Anniversary

Today is a one year anniversary for us.

Ever have one of those moments in time that you will never forget? April 28, 2007 at 2:00 is a time in my life that I will never forget-at least not anytime soon. Tanner and I had gone to the local skating rink for an afternoon of roller skating with our church youth group. Tanner is a veteran skater. Roller skating has always been a natural thing for her and she's always been great at it.

We parents were sitting there talking and the kids were all skating. The lights were dim and the music was blaring. Tanner had just skated by me. The lights came on and the music stopped. I could hear someone crying and could see all the kids down at the far end of the rink. One of the rink employees was skating towards the huddle. I couldn't tell who was crying and honestly, it didn't occur to me that it could be Tanner.

I was still sitting in the concession area when I heard someone yell my name and that's when I realized it was Tanner crying. I started to walk towards the floor when all I could see was blood everywhere and I could hear Tanner screaming "Mommy help me!" I kicked the shoes that I was wearing off, said a not church appropriate phrase and took off running for her.

Evidently while skating, the front wheel assembly of her skates broke completely off. She hit the rink floor face first, bit a hole completely through her bottom lip and knocked five permanent teeth loose. My baby girl looked so horrible and was bleeding so much I almost passed out. I called 911 and honestly, I couldn't go up there with her because I thought I was going to throw up. Thank God that we go to church with such wonderful people and they took care of both Tanner and I. The squad looked her over and said we needed to go to the hospital. Those guys were so kind-they cleaned her up as much as they could, gave us tons of towels to take with us (I told them I'd take her-I can fly down the highway like they do!) and then carried her to the truck for me.

At the hospital they were able to glue the outside of her lip back together and the inside regenerates itself and grew back together on it's own. The teeth eventually tightened up on their own but it took several months. A year later, she's got a scar on the outside of her lip from where they glued it, but that's all that remains.

It took until the end of December for Tanner to put roller skates back on and get out there and try skating again. It was a freak accident and we knew that. It doesn't make putting skates on and getting back out there any easier. She did though and all four of us parents were so proud of her when she did it. I went with her that day and was all prepared to go out there with her if she wanted me to, but she didn't, she went by herself. She was so proud of herself.

I know to some, this incident isn't really a big deal, but to me, as a mom, it is. I still get teary thinking about it and I ask myself if there was something that I could have done to prevent it or change what happened some way or another. I know in my heart that there's nothing I could have done to prevent this. I know that as horrible of a day as that was, we were blessed in so many ways. I know that the phrase "time heals all things" is true and the more years that pass, the less emotional (I think?) I will be about this. I know that "all things work together for good" and one day we'll know why this had to happen to Tanner.

As the years go by, I'm sure this anniversary date will get easier. At least I'm hoping it will. I hope I'm right.