The Worst Day of Being a Mom

I am sure that you are a little perplexed about what the worst day of being a mom could be. Well, so far the worst day had to be March 29, 2007. This day will always be on my mind. This is the day I thought I was going to lose my Virginia.

March 29th had started out like a regular day for us, watching television and getting ready for school. On this day Virginia would be getting on the bus for afternoon Kindergarten, Bekah would be going to the babysitters and I would be going into work. At 11:20 a.m. that all changed. I found myself looking at Virginia laying on the side of the street, after being hit by a car. I sat over her yelling "call 911". At this time I was also 7 months pregnant with Ellyn, I was screaming so hard and loud that I thought that I broke my water. At that time I wasn't thinking about my self I was just hoping that I wasn't going to lose my child. To make things even worse Bekah had seen all this happen, I can still remember hearing her saying that she thought her Big Sister was "dead". I was lucky to have neighbors that took her in and loved on her that day.

While Virginia was laying there in the street I remember her starting to come around, all she wanted to do was get up and go inside. She was so scared. I still can remember her not wanting to lay for the EMT's to get her in the ambulance. I made sure that she knew that I was there the whole time. I was not able to ride in the back of the ambulance with her, I had to ride in the front buckled up. At this time I had realized that my pants were wet. Luckily, I had only peed my pants. By the time we had gotten to the Emergency Room Virginia had calmed down a little bit. She still wanted to go home, and so did I. They nurses cleaned up Virginia so that we could see what her injuries were. She was very lucky. She had a cut on her cheek that needed stitches and scrapes on her forehead. They took her for some scans to make sure that there were no broken bones or anything serious. She did have a concussion.

When we had returned from the tests the Chaplin had come back and told me that the young man that hit Viriginia was in the waiting room and wanted to see Virginia. At this point Tate was still on his way to the hospital from Goshen, and my mom was with Virginia and me. I did go out and meet him. The first thing that I did was hug him...God had given me the strength to give this young man a hug. How much more suffering could I put him through? He was already going through his own struggle with what he had done. He had gone through the stop sign on a bus with red flashing lights and hit a little girl. He wanted to see for himself that Virginia was alright. I told him that I was not ready for him to do that just yet, Tate had still not arrived. When Tate did arrive we talked about what we should do. We decided to let him come back and see that she was going to be alright.

Virginia was admitted to the hospital for observation as she had a concussion and they wanted to make sure that nothing else was going to show up. When we arrived on the children's floor she was greeted by the nurses and given a Minnie Mouse stuffed toy. They did do a good job making her feel comfortable.

I am sure that you are wondering about Bekah at this point. She was still unsure what was happening with her sister. Tate went to the neighbors and picked her up and brought her up to the hospital to see that her sister was going to be fine. I still remember the look on her face when she came into the room, she did not want to get near Virginia. We did a lot of reassuring her that she could get close to her and give her a hug.

Later that evening the young man and his family came up to see Virginia. Their family has a story and I feel that I need to share it. This family is from Bosnia. Before they came here the older son was hit by a hit and run driver...now this explained a lot about why he need to see for himself that Virginia was going to be okay. The son had been in a coma and the driver was never caught. Now, I was in a room with a mother that understood what I was going through, I know that Virginia was not in a coma, but she knew what I was feeling.

We did stay in contact for a while with the young man. He would stop by see Virginia and talk to her. I thought that this was very nice of him to do, it showed that he really did care that he had hurt someone and had taken responsibility for his actions.

What can make people in such a hurry to go through a Bus Stop? For him is was that he claims that he did not see it in time, and he did not see Virginia on the curb, he was on his way to IUSB for an exam. HOW CAN YOU MISS A GREAT BIG YELLOW BUS WITH FLASHING LIGHTS?

For all of you that read this all I ask you to take away from this is that no matter what time of day it is be aware that a school bus can put the lights on at any moment.

I have been on the news a couple of time talking about bus safety and sometimes I do wonder if people are paying attention. I do have to say that we have not had any cars (that I have noticed) go though the lights at our bus stop.

What did I learn from this whole experience? That God is always in control. He could have taken Virginia Home to be with Him that day. He kept me in control when I really wanted to just let this young man a piece of my mind and fist. He gave me the peace and direction to just give this man a hug after hitting my daughter with his car, and tell him that it would be okay.

God is in control and I do not have any control over the people that are out driving when my children are getting on the bus, but when He gives me the chance to tell our story, I will.

I do have to tell you that the school bus after that day changed the route so that Virginia no longer had to cross the street to get on the bus, and this continues today.