Update 12/13/09 5 weeks since crash

Dear friends,

Don't be looking for any deep, meaningful thoughts in this post.

It was a school night, and I had to go to Walmart to get Drano for the bathroom sink. Joseph and David were at various points in their stalling routines, Hannah was working on mountains of geometry, and Donna the Loyal was here, tending to my finances. You do not want to be in Walmart at 10:15pm on a Sunday night. There are 2 cashiers, 3 crying babies, and lines from here to Schenectady. Why I couldn't let the sink stay clogged is a mystery to me. After a half hour in line and not many thoughts I'm very proud of (yes, even after something so terrible as a car accident I found I can still get annoyed by Walmart), I was able to extract myself from the store. Only to find they locked the door I came in, so I now have to walk around to the other door then through the parking lot. At home, Donna tells me how David, who I had assigned to floss his teeth, probably spent about the same amount of time doing so as I spent in line at Walmart. He was seemingly uninspired to floss and brush. Donna very gently approached him and asked him how he was doing. The young offspring explained he was flossing as he was told. She told him to "floss with conviction, and get it done". Yet another sentence not typically heard, but perfect to the core.

So it's quarter to twelve, and I'm committed to this blog so here I sit. Everyone is now safely ensconced in bed, and I am trying not to think about the many phone calls I have to make tomorrow. There are many details when you have 2 family members in a car wreck: medical appointments, educational appointments, legal issues, insurance issues, changing your house around for non ambulatory people issues, etc... But there's nothing I can do about any of it tonite. I'm quite sure HE who keeps the spheres in their orbits can control the Universe while I sleep. "Give no thought for the morrow, for the morrow will give thought to the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil therein." (Gotta love that King James for some verses!)

Can you believe all we've been through together these last 5 weeks? People almost died, then they could have gotten infections, then they could have lost limbs, then they might "never fully come back", then they started getting better, then they put one foot on their mountain, then another, and so it goes. Why in the world I got annoyed at Walmart is beyond me. Just the old human side of us, forgetting the miracles that are right before our eyes. I'm sorry, dearest Father in heaven! Bless those precious souls at Walmart!

I was thinking as I drove to Sunnyview today (a dangerous pastime, I know), that the sadness I feel about not having a "normal" Christmas is being experienced hundreds, thousands of times over and much more acutely by the dear folks with family members deployed overseas. They can't make a 40 minute drive to see their loved one. And there is danger ever present. Let's remember to pray for them, and if you are inclined there is a great way to practically support these brave folks. Steve and I did this last year, and it was a joy. You can find out more at www.adoptaplatoon.org.

Stephen and Hannah are alive and moving forward 5 weeks later. I may listen to Elvis singing "Blue Christmas" (no one sings it like him), and feel a little bit, well, blue. But for sure I am so incredibly happy and blessed that they are with us, and there resides within me a rock solid joy that wins out over the blues hands down. I wish I were an angel in Bethlehem, rocking the skies with "Glory to God in the Highest". Even that wouldn't adequately do.

I am thrilled to carry on with friends like all of you. I feel a little like Frodo in Lord of the Rings, when the great Samwise Gamgee says in effect "I may not be able to carry your burden, Frodo, but I can carry you." And he puts his friend over his shoulder and hauls him up the mountain to his destination. I've always loved that scene. Now I get to live it. Guess which part you play?

With great affection and gratitude on the pilgrim road,

Loriann