How We Took Pictures Of Our Child's (Near) Death

With a long MLK weekend, we went to Ocean City MD to see the wild horses and stay in a fun hotel.  We were swimming in the pool, and we had divided kid duty, Alvin with Miriam and Henry and Tammy with Eliza and Clarissa.  After a while Tammy got Clarissa out of the pool to take pictures of A, M, & H.  We left Eliza happily playing in the quite expansive shallow end.  Eliza is almost three and old enough to stay where she can touch, right?  After all, there's never a problem when we're actually watching her. 

So Tammy is taking pictures and video of the others trying to get the perfect moment when the water splashes down from above (tricky, because there's no pattern to when it happens), when a nice little girl about 7 years old comes carrying Eliza back to us.  We politely say thanks, but we're sure Eliza was never really in danger.  The nice girl was just being over protective, or Eliza just got scared when it was no big deal.

Then we go back to our hotel room and look through the pictures.  First, we see a video where Eliza (momentarily highlighted in hearts) leaves the shallower end following a ball she was playing with...



Then we see this picture!

Eliza's in the back, but you can only see the top of her head (to the right of Alvin's shoulder).  Here it is zoomed in:

Can you believe we let this happen?  Makes us absolutely sick inside!

And this is of the girl carrying Eliza back.  (Yes, when Eliza's curls get wet, she has long, very mullet-like hair.)

These pictures are so scary.  It's hard to describe the full range of emotions we have experienced, but guilt and immense gratitude are at the top of the list.  We are so so grateful that little girl was at the right place at the right time to save our little girl.  We wish we could go back and thank her a thousand times over. 

In sharing this experience, Alvin's co-worker shared a similar experience where he was videotaping one child when his second had his flotation device flip him over such that he was stuck upside-down, but he was fortunate enough to see it in time.  We have a dear friend at church (who wasn't taking pictures) but lost a 2 year old in a pool full of people and with lifeguards on duty.  We feel so blessed and know that she was truly being watched over by a more Heavenly parent than us.  We have hugged our kids a little more this week and tried to appreciate all the precious moments we have with them each day. 

We add our warning to the common sense knowledge we're sure you already have - ALWAYS keep an eye on your little ones at the pool.

We can't imagine if we had lost Eliza.  She's such a gem.  Here's a glimpse at some of the cute things she's doing, saying, and singing these days.  (you can read the words better if you make the video full screen, but the video quality goes down some.)

We love you Eliza!