Tender Mercies

You know those little symbols on the shopping cart at the grocery store that shows you what you should not allow you children to do? You know, the one that shows you NOT to let your kids hang on the cart or ride underneath the basket? Yeah, we learned the hard way today that those are there to protect us and warn us.

On my way to work today the kids and I left a little early so I could make a stop. I saw something in a ShopKo ad that I wanted to look at. We found what we were looking for plus plenty of other things I hadn't been looking for. I was in a bit of a hurry to get to work so when Alyssa climbed underneath the basket onto the little metal rack I was kind of glad. Ian was holding on to where I push and had his feet up so he was riding too. This was a good thing I thought so I could walk faster and not have the kids holding me up or lingering to look at something.

Suddenly I heard Alyssa crying. "What is it now?" I thought to myself. She started crying harder and said that her finger was bleeding. When she got out from underneath the basket I could see her finger was bleeding quite badly and upon closer inspection I found it pretty mangled up. She had gotten it caught in the wheel of the cart and it tore up her skin and fingernail.


I grabbed her and Ian, left the cart behind and headed for the front of the store. Luckily I spotted the pharmacy right there and in kind of a panic (not wondering if we should head to the ER or InstaCare) stopped for some quick advise from the pharmacist.

He was incredibly nice and he got some gauze and a band aid and helped us wrap it up all while Alyssa was crying hysterically. He also brought out a wet paper towel so she could wipe up the blood all over her hands. He recommended some Tylenol, Neosporin + Pain relief, and a lot of band aids. He was so calm and helpful. Alyssa was hysterical and I was pretty upset myself. He was so calm and even though the pharmacy was busy he took the time to come out from behind the counter and help us. At least from my point of view I felt like this was a tender mercy from the Lord.

We went to the bridal shop where I work and there we were able to fix it up better and get some more advise from my Aunt. Jason left work right away and was there to pick up the kids in no time. For me, that was another tender mercy. I called my mom right away also since she works for some foot doctors. They see people lose toenails all the time and I was able to get some reasonable advise from them as well.

We're going to watch it for a couple of days and make sure it starts to heal. Hopefully we can get this better without a doctor visit. I still think she may lose the fingernail, but only time will tell. It almost seemed at the store that the fingernail had been pulled up a little, but right now I'm not sure.

Lesson learned. We're following the guidelines for safety from now on.