Let Me Paint You a Picture....

Tuesdays our homeschool group meets a a park for the kids to play. There were only a few children that came on Tues. There were two girls and one boy Nicholas' age that were there. The girls were playing really rough and once ran into Nicholas so hard they knocked him down in the sand. One of the girls kicked him in the back while he was laying there. I felt like I was yelling the enitire time at him.... "Nicholas, do not play rough with the girls, or you will not get to play with them anymore." And yet, their Mom said nothing except, "My girls are used to playing with boys. It's ok." I told her that he is not allowed to play rough with girls. Finally, they wouldn't stop and I didn't expect Nicholas to just let them pummel them. I said quite loudly, "HEY! If you girls want to play with Nicholas, no more playing rough because he isn't allowed to play like that with you."
A couple minutes later they went to go play in the ball field. Nicholas asked if he could go too. I reluctantly told him yes. I am so overprotective and I don't like it when he is that far from me. I know I need to work on that but what happened doesn't help me in that department much.
Instead of walking around to the opening, Nicholas climbed over the eight foot chain link fence and jumped down.... I reminded myself that he was just being a BOY.... Hannah was in the swing and I was pushing her. The kids were about 100 yards away by the baseball diamond. You know the back drop they have behind the home plate to rebound the balls? Well, it is chain link. The first pole that goes accross it is 16ft up and then probably another 8ft to the top. I look over and see my son climbing........ HIGHER AND HIGHER. He is about 2 ft fromt he top and I am watching on in horror. He started to come down just a couple of feet, then turned his body looking down at the ground..... I thought to myself, "No! Nicholas, don't do it!!!!!!!" Then he JUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It almost knocked the air out of me. I watched him plummet to the ground and when he landed it was brutal! He landed so hard on his feet and then crumpled up into a squatting position then tilted over onto the ground. I was yelling at him if he was ok but he was too far away and I couldn't hear him. The children had gathered around him. At least he was sitting up. (I must confess, my nerves have been SHOT since last Thursday night and I was in shock having seen my child do something so dangerous and STUPID!) One of the other moms said she would watch Hannah. As I was going to him I was thinking that if he wasn't hurt, (Only by the Grace of God) that I felt like beating him.
He could see the look in my eyes.... I was scared and angry. He said he was ok and tried to play it off like it was nothing.... he was limping for a couple of days. As we were walking back to Hannah I could tell he felt bad. He said, "Don't cry Mom." I asked him, "What were you thinking?! Do you know how high you were? You could have broken your neck. You could have broken your legs... You CAN"T jump from that high! You could have really gotten hurt!" He could have died. He told me he got up there but didn't know how to climb down. I said, "when you turned around and looked down, weren't you afraid?" He said, "NO, but after I jumped, I thought this is high, and got scared." The child had enough time falling through the air to realize how high it was.... I still see him, falling through the air and when he hit it was so hard. Nicholas has long, thin, feet and is very thin.... I just want to tell the world that, JESUS kept my baby safe!!!!!!!!
My Dad was an iron worker. He had a talk with his grandson on the phone and let him know that at the very least he could have broken, or even crushed his legs... that he knows people that have died from falling not as high as he was. He also advised me to take Nicholas to climb the 8ft fence and make him climb 4 or 5 up and then teach him to climb down.... I will be doing this. Along with reminding him to NEVER CLIMB THAT HIGH AGAIN! But if he should, please, oh, please Lord, let him climb down safely not JUMP!
Thank you all for listening...