{another miracle}

Quite a few years ago...28 years to be exact...my dad was in a horrible car accident on the day I started 1st grade. My dad was 33 yrs old when he had the accident and his entire life was turned upside down. My 4yr old little brother, Tim, was in the car w/dad.



God totally saved their lives that day.



My dad suffered some sort of seizure and as Tim later told my mom, "dad laid down in the seat and stared at the radio". When the car came to rest in a cornfield, Tim was basically unharmed and Dad was a broken, bloody mess.



He suffered a broken pelvis, broken jaw, broken ankle and an unbelievable amount of blood loss. Dad technically died 3 times that day...his heart stopped at the scene of the accident, on the way to the hospital and on the operating table.



God totally saved his life that day.



Dad's ankle was a mess. In the accident, the floorboard wrapped around his foot and literally twisted his foot almost off. He was wearing a pair of cowboy boots which saved his foot from being ripped off. His ankle bone what sticking out the side of the boot...unbelievable. Dad was told he would never walk again, but he did.



God totally healed him over the following few months.



Needless to say, Dad has had trouble with his ankle/foot since the accident. About 2 years ago, the pain had started to get so bad that there were time he could hardly walk and his ankle would give out on him. It was very scary to watch. So about a year and a half ago he had surgery to fuse his ankle. He had been in more pain since the surgery, so he went to see his orthopedic surgeon in June. After doing an mri, the dr explained to my parents that the surgery done in April 2008 was not successful. There was raw bone and exposed joint where there should have been complete fusion of his ankle. So another surgery was schedule for Oct 16th.



On that Friday, Dad was prepped for surgery and prepared to be laid up for the next 18 weeks. The surgeon visited w/Mom and Dad before surgery to explain again what he planned to do. He would take a bone graft from dad's hip to complete the fusion process, insert at least 2 screws to stabilize everything and sorta clean up anything he saw. The surgeon said he hoped to be finished in 90 minutes.

Almost 2 hours later, mom and I were called in to meet with the surgeon. He walked into the room and sat down across from us. Let out a long sigh and said "it's great news".

Once he got into my dad's foot, he found that the ankle was completely fused. He even said it was "solid as a rock". He did not have to do the bone graft. He did not have to insert any screws. Dad does not have to be in a cast. Dad will not be laid up for 18 weeks.

Mom and I sat there dumbfounded. We kept asking him about the bone graft...no bone graft. We kept asking him about the screws...no screws.

God totally fused my Dad's ankle!

{bruised teeth}

Several weeks ago, Eli fell and smacked his face on the ground. His two front teeth bled and were loose, but no major damage seemed to have been done. Thank goodness!

Well, a few days ago, I noticed that both teeth, but one more so than the other, had started to turn a funky color. Off to the dentist we went.

They took an xray. There is no damage to the roots and the teeth look just fine. They told me that just like w/any other part of our bodies, teeth can bruise. Who knew?!

The dr said the discoloring may fade and it may not. How's that for helpful? Seriously. They want to see him back for another xray in a month. I'm just praying that his little, baby teeth don't turn black or something gross like that. They're already a tad on the bucky side...we do not need our son to look like a buck-toothed hillbilly. Bless his heart.

{mini-update}

So much has happened since my last post, but thankfully it hasn't been me finding more gray hairs!

We're all moved in to our new, wonderful house...not quite settled, but that doesn't matter at this point. We're out of the middle of the city and we all love it here! God has blessed our family so much with this new home...I'm so thankful! My kids are loving school and making great new friends. I've enjoyed not hearing sirens and helicopters and strange people yelling at all times of the day. Central heat is also a new one for us! ;)

I'm in the process of transferring all my pictures onto a new external hard-drive so I can show y'all my new house. Actually the transferring is my boyfriends job...I just tell him what I want transferred!

Internet access has been a bit of a pain in the keester. Who knew moving 15 miles west of town would put us out of reach of the major internet providers? Seriously, some people out here are still on dial-up...I'd die! We're finally connected, but w/a much slower speed than we're used to and there have been a few glitches that aren't quite worked out.

Check back soon...getting pictures of our new house are on my list of things to do this week.