I'm going to tell you a story about one of the scariest days of my life. I get knots in my stomach just thinking about it, but the story just has to be told!
This past week we went on a vacation to a beach city to south of us. Our awesome friends Keith and Carie met up with us there and we had a really great time! One of the days though, we had the scare of our life!
Before I begin this story, let me tell you a little about our hotel room... we were on what we call in America the THIRD floor (In South Asia we would call it the 2nd floor because the ground floor is either called 0 or ground)....
Anyway....
We were about to take the kids to the swimming pool. They had just gotten up from their naps, and we put their swimsuits on. The swimsuits were still a little wet from that morning and Aashini kept complaining that she was cold. We told them to go outside and stand on the balcony and we would grab the sun screen and bring it out there and put it on them. As I was getting the sunscreen, I hear a "THUD" and then hear Aashini scream: "Diya!"... We run outside and look over the balcony... I see Diya laying face down on the ground - not moving.
A lady that was in the hotel room on the ground floor ran out. She heard the sound (and it woke her husband up from his nap) and wanted to see what it was (she though it was some coconuts or something). At this point Adam is sprinting down the stairs to her and I'm yelling down to the lady (Fiona) that my husband is on his way down. Diya starts to try to get up, so Fiona picks her up. I grab Aashini and run downstairs as well.
The area our balcony looks over was really hard to get to unless you have a ground floor. Adam ran around to the side and jumped over a wall to get over there, while Fiona went through her room into the middle lobby area of the building we were in to find us. Adam got to the outside area and Diya wasn't there, so he ran through Fiona's room into the lobby area. There he was able to get to Diya about the same time Aashini and I reached them.
At that point we ran with Diya & Aashini to the doctor's office at the resort. There were some American doctors there for the week, so we ran to them. They did a quick look-over of Diya. Her right arm was covered in red mud/dirt and her right side (rear-end & leg) was red. She seemed to be able to move her arms just fine, but wouldn't stand up and was crying a lot, so we weren't sure if something was wrong with her hip or leg area.
So we rushed her to the hospital. Aashini was super freaked out at this point, so Adam took Diya to the hospital and I kept Aashini at the hotel. Right as we were leaving the doctor's office and Adam was headed to the hotel car that was going to take him to the hospital, our friend Karen was at the pool. Aashini had been wanting to swim with her, so it was perfect timing. Karen was a life-saver and watched Aashini while I grabbed some things in the room to bring to Adam in the car (and for about an hour after that while I sat by the pool talking with Adam on the phone).
He rushed Diya off to the hospital. I then went to Keith and Carie's room and told them what had just happened. We prayed and Keith left and went to the hospital to be with Adam and Diya. It was really hard not to be with them at the hospital, but Aashini didn't need to be at the hospital and she really needed me. She was dealing with it in her own kid way. It came in waves. She kept saying: "Diya fell. Why did Diya fall? I couldn't catch her. I couldn't catch her". We talked about it a lot and talked it though and told her it wasn't her fault, but it was still really hard on her. She was worried about Diya.
Adam went to the first hospital which was super small and they sent him on to the larger hospital in the capital city (just about 20-30 minutes away). They looked Diya over and then gave her a sedative so that they could do x-rays and a CT Scan on her head. The sedative made her hyper! She was running all around the emergency room and singing (this made me so happy!!! Her bones seemed fine, so now we just had to make sure there wasn't anything wrong in her head). Eventually they gave her more sedative and she fell asleep.
They did the X-rays of her spine and the CT Scan. We got the results back and there was NOTHING WRONG! Diya was perfectly fine!!!!!!!!!!! She fell from the 3rd floor balcony and nothing was wrong!!!!!!! She didn't have a cut, scrape, bruise or bump!!!!! NOTHING!!!!
Praise God! He totally protected Diya!!!!! I will share this story over and over again about how God protected our little girl. She fell from the 3rd floor balcony and didn't get a scratch or a bruise! God protected her!!!! Thank you God!!!
Here is the balcony. The balcony (except the one side) is fully covered with glass. For most of the time we were staying there, we had a towel over the far end (with the X) so we didn't realize what a hazard it was! In the few seconds that she was out there by herself, she fell through those holes! Do you see how high up it is??? We are at the tops of the trees??? WOW! I kept looking down and thinking that if I fell I KNOW I would have broken something!
The is the ground where Diya fell. Right where those two holes are is where she landed. She was just a few inches from both concrete walls!!!
Here is Diya at the hospital trying to fall asleep. She had her swimsuit on when we did her exam at the resort with the American doctors, but Adam took her with just the beach towel... so that's all she had! Poor thing! When Keith left to go to Adam, my brain was not working well, so I didn't send him with anything! Keith was a super hero though! He got Diya some diapers, milk, cup, straws & biscuits (crackers)) all in a country he doesn't know in a language he doesn't know!
Here is Diya asleep getting her CT Scan.
This isn't our balcony, but it's the same balcony on the other side of the building. It was over 20 feet off the ground!! We took this picture so you could get an idea... The arrow is pointing to the balcony and on the ground you can see little Diya... just to see the perspective.
Diya got home that night around 10:00 pm! Wow! Here's a picture of her the next day :) We've always called her "Bam-Bam" and she is REALLY living up to that name!!!! She keeps talking about what happened and says: "Fell down and 'BONK'" She still talks about it some. When she saw this blog post, she recognized the balcony and started talking about it.
Here is Aashini the next day too :) She was so worried about Diya and had a really hard time going to sleep that night without her there. She was soooooo happy when Diya was there when she woke up!
I am soooo thankful for this miracle that happened in our life this past week! Thank you Jesus!! :) Whoo hoo!!!!
Check out this awesome Bible Story about a boy that fell from a 3rd floor window! - Click here to read
