I have to do a Memorial Box Monday post today...know why? BECAUSE I HAVE A MEMORIAL BOX!!!! I just received it, providentially enough, on Monday!!!! Thank you Linny!!! It is beautiful and the kids were absolutely delighted with it. I read Joshua 4 to them as soon as I saw it mentioned in your sweet inscription. What a wonderful surprise that was! While we were discussing my new box and all its meaning, Anna asked if I had yet blogged about this story from a few years ago:
Ella, now aged 6.5 years, was then at the age of walking and exploring and was capable of going up and down our staircases with ease. For reasons known only to Ella and God, one day she decided to climb up the outside of the stair railing rather than on the stairs themselves.
This is in our entry hall and no one knew she was there until she had already made it to the top, where the railing changes from straight to curved at the "Juliet" balcony. I was back in my room getting ready for the day when I heard "Mom" yelled with that urgency that signals you to drop whatever you're doing and RUN. Anna, 7-8 years old, had seen Ella, resisted the urge to scream, calmly walked over and put her arms through the railing to grab Ella in a hug.
Now Ella is a noodle. Parents of children with Down syndrome know what I mean. If they don't want to do something or be held, they make like a slippery, cooked noodle and they are HARD to hold. Ella, the most skilled of our noodlers, must have been scared stiff because she let Anna hold her. Thank you Jesus!
Anna wasn't tall enough or strong enough to lift Ella over the railing so that's when she screamed for me. I am so thankful she didn't try to pull Ella over. I am so thankful she didn't scream when she first saw Ella or I'm afraid that Ella would've let go and plummeted 10 feet down to the hard tiled floor. I am so thankful I heard Anna scream the first time. There are so many points at which this little incident could have ended tragically, yet God had His hand on Ella and Anna. Of course, had it ended tragically, we would still know that God has His hand on Ella and Anna. We are simply thankful that His plans for that day were for life for our sweet baby girl.
I bolted up the stairs (somewhat thoughtlessly; I should've had Luke stand below Ella while I was climbing the stairs). I pulled Ella over the railing without incident. We quickly 'decorated' the bottom of the stairs with a plant and chairs to discourage further climbing incidents.
I am thankful that Anna reminded me of this story. I really do want to chronicle the ways we have seen God work in our family but moreso, I am thankful that Anna had already internalized the story and knew Who to thank and Who really saved her sister.
Well, if I were smart I would have come up with a MBM post that had an obvious object to place in my new box. Maybe a model of a hand (the hand of God holding Ella in place)? A picture of Anna holding Ella? Perhaps a picture of a gray hair or two on my head?
