I Can't Speak French!!!

With Mike's mom, Linda, visiting us for a week, we decided to take a long weekend trip to Paris. The plan was to visit the main sights in Paris as well as Normandy and, of course, Disneyland Paris. We took the Eurostar from London to Paris. Upon arrival at the Avis rental station at the Gare Du Nord train station in Paris, we realized they hadn't held us the 3 booster seats that we had requested. They said they could provide us with one booster and then two infant seats (you know, the big bulky ones). We carried them to our "van-zilla" that we had rented for the 6 of us and realized that they were set for a baby -- so the straps wouldn't go over Kendall & Kameron's shoulders. On most car seats, as long as I can see the back of the actual car seat, I can correct the problem by readjusting the straps. Unfortunately on these 2 car seats, there was absolutely no way to get to the back of the seat because of the attached base that we couldn't get off (nor could the Avis people). We asked for assistance (as much as we could since all they really spoke was French). A man from Avis came out to the parking garage where we were at and tried, tried, and tried some more to get the straps readjusted. After a little over 2 hours waiting for him to get this situation corrected (and now getting into rush hour traffic in downtown Paris), we decided they were good enough for the ride to our hotel at Disney and we would work on fixing them later.

We arrived at the My Explorer's Hotel at Disney without any problems (except actually listening to "Jane" -- our GPS system -- and letting her take us through the heart of Paris rather than on the outskirts so she could save us a mile or two but add about 2.5 hour drivetime to our trip). Everyone got situated and in bed around 12 a.m. (Thursday morning). Finally, I thought that our bad luck was over and we were going to have a flawless vacation. (Key word here is "thought.")

Mike, the girls, and I were in one room and Brett and Linda were in the smaller room attached to ours which held a bunk bed. None of us were really sleeping well since it was hot in the room and, of course, there isn't any air conditioning. Brett seemed to be rolling around in the upper bunk of the bed quite a bit. Well at 2 a.m., we heard him really rolling around and then we heard Linda screaming "BRETT!" and then a loud thump. Mike and I immediately jumped out of bed and ran into the other room as we knew Brett had fallen. Brett either rolled out of the top bunk or since he wasn't sleeping well, he crawled out thinking he was in his own bed at home. Thankfully, Linda heard him rolling around and attempted to catch him as best she could on his way down to the floor. He was crying uncontrollably and we finally were able to calm him down a bit to notice his mouth was bleeding. I cleaned it up as best I could and noticed a gash in his lower lip. You guessed it -- on impact of the fall, he bit through his bottom lip. I rushed to the front desk and asked the front deskman if he spoke English. Thank the Lord he did speak English as I was almost hysterical knowing Brett had to get stitches and we were in a country even more foreign to us than England. Mustafa, the front deskman, called the emergency number and 3 fireman came our room within about 15 minutes. They spoke no English so I was very thankful that Mustafa came to our room to be an interpreter for us. The firemen obviously couldn't do anything for Brett in our hotel room so Brett and I had to ride in the ambulance to the Marne La Vallee Hospital. Only 2 people could ride in the ambulance so Mike had to drive separately. After what seemed like an eternity riding in the back of the ambulance with one of the fireman that couldn't speak any English, I was pleased to walk in to the check-in area of the hospital to find an individual who could speak a few words of English. I had taken our book of French words; however that stupid thing seemed to be just about useless. I haven't ever felt that helpless and frustrated as I did sitting in the hospital attempting to communicate with the nurse and the doctor. Both the nurse and doctor at the hospital were very good and could also speak a bit of English. It ended up that Brett needed 3 stitches in his lower lip. In order to not pass out or throw up, I decided to leave the room while Mike stayed with Brett as the doctor stitched up his lip. Brett was a very brave little boy and didn't freak out a bit -- unlike his mummy. ;o)

We were able to leave the hospital about 4:45 a.m. and drive back to the Disney Hotel (although Jane did take us through some very creepy parts of Paris in order to do so in the middle of the night). Brett was in good spirits and not in too much pain so while it was after 5 a.m. when we got back to our room, we all still layed down to attempt to sleep for a few hours.

For all of you who know me very well you already know that I tend to hang on to things a bit longer than I should and get quite emotional in various situations...so for several days I wasn't able to really sleep at all as I kept thinking back to the sounds of that night and the accident and reliving every moment. While it was terrible having Brett fall and having to go through getting stitches, I still truly believe that our guardian angels were with us that night looking over him. Linda was definitely one of the angels with us as without her catching a portion of him, who knows how he would have fallen and hit the ground. All I could think of when I looked at him over the next few days having fun in Paris and at Disney was "what if?" There are so many worse things that could have happened to him during the fall depending on how he landed and we were blessed that it was just a gashed lip. I say prayers every day and thank the Lord for my beautiful children and wonderful husband and family; however I feel that there aren't enough thank yous in the world to Him for ensuring that Brett was only hurt minimally. As they say, count your blessings every day...

Here are a few photos. (I will plan to post more info and pics later from our trip to downtown Paris, Normandy, and Disney.)