Our Guardian Angel Deserves a Raise

Perhaps I spoke too soon when I boasted that our last camping trip did not include a trip to the Emergency Room.

After returning from Assateague Island, we cleaned up all the camping gear and packed Brennan up for a week at Camp Wamava. He was incredibly excited to be going back to camp with his friends this summer.

On Monday night, I was out running an errand when my cell phone rang. My friend Aimee was calling from camp. As soon as she said, "Brennan had something with peanut butter and he's having a reaction," I interrupted and told her to give the epi-pen and call an ambulance. I really don't think I let her even tell me how badly he was reacting. I just know how dangerous a peanut reaction could be and I didn't want to take any chances. I ran home to grab another set of epi-pens and a diet Coke before heading out to meet Brennan at the Emergency Room.

We have a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful for the adults that noticed that the dessert contained peanut butter and stopped Brennan when he had only had a small bite. I'm grateful that Aimee listened to the small voice of God that encouraged her to stick around the kids during their evening activities. I'm even more grateful that she noticed something was wrong and didn't listen to Brennan's protests that he was okay. I'm thankful for epi-pens and other emergency medicines that saved his life. I'm thankful for the ambulance crew and the emergency room doctors and nurses that took good care of him. I'm very thankful for the friends that staying with him until I could drive all the way out to the hospital.

Late, late, Monday night, I drove Brennan back to camp. It was a long drive back down the mountain and back home. There was a big part of me that wanted to go back, hug him real tight, and not let go for a very, very long time.