Friday the 13th Curse?

 Today we got to have our first experience needing one of these:

 Before you get worried, everyone is perfectly fine and all turned out well. Now it will be a story I am sure we will laugh about in the future. But I definitely have some thank you cards to write to some firefighting heroes.

We were at the pool today- a place I go all the time with my kiddos. I was sitting on the side nursing Camille when a lady came over to me and my group of friends and said, "are any of you Christina?" I replied that I was, to which she responded that my daughter had her finger stuck and was crying.

What?!? I was totally confused.

I ran over to where she was. She did, indeed, have her finger stuck. She was in the pool along the side wall with her finger caught in one of the holes that blow air (water? What are they blowing? I don't know) into the water. She was crying and scared.

I jumped into the water (thank you to my wonderful friends who watched Claire and Camille- it meant so much to not even have to worry about my other two kiddos and to know they were in perfect hands while I handled this newfound stuck finger) and tried to assess the situation.

It was not great. Her finger was twisted at an incredibly awkward angle and there was no way it was coming out.

The lifeguards tried to help, but to no avail. They are, after all, just young kids themselves. They got some ice packs and called the fire department. They told me this happened last summer as well and the firemen had to be called for that situation as well.

They cleared the pool. Audra and I were alone in the water while everyone watched to see whether Audra would survive.

Audra cried. I tried to be very, very calm and told her the story of the 3 Little Pigs to get her mind off of her finger. I called Ben- as I was explaining the situation to him it was the only time I was afraid. I thought she may have broken her finger based on her weird angle, but I figured that was the worst it would be. I mean, what else could it be? I was certain they were not going to have to do anything too crazy, but I thought a trip to the ER might be in order for a broken finger. So I thought he should be warned in case he needed to come home and help.

The firemen came. There were about 6 of them craning their necks to try and figure out how to get this little girl out of this unusual situation.

In the end, they got her to straighten her body out so she was more aligned with the hole. Then they had her kneel down in the water- also for better alignment. One fireman convinced her to straighten out her fingers (she was scared to do any moving at all- she thought if she moved it would hurt really bad and that her finger would get cut).

Once she was aligned with her fingers straightened, the fireman easily slid her unbroken but swollen finger out of the hole.

We stood. The crowd cheered.

We thanked the wonderful firemen.

Audra got an ice pack.

Audra was still quite traumatized as we decided to just leave and not swim any longer. Miraculously, a Happy Meal and hot fudge sundae made her all better:

You can see the special fireman band-aid on her 

ornery and adventurous finger

At least two of you who read this blog have had firemen literally save your child's life. I am always awed and grateful for their ability to come and rescue people from death.

But, today I am grateful that they can also save people from the most random and strange circumstances that they may find themselves- like a 5-year-old getting her finger caught in a blow hole.