Saturday, October 6, 2012

counting our many blessings


That's our car, Lupe. We crashed her this weekend and now she is dead. I doubt any of you would consider this to be a blessing and usually nor would I, but really, the car came out looking the worst. 

Here's the story... 

This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend as well as General Conference weekend (GC is a time where members of my church gather to hear the counsels of our prophet). Every year, Conference is held in Salt Lake City where thousands can attend in person and millions worldwide can listen via internet. This year, Johnny and I got tickets to go to Conference and so we made preparations to go down. On Friday we set out on a 12 hour journey down to Salt Lake. But as you can guess, we didn't make it. 

Just after we passed Great Falls Montana, I was at the wheel when I dozed off for a moment. The next thing I knew, the rumble strips jolted me awake and to avoid going into the ditch I over corrected and ended up veering off the other side of the road away from the oncoming traffic (blessing #1). We were travelling at 80 mph (130 km/hr) so that gave us plenty of momentum to tumble and roll about 100 yards into a farmer's field. Thank goodness we didn't hit anyone else on the road (blessing #2)

When we stopped I was pretty dazed and disoriented, but I soon made the connection that we'd crashed and I was the one driving. This part was pretty foggy for me because I'd banged up my head pretty good and had a stream of blood running down my face. But Johnny tells me that one of the witnesses to the crash, as well as one of the first on the scene was a trained nurse and he took really good care of us while emergency responders were on their way (HUGE blessing #3). Lucky for us, we weren't too far from Great Falls, so the ambulance arrived quickly (blessing #4).

Johnny and I were taken separately to the hospital since they were able to get him out of the car before me and they had to use the jaws of life for my door. On the way there I was so scared because I didn't know what was happening with me and especially because I didn't know what was happening with my husband. I'm pretty sure I asked the girl taking care of me how he was doing several times. As for me, I had a large gash on my head and because they were concerned about my neck, they slapped a neck brace on me and strapped me to a board, which was NOT comfortable.

At the hospital they ran a few tests on me and put me through a scanner to determine if there was any internal bleeding and to check on my neck and spine to be sure everything was fine. Once I was deemed healthy, my neck brace was removed and I was released from the board. As they were cleaning my wound to prepare for the staples, Johnny found my room and came to hold my hand. He'd managed to get away with a few abrasions on his face and a banged up forearm. So basically, he's Superman. After my gash had been cleaned and numbed, the doctor came in and stapled my head back together. About a half hour later, my parents were there to pick us up from the hospital. The state troopers had called them to let them know about the accident, so they were there just in time for us. 

There are so many things about our accident that I am grateful for and there are so many ways that the circumstances could have been much worse. God was definitely looking out for us this weekend, and now we get to spend our thanksgiving at home surrounded by our family. We've gained a new appreciation for the things we have, that's for sure!

Even though I doubt these people would be reading this, I'd just like to give the biggest shout out along with my deepest gratitude out to:
- The witnesses who called in the accident and made sure we were okay. 
- The emergency response team who got us out of the car and to the hospital.
- My nurses who took such good care of me despite my whining.
- Johnny's nurses who apparently didn't need to do much, but still saw to his needs. 
- The doctor who stapled me together. 
- The state troopers who called my parents and made the mood a bit brighter with Johnny and I as we joked around about hockey and superstitions. 
- The missionaries who gave me a blessing in my time of need. 

And... last, but certainly not least:
- MY PARENTS who came to our rescue and helped to get the blood out of my clothes. 


6 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you're alright! Sorry to hear about your accident...it happens! But the thing that's always good is coming out ok. Love you!

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    1. It's funny because from my last post I remember you making a comment on my tidbit about me getting parking tickets and you said something along the lines of, "at least you don't get into car accidents!". Pretty sure you jinxed me there :P

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    2. Ah! You're right! I definitely did...
      SORRY!!

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  2. Crazy crazy. I am glad that you are doing alright. What amazing blessing indeed!

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  3. I'm so glad you guys are okay! You're right, our Elder Mo is Superman, hardly a scratch! He'll be able to take good care of you. Hope you heal easily. <3

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