A February 29th we will never forget

 We almost lost Meital yesterday, and that is not hyperbole. It was one of the scariest things I have ever felt, yet for most of the time I was happily oblivious. It started off innocently enough, where I was working and Meital was playing happily. I noticed she was playing with a balloon with printing on it that I had brought home from the Panorays evening, but she seemed happy, I was working, and all was good. 

At some point, it was time for her to eat and go to sleep. I tried feeding her the mush that Shifra gave me, but every spoonful made her choke. That was unusual, and I assumed the mush was making her chocke. I quickly gave her a bottle so she wouldn't be hungry, and she fell asleep in her crib. An hour later, she woke up. She was difficult to deal with, especially while working, and so Shifra said she would come home. 

When Shifra came home, she pointed out that I needed to mush up the mush a little more, and that must have been why she was choking. When she continued choking while Shifra was feeding her, Shifra realized there was a problem. She looked and saw something blue in her throat. I was trying to calm her down while her body went into a state of shock while also trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, she drove to Terem with her mum. The doctor reached in with a stick, and pulled out a sticker from the balloon and she had swallowed, and it had been stuck to the top of her throat. He toild us that if we waited a little longer, it would have been too late. Had it fallen down Chas Veshalom, she would have not been able to breathe. 

And only then were we able to appreciate the miracles that took place.

#1 - That the sticker got stuck to the top of her throat for 3 hours, through a nap and 3 feeding attempts

#2 - That Shifra left school and noticed the blue at the top

#3 - That the sticker was a color that was noticeable in her mouth

#4 - That the sticker was the letter Ayin - in cursive, which meant the doctor was able to put the stick through the loop and pull it out swiftly

The head of Terem came out to speak to Shifra, and apparently they want to put out the story without our names. We asked our Rabbi if we say Hagomel, which we don't because she is under Bat Mitzvah. We are trying to figure out a good way to give Hodaya, without alerting the other kids about what could have happened. All I know is I will never forget it. I wrote out Modim Lashem with the rest of the stickers from that balloon and put it on my desk, to remember the miracles every day.

I wouldn't say it was traumatic for me because I was happily oblivious for most of the time, but only after did we realize how scary it actually could have been. We are slowly dealing with our feelings about the whole thing, but above all, we feel tremendous gratitude to Hashem and to Terem.