This is a story that influenced my life a lot- even though it was not in Russia. It had massively made me who I’ve become. It could have been completely different if things had gone slightly differently, and it is incredible how God used it for good.

Most of you have probably heard this story, more or less. And for those of you who are squeamish, I won’t go into too much detail on how my tooth went through my tongue.

This actually happened before we went back to Russia. Mum and Dad had already been there, but I don’t remember that time. We were living in a place in the outer suburbs of Melbourne called Kangaroo Ground. Mum, Dad, and me stayed there for a year and a half, while they were studying.

Before this had happened, whenever we wanted to pray, I would squirm away and go play. I wasn’t interested. It broke Mum and Dad’s heart that I didn’t like praying, and didn’t think much of God.

I was at Kindergarten, playing. And apparently, I simply fell. I don’t remember the actual accident since I was little, but I assume that my tooth stabbing through my tongue would have hurt a lot. I suppose I’m glad I can’t remember the pain. You never can remember pain entirely, or describe it, so we will just move on.

Anyway, I was crying and crying and trying to get my teachers attention. No clear words would come out. She must have been confused because normally when you fall, you’re upset for a bit and then forget about it completely. But I kept nagging her and wouldn’t stop crying, so eventually she called my parents.

They came to the kindergarten and took me to hospital.

As we were driving two very big things happened. Dad was heading towards Box Hill hospital. It is in Melbourne, as the Melbournians would know. 😊 I was born in that hospital, and Pj was as well. They helped Mum and Dad a lot, and so when I was hurt, they thought we should go there. When Dad was driving there, God told Dad not to go to Box Hill hospital but to go to another.

I’ll never know how important that was, but I’m assuming that if God told Dad while in an emergency and while he was driving, it was pretty important. This may be because not every hospital would have realised what was going on with my tongue. When I fell the tooth snapped the nerves in my tongue. Many people wouldn’t have noticed, and would have simply stitched it up. If that were the case, then I would have had a difficult time speaking, and unfortunately you would have had a hard time understanding me - because my tongue wouldn’t work properly.  I imagine that could have happened to me too, if God had not told Dad. Of if Dad had ignored him.

In other words, when Dad turned the car around, God turned my life around.

The other amazing thing that happened was with me. I was sitting in the backseat, feeling kind of weak. I was wondering why God would let this happen to me, but I felt a desperate need to keep my faith strong. So, I said to myself, Jesus still loves me, Jesus still loves me. And I believed it with my whole heart. It would work out. God would never let anything happen that I could not go through. He was still there, he still loved me. And over my life, I have learnt I can trust him. Starting there.

Dad told me later that he thought it was strange how I was saying that Jesus still loves me. But he listened intently. I don’t remember everything in that moment, but Dad said he could tell there was a lot that was changing.

The hospital we arrived at said it wasn’t a complete emergency and we would have to wait a little before it was my turn.

I remember Mum and Dad carrying me to the hospital and me hanging limply. I think it was half because it did hurt and half because it was a great excuse for them to carry me. Overall, I enjoyed the attention.

I remember a nurse asking me what flavoured medicine I wanted. Chocolate, Strawberry, Banana, or “Shark”. I think the “Shark” was probably bubble-gum. I don't think I realised that then. I like trying things new but when your tooth goes through you tongue you are not in the mood for new things. So, I picked chocolate. I have a theory that was the medicine that made me go to sleep because I don’t remember anything after that.

Not sure how long it had been (probably around thirty seconds later), and I remember the nurses carrying the stretcher. It was moving and the blankets felt so heavy and my breathing and heartbeat were so loud and lulling me to sleep rapidly. In other words, I’ve never been so tired in my life. I fell asleep so quickly. I was probably deeply asleep by the end of the corridor.

Anyway, this particular doctor was like a very professional lady that knew that something else was wrong with my tongue other than it being cut. She must have very professional because I don’t know any other person that knows how to connect broken tongue nerves back together. (Unless if my cousin Sasha had learnt by now if she is going to learn that. Please tell me if you will know or if you do know 😊)

Oh, and I’m not sure where this fits in, but I think I’ll put it here. I remember when the doctor asked me to the stick my tongue up of the roof of my mouth so he could see where it was hurt.

Anyone else might not have noticed, and a good chance Box Hill wouldn’t have noticed either. She skilfully connected my nerves back together and stitched up my tongue and everything. You can’t even tell now. I’ve tried sticking up my tongue in the mirror to see if there are any scars on my tongue, but mouths don’t really scar and besides I can’t tell with all the veins and stuff.

After the operation when we went home (or was it before the operation? Who knows, who cares). I couldn’t eat crunchy food and could only eat soft stuff like Weet-bix for breakfast. Or soggy Cheerios, and I remember that I would deliberately wait a while for it to get soggy so I could eat it. I also remember Dad telling me how I could only eat soft things, and I asked if I could have Milo. I was disappointed but it was alright. Dad smiled and said Milo was okay.

And you guys might know that I like telling this story a lot. Grace said that if there was a competition on how many words I could say in a minute I should tell this story and I think she is right because I’ve written the whole thing an around an hour and its twice as long than my other posts.

I like this story because to me it’s a story of how God changed my life forever and brought me back to him. On top of that, he helped Dad find someone who could help me fix my tongue. And I’m so glad things happened the way they did.