Sentimental Tender Mercy

Whoa...I'm sitting here with tears rolling down my cheeks holding James while he is fast asleep and just finished an episode from Law & Order SVU the Ninth year. It was episode 9 titled "Paternity". Law & Order is my new obsession on watching instantly from Netflix. Because of what happened in this episode, holding James, getting ready to celebrate his 4th birthday...I had a sentimental tender mercy moment (Mickie, I thought of you too and all the personal tender mercies you've shared on your blog - I love reading them!). Half way through the episode you watch detective Elliot Stabler's very pregnant wife get into a terrible car accident. I got total Déjà vu when I watched this...it was so similar to the car accident we were in when I was pregnant with James - they were even driving the same car and hit the same way we were. As the episode comes to an end, Elliot's wife is rushed to the hospital, has her baby in the ambulance and flat lines after! Fortunately it had a happy ending and the paramedic was able to bring her back. Elliot was so thankful his wife and newborn son were okay. That's when tears rolled down my face...and I looked down at James and was so very thankful for the tender mercy that he survived that car accident with me. I thought for a quick moment, what if I lost him in that accident (I was hospitalized to monitor James in my belly, and also to do blood tests to make sure there was no internal bleeding - due to my blood type it could be very dangerous to mix with the baby's blood if it was a different type), what if we never were given the chance to have him in our lives. Thankfully God had the plan for us not to experience that, and blessed us with the most beautiful son. Luckily we walked away from our car accident with me only having a seat belt bruise across my pregnant belly and a bruised sternum, and Stephen a really bad sprained ankle (Madeline was not injured). I didn't have a blog way back in 2006 so I'm not sure if I ever posted about this accident before. But I'm so glad to be here today to be posting about this tender mercy moment.

Our car is on the right.

Stephen was driving, I was in the passenger seat behind where the windshield is shattered and you see the white airbag, Madeline was sitting behind me in her carseat.



5 months after the accident - our first moment with James.



The day we brought James home.

"All of God's Grace, in one tiny face"
the caption I put on his birth announcements...look at him now.