Ever so thankful

This weekend was an emotional roller coaster. I had a lovely breakfast with friends on Saturday morning and went to work in the GEMS house and at church to get ready for our first real meeting, which is tonight. My phone's battery was dead, so I plugged it in in the van. I went about doing my thing at church and was delayed a little talking to a fellow from church about some struggles we are having with the use of the GEMS house.

I loaded some things into my van and locked up the GEMS house, but was planning to do a few more things around church and then a bunch of errands when I noticed that my cell phone said "12 missed calls"! I was just a tad freaked out by that, as you can imagine. It was Ed's cell that had called, so I knew instantly that something was wrong. I called back and after making sure that I wasn't driving, Ed finally told me that my mom had called and my dad had fallen from the roof of their house and could I please come to the hospital. My mom did think he would be OK since he could move all his limbs, but we just really had no idea at that point.

I drove to the hospital, desperately trying to reach my brothers and finally got a hold of my poor sister-in-law. I was probably hysterical, I don't remember, but the baby was crying and she was trying to give the phone to my brother. Sorry to freak you out, Susanne. Anyway, Mike was the voice of reason, telling me that I couldn't help Dad medically and that I just needed to follow the car in front of me. Good. That was good. I could do that.

I finally reached my other brother who gave me advice on what to do and where to go when I got to the hospital. So I am thankful today for my brothers and their calm heads.

When I got to the hospital, I ran into the ER and a medic asked if he could help me. I said, "I'm looking for my dad." He said, "Are you Julie?" Wow - yes! He told me he had taken my dad in and that my dad had been asking for me and for my mom in the ambulance. He told me Dad was probably going to be OK but that he was going in for a CT scan right then. He brought me right to my mom just as they were wheeling my dad in for the scan. So today I am also thankful for medics.

Dad was really confused for quite a while, due to the concussion, and we were all very scared until all the CT scans came back good. We were so thankful that nothing was broken and gradually over the course of the day my dad started to remember the things we told him, though he now remembers very little about what happened on that day.

He had a huge gash on the back of his head and bruised elbows and a bruised tailbone, because that's how he landed. He got staples in the back of his head and was kept overnight for observation. At that point we still didn't know why or how he fell off the roof, but my mom said that when she got to him, the first thing he said was that the ladder slipped, and that was before he started getting confused. When he fell, the neighbor lady heard him fall and holler and immediately ran over and was there for just a minute before my mom heard him holler and she got to him. He never lost consciousness. The neighbor lady turned out to be a nurse, so was giving mom his vitals while she was on the phone with 911. We are so thankful for her.

When my dad was finally released on Sunday morning, he and Mom came straight to our house so that we could watch my nephew's baptism in California via live webcast. That was so awesome. It was a privilege to watch and emotional, given the circumstances of the weekend. But today we are thankful for the miracle of a baby and for the internet!

When my parents got home on Sunday morning they discovered that the ladder had in fact malfunctioned and collapsed when my dad stepped down on it to come down off the roof. The gutter was bent, indicating that he had tried to grab the gutter on his way down, so that likely slowed his fall some. He landed on the trex deck, not the cement, which cushioned his fall. We are so thankful for all those little miracles that saved him from far more severe injuries.

We enjoyed a hearty meal at lunchtime with my parents and my grandma and we gave thanks that we were all safe inside our home and not in a hospital room. The rest of Sunday the girls played and I rested. So I thankful for a day of rest!

May I never forget to be thankful for every day that I am able to walk around and care for my family with a clear mind and healthy body.