West Virginia - Home sweet home and an injury

After a fairly uneventful drive from Pittsburgh to Summersville, WV, we arrived in time for supper at the Shank Farm (home of “Grandma Donna and Grandpa Steve” - parents of our dear friend, “Aunt Cristy”), 

We enjoyed a delish supper, and the kids had the chance to start exploring on the farm a bit while we got our camper set up for a couple of night’s stay.  

Sunday was lake day!  Seb was up early with Grandpa Steve doing farm chores - feeding Shiloh the horse, cleaning up some dog poop in the yard, cleaning out the bird bath, harvesting vegetables from the garden, watering the rose bushes... Grandma Donna made vegan breakfast burritos,another delightful meal! Then we packed up andheaded to Summersville Lake.  It was a gorgeous day, the water was perfect, we all had a blast, and the JMs all came home sunburnt! 

In the evening, we were invited to a cookout with Jon & the boys, who live on a much bigger farm.  Jon happens to be an ER doc, which sure came in handy.  The food was fantastic, but just a short while after we arrived, there was an accident with the seesaw... it unfortunately came crashing down on Zane’s leg (details of how this occurred will be spared).  My sweet baby, Zane, wailed and wailed.  We gave him ice, laid him down on a mat, and eventually he cried himself to sleep.  He was so beside himself that it was really tough to assess exactly what was going on.  Among us were 4 doctors and a nurse, and we decided to see how he was in the morning and get an x-ray if he was still complaining of pain.  So, we headed home, got a dose of ibuprofen in Zane, and got everyone to bed... waaaay past everyone’s bedtime, but it seems par for the course on this trip!

The night was a bit rough; Zane woke up crying, presumably in pain, but still out of sorts, so it was hard to get him to articulate exactly what was bothering him.  When Seb got up to do morning chores, Zane so badly wanted to follow along to the pasture and barn to feed Shiloh.  He took a few steps -gingerly- and stopped.  Grandpa Steve noticed he was struggling, and plopped him onto his shoulders to take him along so he could participate in some of the morning chores.  

We arranged to meet Dr. Jon at the hospital to get an x-ray.  Much to this mama’s chagrin, it wasinconclusive. :( It looked like there was probably a large hematoma in his calf, and we couldn’t quite tell if there was a fracture of his tibia. After some hemming and hawing, we decided to splint him as if he had a fracture, leave him non-weightbearing for several days, and reassess to see if he needed a repeat x-ray or other evaluation or treatment. 

Zane has been super sad that he can’t run alongwith his siblings, but he also has been a really good sport.  We have been praying for God’s healing over our little guy and asked our friends who we are meeting in TN to start looking for a child carrier backpack for us. 

We certainly got a later than expected start on our journey to TN, and we were hoping for more definitive answers before we left WV, but we were so thankful that this injury occurred when we were visiting with medically inclined friends who helped to care for our family so graciously. 

We loved visiting with the Shanks - it was a real treat (and Cristy even made homemade peach pie topped with homemade ice cream made by Jon & the boys!).  We were welcomed with a spirit of hospitality, which truly made it feel like home sweet home.