When the "what ifs" scare you to death

One of the things that my boys love to do together is dirt bike. Shel has bought each of the kids their own bikes, and he usually takes them out one by one to spend time together in the mountains. Other than hockey, this is their fun time activity to do with daddy.

And it terrifies me. But I also know dads and boys need these things together.

Yesterday was a quiet day in our house. I did some scrapbooking, Shel took Tanner out for a ride. We had supper together and then Eric and Shelby were going to go for a ride.

Greg and I went grocery shopping. We got home. We unpacked the groceries. We were uploading a song to his MP3. It was a normal Sunday afternoon.

My cell phone rang.

On the other end was my screaming husband "I've been in an accident, you need to come get me! "l'm hurt, I'm hurt and I am going to pass out".

I was driving before I realized I had forgotten to tell the other kids what had happened.

I called Shel back. Thankfully, he answered but he knew he was about to pass out. He handed the phone to Eric.

Now you have all learned about some of our victories and struggles with Eric. Eric usually can't handle stress well at all. Anything that is unexpected, shocking and certainly scary would have previously made him incapable of thought or movement.

Eric laid Shelby down. Eric knew his dad was in shock, so he took off his own coat and covered his father up with it. He talked to me on the phone until I arrived, and then he ran down the road to wave for the ambulance.

Eric was a trooper. Eric is now Shelby's hero. And we are BOTH so proud of how he handled something which for him would be his ABSOLUTELY WORST NIGHTMARE. His parent, injured badly, and he is alone with no help. And he held it together, at least for last night. And we are proud, so very proud of him.

Shel was transported to the hospital. I will spare you most of the gory details but there was leg bone, and gallons of blood, ligaments, and gravel. 50 staples later, several stitches, 2 sedatives, 2 pain killers, the left side of his body frozen until noon today and a drain sticking out of his leg.

It could have been so much worse.

Because last night my husband was in a motorcycle accident.