Thankfulness Number 7!!

November 13-the thirteenth thing I am thankful for is the HEALTH of my children.  Not all families can say that.  I am so blessed that we have only had one major incident involving a hospital stay for Carter when he had HSP.  He was in the hospital for quite some time and ended up having to have a surgery and what he had was EXTREMELY RARE, so they didnt know much about it.  They met with doctors in California to figure out more about how to treat it.  It was a bit of a crazy, hectic time.  It was right around Christmas time in 2012.  Jace was a little baby still, and Josh and Brooke were taking turns spending the night at the hospital with him, which of course made it much more hectic for me because I tried to pick up the slack here and there.  But all in all, I am SO GLAD it wasnt much worse.  Lots of families have prolonged hospital stays all the time. 

We have had the bumps and bruises visits to the ER.  Triston had to get stitches in his chin after falling on the slide at daycare.  They put him in a "taco suit" where he was unable to move his arms and legs at all and then had Josh basically lay over him while they stitched him up because he couldnt move or they would mess up the stitches.  He was screaming so loud and it actually hurt Joshs heart so bad, he cried.  He came out of there and said that was the hardest thing he has done.  Triston was begging him to get off of him but he knew he couldnt.  :(  SO sad! 

Jace had to get the bottom of his lip glued back together after falling off the couch and face planting in the floor.  Ironically enough, it happened at the doctors office already! :)  He rarely cries, so when he started crying so hard we knew something was hurt, then there was blood all over my sweater and I looked at his chin area and I went weak in my knees when I realized there was a hole in his chin.  His teeth had come thru his bottom lip.  YUCK!  There was so much blood I was having a hard time telling if there was really a hole or if it was just broken skin.  But I wiped it real good and saw it.  I SO remember that feeling i had right then.  I am not squeamish at the sight of blood or anything, it was just the fact that it was my SON who was bleeding so bad.  It scared me more than anything.  But they glued it back and all was well! :) 

Other than Carters surgery, he has never had to have stitches.  He had to have several stitches in his tummy after they did the surgery though.  He also had tubes put in his ears when he was 2, but for the most part he has stayed out of the hospital.  All the boys are super tough, so I can only imagine what is in store for us through the rest of their young lives.  And Kyndal has definately never had anything to go to the hospital for yet either.  Hopefully she wont ever have to do that either! :)  She can leave all the craziness to the boys :) 

But all that to say, I thank the Lord all the time for giving me healthy kids.  I cannot imagine the pain and utter heartache watching your child suffer.  To me, there isnt much else that could be any worse than that.  I know people who have children with terminal diseases and the thought literally breaks my heart.  I pray for them often.  How do they get through it?  I am so grateful to God that all my family is healthy!!  Thank you Jesus!!!! :)

November 14-The fourteenth thing I am thankful for is that my parents' accident, which happened three years ago TODAY, was not worse.  They absolutely had a guardian angel with them when that happened.  God showed His faithfulness in so many ways.  Right after they hit, dad said he hadnt been out of the car for a minute before two British paratroopers who had just returned from Afghanistan showed up.  They were medics and so they knew exactly what to do for mom, to help the bleeding stop, and they kept everyone calm. They were 100% sent by the Lord Jesus Christ, I have NO DOUBT!  Also, dads best buddy Bill and his wife Jill were STILL in Las Vegas, so when daddy told them what happened, they were at the hospital waiting for mom when she got there in the heliocopter.  The firefighters said they had never seen the front end of a vehicle hold up so well in a crash that severe.  They hit that van going 80 miles an hour and the fact that they were not crushed proves that Gods hand was what stopped that car.  I have no doubt about that either. 

