A Perfect Evening Gone Wrong

The night Amanda gave us a scare.

Last night I put Amanda to bed with one of the new books that she got for her birthday. It’s called Nursery Rhymes & Fairy Tales by Disney. She’s at that age where she loves to recite and sing nursery rhymes and so this book has come at a good time. A neat bonus to the book is that two pages of tiny Disney stickers are included.

Amanda’s evening seemed to have come to a perfect end. I took a photo last night so that I could share with you how happy and peaceful this moment was. It was only a few minutes later and the perfect moment changed into something like a scary movie. I had just gone to my room when Samantha called out to say that Amanda had left her bed (the two girls share a room). I looked down the dark passage and saw her heading the opposite direction. When she heard my voice, she turned around and came towards me. Immediately, I could see something was wrong, because there was a huge dark patch between her nose and mouth.

I quickly got her to my bathroom and in the light I could see that she was covered in blood. Besides what I had already observed on her face, I could now see that it was also on her hands, arms and nightgown. I called out to her dad with alarm, which upset her, but then I switched my tone and she calmed down. Her dad went to check out her bed while I cleaned her up. Her bedding was covered in blood too and some went on her new book, but it wiped off easily and the bedding went straight to the wash. Of course, I didn’t take a photo of that. It had been too unexpected.

None of my kids have ever had a nosebleed like that before, but just as quickly as it had started, it also stopped. Today she was fine without another incident. As they say, “Life happens” and there’s not always much we can do about it. An unexpected nosebleed reminds me that nothing in this life is perfect.

As a teenager, I read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and something he explained in there about perfection made a lot of sense to me. I had always had this strong need for things to be perfect. Lewis’ book points out that our understanding and desire for perfection comes from our inner knowing that perfection exists, but not on earth, which can frustrate those who are seeking it. Perfection is found in God and in His heavenly kingdom. One day He will make all things new – even our world – and that day I am waiting for with great expectation.

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