The Making of M.O.M.

As a Mom to 7 kids, I've seen just about everything. Friends will talk about things going on with their kids and usually I can offer a suggestion because, you know, we've been there. Often, several times.

But last night was whole new territory for me as a Momma. And it's territory I'd like to never go into again.

I like to think I'm pretty cool, calm and collected even when blood and falls and bumps are concerned. Lucas busted his mouth open and ended up needing minor oral surgery the weekend before Abigail was born and while I panicked a little bit, I didn't just lose it.

But last night? I borderline lost it.

All was going well. Abigail wasn't really wanting much for dinner, which is odd, but she's also cutting two teeth so I figured that's what was wrong. I'd give her a bite, she'd spit it out and play with it. So, her clothes were a mess.

After dinner I stripped her down to her diaper and let her crawl around for a little while. After about 10 minutes Olivia pointed to Abigail's foot at almost the exact same time that I was looking down. I thought she'd cut it and it was bleeding.

I quickly scooped her up and took a closer look. It wasn't blood. Instead, a group of hair and lint had gotten wrapped around two of her toes and the circulation was being cut off. Her toes were so swollen, red and they'd developed blisters.

I quickly got some tweezers and got the hair off. But it was deep in her skin. Not to mention that once I noticed it and began messing with it she was screaming at the top of her lungs and the other 6 kids were gathered around, worried about their baby sister.

Apparently, "hair tourniquets" are not something that I'd ever heard of but they exist. Google them, but with caution my friends.

This is a pic of her foot about 10 minutes after I got the hair free. It's probably so blurry because I was shaking like a leaf.

My friend Lindy who used to be an ER nurse said that these weren't that uncommon and she'd seen a few in the ER. She checked it over just to be sure but said that we'd be fine just taking her to the Peds in the morning.

I took this picture about 45 minutes after I'd freed the hairs.

This morning we visited our peds and he said that he is going to treat it like a 2nd degree burn (because it's really blistered on bottom and still very swollen and red) and he gave her an antibiotic. Here's a pic I took at the doctor's office this morning.

The pediatrician said that he had read about them in residency and seen a lot of pictures but he'd never actually seen a case in person in his 11 years of pediatric medicine. He said that in residency they told him that if a baby was fussy and there wasn't a determinable cause to take off the baby's socks and check their feet.

Who'd have known?? In 8 years and 7 kids worth of parenting I've never even HEARD of this. So I wanted to post it for all you Mommas out there with little babes as well. Crazy!

I knew that our family was a constant opportunity for growth and education but I'll be happy to never experience this again.

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Have YOU ever heard of this? What's the weirdest thing you've ever had happen to your kids?

As most of you know, in July we lost a close family friend, Paige. When we sent out our September newsletter, our hopes were to take a Short Term trip (3 - 12 months) with Africa Inland Mission to Southern Kenya. (If you missed our September Newsletter, you can read it by clicking here.)

After reviewing our situation and looking at the logistics and the assignments for a Short Term trip, AIM’s recommendation was not in our favor for us to proceed with a short term trip. One of the main reason we decided to go on the field with an experienced organization like AIM is because they have experience and wisdom in sending missionaries.

With that in mind, we have chosen to go on “Hold” with Africa Inland Mission and our plans. Basically, that means that the money we’ve raised thus far will be put aside for us until we are ready to resume support raising and head to the field as full time missionaries, like we had previously planned. We wish we knew now what that time frame would be, but we don’t.

Our children (as well as us grown ups) are still grieving the loss of Paige daily. Several times a week one or more of the children will come to us with a memory of Paige. While we welcome this grieving process, it is also very painful and often, these memories turn into tears, questions and sorrow.

Since soon after our wedding, we have been very convicted about being good stewards of the things God has entrusted to us, especially our finances. God showed us early in our marriage the importance of handling our finances in a way that is pleasing to Him and most effective for His kingdom. We feel that if we chose to press forward with our 4 year term right now we would not be making wise and effective choices with the monetary support raised to put us on the field.

That’s the long of it. The short of it is this:

Our family needs time to heal.

While this is certainly not the choice we wanted to make we know that it is necessary. We know that being good stewards of the hearts of our children is of the utmost importance right now. Second to that is being good stewards with the funding God would provide. We know that if we went onto the field now, we would spend a significant portion of our time healing, grieving and just trying to survive. Very little ministry would be done and we know that would not be using the resources of the Lord wisely.

Even still, this is a hard newsletter to write. We want to be people who honor their word, do what they say they will do and live up to our end of the deal. However, we acknowledged a long time ago that our primary ministry is our family. Right now, our attention and our ministry needs to be solely focused on healing.

Thank you for walking this journey with us. We pray that you have seen in us a desperate desire to obey the Lord faithfully, trust Him in all things and that He alone is worthy of any sacrifice we could make.

If you would like to discuss the contents of this newsletter with us further, we welcome that. You can contact us at beaverbunch (at) gmail (dot )com or by simply replying to this newsletter.

May the Lord bless you richly as you have richly blessed us,

Luke and Jessica Beaver

Elizabeth, Lucas, Ashlee, Aaron, Olivia, Ella and Abigail

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 ESV)