Heartbroken and Humbled

A few weeks ago I found a link from a friend’s blog, to the blog of another woman. This woman had become quite the popular blogger, with her joyous outlook on her life as a wife and mother, and had become an inspiration to many mothers just like her out in the world. I have found some wonderful strength and cute ideas from her blog—The Nie Nie Dialogues.

Very unfortunately, in August she and her husband were in a private plane crash. Her husband had just received his pilots license…from what I’ve read its unclear who was flying the plane, because there was also another pilot instructor in the plane with them. Sadly, the instructor died in the crash. Stephanie and Christian were both severely burned; Stephanie over 80% of her body and Christian I believe 25-30%. They have four young children and live in Arizona. Luckily, they have a lot of family and support. Two of Stephanie’s sisters are tending her children, and through news stories and her blog, there has been an outpouring of love, support and fundraising for their family. Their conditions seem to improve daily…from what I’ve read lately, Christian is awake and recovering quite well. Stephanie, I believe is still comatose, but has had skin grafting surgeries and there seems to be a lot of hope for recovery. Her sister, Courtney, keeps up a blog on their updates and successes at CJaneRun. Her writing is amazing, heartfelt and so completely moving, I’m in tears every day as I read her words.

Courtney’s blog also led me to another family that is dealing with tragedy, in which she asked her blog followers to pray for and support as they have been her sister. This family is the Decker’s. Click here to go to their blog. Carol was pregnant with their second daughter. I’m going to take a blurb from their blog to explain the synopsis of her situation. “The doctor's did an emergency C-section around 4:45 pm or so because Carol and the baby's blood pressure dropped very rapidly. Carol stayed in surgery until after 7 pm because the doctors could not get her blood pressure stable. That night she had a CAT scan to see what is would show. It ruled out a perforated colon.

The following day, Carol's temperature spiked at 106.9 F so the doctors wrapped her in ice blankets to help bring her temperature down. Later that evening, it had come down to around 100 F. She started showing signs of DIC. That is when the body trys to fight the infection by sending clots to places that don't need clots. Eventually there is no blod flow to those places so the skin necroses (or dies) and begins to slough off. This also means that when she does bleed (i.e. scratch from inserting a feed tube) she doesn't have the clotting factors to stop the bleeding, so she bleeds a lot.

Carol started dialysis yesterday (6/13/08) because her kidneys are now starting to fail. They started to fail due to low blood pressure or flow. It is also why she is so edematous or swollen. The dialysis is helping with Carol's excretment and diminishing water retention. There is a 20-30% chance Carol will need ongoing dialysis after this is over from permanent damage to her kidneys.

The doctors have not given an estimated time to expect Carol in the hospital. It could be from weeks to months. So prayers and positive thoughts for Scott and the many doctors and nurses that work with her are always welcome.
Since all this Carol has had both her leg's below the knees amputated, her left arm below the elbow amputated, her right ring finger amputated; and is now blind. All of that is due to ischemia from vasopressive drugs used to keep her blood pressure high enought to survive.”

My heart has been so heavy since reading of both situations and following them. I write about this because I have felt so incredibly humbled by these family’s battles. Here I sit, day after day, dealing with every day stresses of life as if they are earth shattering. I wonder if I will have enough time to finish all of the laundry and dishes and get a decent meal on the table. I spend too much time thinking about my looks and clothes and make up and hair. I take for granted precious moments I get to spend with my loved ones; most importantly my husband and child. Stephanie and Carol’s stories spoke to me as mothers who lived their lives, and gave of themselves for their children to have everything in this world. I am sure they are not laying in their recovery beds worrying about whether or not their laundry was folded. They are not counting how many loaves of homemade bread they baked or worrying about whether or not they had plucked their eyebrows. They are not concerned with whether or not they had ever run a marathon or what size jeans they wear. I can only imagine, but I’m sure the faces that they dream and see in their minds every day are those of their husbands and sweet babies.

What these two amazing women have taught me, is to cherish the life of a mother and wife. To understand the immense blessing it is to be able to have that opportunity and to savor every moment of it, every day. It is never going to be easy, and as these women have found, much of it is going to require endless sacrifice on our part. But no matter the sacrifice, we will give for the love of our family. I don’t want to waste another minute taking for granted the roles I hold and the opportunity I have to experience them every day. Because in one sweeping moment, it could be gone. And in a few short moments…they will inevitably grow older and no longer be our babies.

I don’t know why I am blessed so in my life. When I really sit back, look at it all and take it all in, I feel very undeserving. Nevertheless, the Lord has given me these opportunities and blessings and I cannot take them for granted another day in my life. I cannot forget what a blessing it is every day to wake up and see the smile on my child’s face or wipe away her tears. For these blessings, I am eternally grateful.

Please keep these two families in your prayers.