2 years ago

The scariest thing in the world happened.  The one phone call as a mother that I didn't want to get.  Especially while I was at work.

I remember that day better than most that year.  I was working a closing shift at Target.  Brad and the kids were going over to a friends house to jam and let the kids mingle.

I remember one of my managers coming to find me, telling me that my husband had just called and was taking Brayden to Crestwood ER.  I vaguely remember being told he had been attacked by a dog.  I rushed to get my purse and clock out and shot out the door to the car.  I got to the ER I believe in record time, went back into the room where he was at and cradled my little boy.  At that moment, still in my khakis and red shirt, I didn't care if he bled all over me.  I just wanted to hold him.  During that course, nurses came in, Brad came in and out but mostly was with Aslynn, we went for a CT scan, Brayden and I cried together.  At one point, I went and called my sister, who I knew would be there in a flash.  She was my rock.  The moment she walked into that room with Brayden and I, I lost it.  I broke down.

Brayden would require 50+ stitches on the top of his head in two places, below his right eye and on his right ear.  But because of the lacerations on his eye and that the couldn't see just had bad it was, they felt better calling in a plastic surgeon to do the work.  So, off to the OR my baby was whisked.  I cried, I picked my nails, I hugged Brad and snuggled Aslynn who wasn't even a year old.

After he was out of surgery, Brad and I went back and I climbed up into that hospital bed with my sweet boy.  I didn't mind when he hurled his popsicle up on me.  As long as he was okay.

I don't blame Brad.  He still to this day feels bad.  I blame his friend because the dog had bitten someone else, his own pregnant wife, prior to this incident.  They pretty much flat out refused to put him down until we started to get legal.

Two years later, all we have are memories of that night, pictures of the healing process, scars on a sweet little boy's head, and a permanent blood stain on his carseat.

The 2009 picture was taken the morning after.  In the 2011 picture you can see the scar in his hair.  He has another in his hair as well.  Other than that, most of them are fading.