This week turned out so different than I had planned. Oh my! I'm glad I didn't know about it ahead of time.
My son, Neil, went on a mission trip to Haiti last week sponsored by his college, Hannibal LaGrange College. Their team of 15 had a great week and had accomplished so much, but on Sunday afternoon on their way back from church, as 30+ people stood in the back of a open bed truck with only railings around the sides, the brakes went out as they were going down the mountain. In an effort to avoid going over a cliff at 60 mph, the driver (who was the Haitian missionary that they'd worked with all week) drove the truck up the side of the mountain overturning it, but saving everyone's lives. Most were thrown about 60 feet according to witnesses. All sustained injuries, but miraculously, no one was killed nor was anyone in critical condition. It was obvious that the hand of God was on them all.
Neil called me Monday morning and told me just a few details. He and some of the team were flying home that day as originally scheduled. (A few of the team members had serious enough injuries that they were taken by helicopter to Miami to be hospitalized.) He and nine other team members arrived at the St. Louis airport at 12:15 AM early Tuesday morning. His college had arranged for all of them to go immediately to a local hospital ER to get checked out. All but one of them were treated and released.
Neil sustained a concussion, badly broken nose, fracture of right orbital bone (cheek bone), fractured transverse process of the lumbar vertebra, many stitches and staples to the face and head, and tons of cuts, scrapes, road rash, and bruises. He received care in Haiti from a US medical team where they stitched him and reset his nose. In St. Louis, they did a CT scan of most of his body and then cleaned all his wounds and bandaged him up. He came home Tuesday morning with lots of healing to do.
We are grateful to God that He preformed the miracle of sparing Neil and his team members lives1 There are still a couple of them in the hospital, so please pray for complete healing for all.
So most of my time this week has been devoted to Neil.....either in giving him care or processing what has happened. He is doing better each day. He's pretty sad about having to have surgery next Thursday to re-set his nose......feeling like it will be a set back in his recovery. Today I reminded him that at least when they fix his nose, he will not have all the other injuries to contend with.....everything else should be mostly healed by then.
Here's a fairly tame pic of Neil arriving at the airport on Tuesday morning. Trust me, he looked a lot worse than this. Poor guy said he couldn't even cry because it would hurt his face too much. He is a TOUGH one, he is! And I'm extremely proud of him.
If you'd like to read a bit more about the accident, check out his
college's website article.
Even though I didn't do much but take care of Neil this week, I still had a couple of cookie orders to fulfill. I hoped it would distract me and maybe even be a stress reliever, but instead, for probably the first time, it was a bit of a chore. With all the interruptions and additional things to do, getting the cookies done proved to be a huge challenge. But I did it! And the recipients were very happy. :)
I thought you might like to see the new labels I've started making to add to my boxes or bags. I bought a punch that will allow me to add any color to the background with the logo on top. :)
And here's my random set of cookies for this week.
This next week proves to be super busy. Neil has doctor's appointments and his surgery. My two youngest, Keith and Allison are graduating next Saturday. We are having out of town company (who have volunteered to stay in a hotel.....of which I'm grateful), and then an graduation open house next Sunday. I have to not think about it all.....because it overwhelms me so much.
I've reserved the week for only doing cookies for Keith & Allison and their graduation.....so no orders to fill this week. Boy I'm glad I set that boundary a few weeks ago! Hopefully I can enjoy the memories and have a great time celebrating this special time of K & A's lives.....but also the completion of 18 years of homeschooling my kids!
Here is the set I am going to use in small gift boxes for all the ladies I'll meet with for Bible study the second week. I wanted to do something extra special for them since they are near and dear to my heart. I'm crazie about the mini ladybug and dragonfly. :)
