Joel has been teaching a men's class about Marriage and Family. Last night one of the men and his family came over for dinner. I was a little nervous, as I always am when someone comes for dinner that I don't know well. I spent the afternoon cleaning house and picking up some fresh vegetables for dinner. The plan was that I would make a side dish and our new friends were going to bring some meat to cook at our house.
To our surprise, a Christmas package from my dad came in the late afternoon. We were very excited to open it and play with our new toys. :-) I was getting a little pressed for time after the package, because I really like to have as much cooking finished as I can before they get here (I am still very much American--the people here might only start cooking when everyone arrives). So I asked Isaac to help me peel and cut the veggies. I showed him how to do it, and kept reminding him to be careful where he puts his fingers. As I am sure you have already guessed since I am writing this....he was not as careful as he should have been. He succeeded in peeling them all, cutting off the ends of the carrots, and he had cut up about half of the potatoes when I heard, "Aaaaoww!" Very calmly he told me that he had cut his finger. At first glance it didn't look so bad, and I had him go sit down at the dinner table while I found the peroxide and band-aids. He sat in the chair firmly holding his finger wrapped inside of a clean towel. When I looked at it a second time, it looked a little worse than before. He wasn't going to lose his finger or anything. He didn't cut very deep but more at an angle on his finger, so it was possible he might lose about half a dime's worth of skin. I am getting more and more where I can't handle this stuff. As a mom of three you would think I would be getting thicker-skin for these sorts of cuts and scrapes, but I feel like just the opposite has happened.
I asked him to come in the kitchen and hold his hand over the sink so that I could pour the peroxide over this finger (and not make a big mess). Something told me that this was not a good idea, but I ignored the thought. I asked him if he was ok, and he said, "Just do whatever you have to do. I don't care." Next thing I know his head fell back and his body was being held up by the wall "Isaac...Isaac are you ok?!?!??!" I heard nothing. At this point I knew that he had passed out. I tried putting my arms around him and pulling him back to the table, but his body was completely stiff and then he started shaking. He was moaning, and I was flipping out by this point. (Again, I don' handle these things so well.) Joel had gone downstairs to meet our friends and bring them upstairs. I started yelling, "Autumn!!! Get your dad back in here. Hurry!!!!" So naturally Autumn was really scared. She then turned and saw Isaac's face which made her even more scared. "Ahhh!!! Crying she yells to her Dad, "Daddy, come back. Hurry!!! Isaac passed out!"
Just about that time Joel arrived back upstairs and Isaac had "come back." Of course he didn't remember much of anything, but he just kept saying, "I want to lay down. I am so tired." Joel was not too worried because he has passed out many times over the years--in the same kind of circumstances. But this Momma was really shook up. I told him jokingly, "Isaac, don't you ever do that to me again or I will whip you!" He went to lay down on the bed and rested for a good 15 or 20 minutes. (He ended up being fine, and his finger stopped bleeding--so nothing to worry about).
While he was resting our new friends arrived. So yeah, I had not even started cooking the veggies. Maria, our new friend (her husband's name is Simon), brought all of her food already prepared and just ready to throw in the wok. I was even more behind now. Well, of course it all got done eventually, and I am not sure why I worry about such little things. The food was amazing. She brought dumplings, meatballs, and best of all two racks of lamb. Wow! It was so good. Even better than that was just the conversation we had. I would say it was one of the most relaxing and natural conversations (even if it was in Mandarin) that we have had in all of our time in-country. Simon is very funny, and the two of them play off of each other very well. There were a lot of good laughs, and I know that we will be good friends for many more years to come. (They shared with us that they had a very interesting 24 hours before coming, but we are very thankful that even with all the craziness we were able to meet up and spend time together. Must be the beginning of something special.)
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