Not to make this about me, but I remember, I was around 6-7 months pregnant with Jace at the time.  I will never forget it.  I had a bad feeling that morning but I always get nervous when they are going to make long drives across the country like that.  (Dad NEVER flys, so that happens every so often)  So I shook it off and went on.  When dad called the office, I saw it was him on the caller ID and I tried to grab it but was a second too late.  Georgia answered it and I could tell it was not good.  He told her to put me on the phone without giving her much details.  She told me "rach, your dads on the phone and they had a minor fender bender."  I immediately picked it up and said "DAD, whats going on?"  First thing he said was "sweetie you need to stay calm.  We just had a little fender bender."  #NOTjustafenderbenderatall!  He said "Remeber you are pregnant, so dont get yourself worked up.  you need to stay calm and listen to what I am about to tell you."  #stayingcalmisoutofthequestion  So I said "Are you okay?"  He said yes and that he had some scrapes and cuts from the glass and burns from the airbag, so my mind is already thinking this is NOT a fender bender at all.  The glass shattered and the airbag deployed....WHAT??!?  So I said "Is mom okay?"  He said "Well they mediflighted her back to Vegas..."  I interjected "they mediflighted her????  DAD is she alive?  Is she OKAY???"  He said yes, there is a gash on her head and he didnt know how bad it was for sure, but he knew she was alive and conscious the whole time.  So he continued to talk to me for a couple more minutes then told me the tow truck is there and he had to go and would call me later.  He said "I love you Rachael and everything will be okay."  My dad rarely calls me by my full name!  It helped me get myself together a little bit more and I knew he meant what he said. 

By the time I had hung up the phone the entire office staff was gathered around my desk.  Georgia was rubbing my back and praying out loud behind me.  Angela brought a box of kleenex over to my desk for me.  They were all hearing bits and pieces of my conversation, but waiting to hear the details.  I recounted everything best as I could through my tears.  Then I remembered he had told me to let Linds and Babaw and Jobug and everyone else know.  So Linds was my first call.  LOL!  I didnt do great through that conversation and probably had her heart racing before I could actually speak enough to tell her they were alright!  (sorry about that Linds)  I know I said they had an accident and then had to sob for a minute before I let her know they were alright.  LOL!  We both contemplated getting plane tickets and heading out there immediately. 

My sweet husband was my next call and he called his mom right after and them two together were able to get me a plane ticket to Vegas that left that evening if I wanted to go.  (his mom used to work for Southwest)  The next time I talked to my dad I told him I was gonna come and he insisted that I didnt waste my time.  He said everything was under control and there was no need for Linds and I to pack up and come out there.  I was sad, but I agreed not to come anyway.  :'(  I called Jobug and told her and she called Babaw and Grandad for me.  I called Bill and Debbie Wallace and they let Rick Minnich know.  Everyone was willing to help in any way they could.  I remember that thru my lunch hour I had never been so busy with phone calls. 

I also remember when I got back to the office I was with a customer when I saw Jill Lemieux calling.  I didnt answer it and I was so sad that I had to miss it.  Right when that customer left I called her back.  Turned out it was my mom calling from her phone and I had missed it.  #devastating  So Jill told me that she would take her phone back in there to her.  What I didnt know at that moment was that mom was just getting back in her hospital bed from taking a small walk.  So she was insanely out of breath and couldnt speak very well.  Mind you, this is the first time I am getting to talk to her since the accident and I have no clue how she is doing.  So I hear her voice, which was SUPER raspy and she was barely able to get a breath.  It sounded like heavy wheezing trying to inhale....it was awful.  I immediately burst in to tears and say "You are not okay MOM!!!!!"  She assured me that she was but that she needed to call me back.  So a couple minutes later when she had caught her breath again, she called me back sounding MUCH better, thank God!!!  So that gave me a better feeling, lol!  I hated so bad not being able to help her and be with her through that time.  UGH!! 

That night we had Lifegroup at our house and I remember crying quite a bit through that too.  It was so hard.  I called my dad that night and just cried to him wanting to be with him and my mom SO BAD!  I have never wanted that as bad as I did then.  It was definately a difficult time for all of us, but it most definitely could have been immensly worse.  I cannot imagine losing them that day.  How different my life would be today.  I was pregnant with my first child then and I NEEDED them through that whole process.  They have both helped me more than they will ever know.  Seriously, I know God knew what He was doing sparing their lives that day!!  Honestly, they are both lucky to have walked away from that. 

My dad is so awesome, because in that moment before the impact...where he realized that he was going to hit the van, and hit it HARD, all he said was "OHHH GOSH"  Had it been me, I woulda hollered out a few expletives for sure.  lol!  He tried to swerve to miss it, but it hit anyway.  I know he felt bad watching mom go through all she had to deal with.  But all in all, they both know that God was totally watching out for them right then because things could have ended much differently.  Thank you Jesus!!!!