The morning after the shooting.
When I pulled into the house, my sister's vehicles was sitting in front of my house with the flashers on. I lost it then. Some of you may not understand, but out here in the country, we have to turn on our flashers so the ambulance can find us. This freaked me out because my Aunt had left the house to turn on the flashers when her husband passed away. Pulling up and seeing the flashers in front of my house was overwhelming. My sister, Kerron, walked out of the house and said "Jessica, they have been shot, but they will be okay. The ambulance is coming but everything will be okay." I lost it and started screaming. Kerron said something to me about knowing how I don't handle trauma well, so deal with it outside. I started running to my neighbors house, still screaming my head off. I wish I were one of those people who remained calm in an emergency, but I now realize I am totally not calm. I burst into my neighbors house, screaming, "they've shot themselves, Andrew has been shot!" She tried to calm me, but I was a wreck.
We ran back to my house and walked into the kitchen. Eric was laying on the floor, with a towel around his leg. Andrew was laying in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room with a towel around his knee and moaning.
The living room looked like a crime scene. There was blood everywhere. The carpet was covered in blood, there was blood on the sofa, on toys, just everywhere. There were also two guns, laying in pieces and one lone shell.
I started yelling again, mostly at Andrew. "What the hell were you thinking! I can't believe you shot yourself! What is wrong with you!" He started yelling back. "Just shut up! Just shut up, okay! You're not helping!" It is comical now, but it was tense.
Eventually a paramedic showed up and started helping. The ambulance got lost and didn't show up for 35 minutes. My parents were on their way home from a vacation and saw the ambulance wandering around. They saw the lights at our house and thought that something had happened to Amaree. (BTW, she had been in the hospital just two days before with a breathing problem. It was so severe she was almost admitted, but she was able to pull through with some medication.)
Amaree during a breathing treatment.
My parents finally got the attention of the ambulance and pulled in. Just as they were pulling in, the paramedic walked out. They asked him what happened and he said, "They have just shot each other." They thought it was Andrew and me who were shot. Anyway, they walked in and saw our crime scene. They tried to comfort me. Amaree slept through the whole thing-the gunshot, my screaming, and everyone who was helping.
The ambulance took Eric and Andrew to the hospital. Eric was lucky. The bullet went through the fleshy part of his calf. He has a small piece left in there, but it has healed very well. Andrew had a more severe injury. The bullet went across his knee cap and carved a groove across the top. From the groove, there are five or six cracks. He has had to have a recovery process of rest and physical therapy. He is doing great now, and his limp is getting better all the time.
So what happened? Apparently they were cleaning the handguns. Andrew was showing Eric how to do it. They took Andrew's gun apart, cleaned it, and then he put it back together, put the clip in it, and then he put the gun in the holster and put it away. They took Eric's gun apart and cleaned it. Eric said, "Wait show me on your gun again." Andrew grabbed his gun, pulled the slide back, pulled the lever to release the top, then pulled the trigger. He forgot that he had put the clip back in because he had already taken it apart once. Anyway, we are all very blessed. It could have been so much worse!
Happy Birthday!
Amaree has been doing very well. She is talking so much and learning so many new words. She even said six new words in one day! Her birthday was great. It is amazing to see her reach milestones. She is starting to get more personality and likes to tell me "Don't Touch!"
Rendezvous was so much fun for her. She had a ball, and loved posing and having her picture taken in her clothes.
She is also loving nursery, she knows where it is and can't wait for us to leave her there. She is a star!
We did have to go in and have a sedated hearing test to make sure everything was okay. The procedure went well and she has great hearing! The post op was tough, she didn't like being woken from that drug! Once it wore off, she was fine.
Hopefully, things will calm down a bit more. Things were so crazy for a while, I was almost ready to be put in an asylum!
Amaree posing in her rendezvous outfit.
