Its raining, its pouring, Ava isn't snoring, she went downstairs and bonked her head, and had to go to Dr. Yosts!

Ava was dancing around upstairs, chasing a balloon, getting in my way while I was trying to take down my Christmas decorations. So I told her to go do it downstairs. (Massive guilt here.) She did, and a few minutes later I hear her crying. Now Jason can't tell when its just a tattle cry, a mad cry, a sister took something away cry or a real "I hurt myself" cry. I can, and was just about to tell him that it was a real cry when he headed downstairs. He came thundering back up, holding a bleading Ava in his arms. She had been chasing her balloon downstairs and fell into a metal antique milk jug we have down there. Jason can not handle blood; he panics. I had to tell him to calm down several times. I took Ava from him, and one look at the deep gash told me it would need stitches. A quick call to Dr. Yost and Ava and I were off. Once there, we had to make the decision to take her to the emergency room and have a plastic surgeon fix it ($$$$$$$$$!!!!) or let Dr. Yost do it. It was an agonzing decision. We have insurance, but have an astronomical deductible, so we knew we would have a huge bill. On the other hand, this is my beautiful little girls face we are talking about. In the end, we prayed about it and felt good letting Dr. Yost do it. He did this once before on Michaela, with very good results. And having him do it we could stay in his office. I didn't want to traumitize Ava any more than necessary, and she is comfortable in his office. He also let me hold her arms and legs instead of restraining her( I convinced him I could do it; I did with Michaela) so she was spared that as well. He and his nurse/wife were very impressed with how calm Ava and I were. She was very brave; a very big girl.
It kills me to see her face like this; I hope it heals well. If not, when she is older we will take her to a plastic surgeon then. But I really think we made the right decision. Her emotional health is more important to me. After the sutures, which only took about 20 minutes, she was dancing around the office. I think the outcome would have been very different at the hospital.


If you see my beautiful girl, please refrain from making any comments to her or around her about how "bad" or "awful" it looks. I don't want her associating these words with herself. Feel free to ask how she got it, how many stitches she got (5), how brave she was or what she got for being brave(a chocolate shake). I don't want her having any concerns that she is any less gorgeous than she was before her accident, because she isn't. She will always be my pretty angel.



Here sisters were so sweet to her. They both gave her babies to have. Payden gave her a baby that she drew stitches on in the same place as Ava's, and Michaela gave her a bear she named Stitchy and made it a sweater. It was touching to see them take care of her.

I can't tell you how sick it makes me to think of how different this would be if she had fallen a couple of inches to the right or left. It also makes me so sad to see her face marred. But I know that you will probably hardly see it when it heals, and also that she is so beautiful people will probably look over it. But it still hurts my heart when I look at her. Michaela's scar has become a part of who she is; Ava's will be the same way.