fallen and broken something or cracked open their head. I could have never imagined the image I was about to see a second later though.

Earlier in the evening H's sister M has been jumping rope on our patio. One end of the jump rope was now tied to a bar at the top of the slide, the other end was tied into a loop in a diagonal across H's chest and around my 6 year old son A's neck. They were hanging down the slide by it unable to pull themselves up. Thankfully H's arm had gotten caught above his head in the rope and although the rope was digging into his rib cage, it allowed barely an inch of space between his body and A's neck as to not cut off all of A's air completely. I know with all of my heart that God was in that tiny gap.. allowing my son to breathe. In that moment I had to force myself not to panic and suddenly a strange calmness rushed through my body.. a strength and focus came over me that I can not even explain to you. I was able to help their mom lift the weight of both boys up and then I somehow managed to un-knot the rope and get them both out. Had it not been for the physical position they were in and had there not been that tiny space between them, they would have instantly been strangled to death.

H admitted to having tied the rope and kept crying over and over again "I didn't know! I didn't know!" Afterward A explained to me that he had told his friend he didn't want to do whatever it was that got them into the situation. I had a long talk with him about how if he ever finds himself in a position again that makes him feel uncomfortable inside, he needs to leave and come tell me immediately. I still don't know how it happened. I am assuming it was innocent, that they were just playing. I can honestly not image that it was H's intention to put either of them in a dangerous position. I still don't know the full story though. All I know for sure is that God was protecting those two young boys that day and that accidents can happen in a mere second. Life is so short, you can blink and just like that it's gone in a heartbeat. Needless to say, it's going to be a very long time before I allow my little birds out of the nest again.. and when I finally do, I will be watching them like a hawk.

God has opened my eyes to so many things since that evening and given me an entirely new perspective. I praise the Lord for saving the sweet young lives of those two children that night, and will spend the rest of my life thanking Him.