A Second Chance

That is truly what we feel we have gotten. My husbands life was spared when it so easily could have been taken or at least made much much worse. We have been so blessed through all of this horrible nightmare that we have been living for almost 3 weeks now. It's almost like living in a dream.

It still feels like yesterday that I got the call I've always dreaded, at 4 in the morning.

I knew it the second the phone rang.

I had felt it all night.

Doug was driving home from his grandmothers funeral in Canada, with 3 of his cousins. I had stayed up late that night, and often my thoughts were of him and wishing he was walking through our door. Samantha had been sick with a fever in those early hours and I had only just gone to sleep an hour before the phone rang.

I knew.

You have that horribly sick moment of not knowing what exactly they will say. For the nurse at the Oneida County Hospital in Idaho it was the infamous words "there's been an accident".

Why I ask, can they not preface that with your husband is alive, is it too much to ask that they spit that out immediately!

For that eternal second I did not know what my future held.

At this moment these thoughts make me sick.


But we were blessed.

His injuries were devastating at first. But I believe in miracles and know that the Lord took away our biggest fears. We can deal with what we have. It will be a long road to recovery and maybe some other surgeries. But I will take that. Doug is still struggling with what has happened. He has had less time to process this. He lost 4 days of memory. That's ok though, they're not days he needs to remember.

We worry for our cousins and their struggle to heal physically and emotioinally. We struggle with the knowledge that one life was not spared.

We know this tragedy has bonded us all in way we were not before.

I know things happen for a reason and I have already seen and felt many reasons for this experience.

I had not meant to be so candid in my thoughts but as I sit to write about it, this is what is coming out. I don't think I could be more casual about it. This experience is changing our lives.

Doug continues to heal as we deal with transferring his care here. We spent a maddening 6 hours at Dr. appointments yesterday and realize that the health care in this town leaves a lot to be desired. Or is it just our health insurance that is so retarded! It's probably the latter. I have a feeling we will have appointments every day next week. It will not be the funnest summer for our kids but they seem to understand and accept that this is more important.

Our deepest gratitude to everyone who has supported us through this. We are so grateful for each of you.