Celebrating Life and the Hope for Eternity

Today we rejoice. Today we celebrate. 

We began this celebration by training for a 5K for the LeBonheur pumpkin race. 

One year ago today, is the day we rushed Carter to the hospital.

So many people, people we knew, people we didn’t, people from places we had never been, prayed for Carter and us.

I wasn’t ready at the time to share what happened. 

But there is joy and wisdom gained through the journey. 

I’d like to share with you.

August 1st, the day after my husband Tommy’s birthday, we were cleaning the house after dinner. he was outside working on the camper, I was washing the dishes and the boys had just finished cleaning up their playroom, so they were running around having fun.

(Neither of us saw what happened) They were running back and forth and stopping themselves on the wall with their hands, until Carter stopped himself on the glass door leading outside.

His right arm went through, cutting several nerves, his artery, and muscle near his right armpit.

I heard him scream “mommy!”

I knew then, something was wrong, from the tone of his voice, in the few seconds it took me to run in there, there was already blood all over the carpet, covering the stairs, and soaked through his shirt.

I knew it was bad by the amount of blood rushing from his body. I began to squeeze his arm tightly and screamed for help as I saw Tommy walking by the outside door.

What felt like slow motion and fast speed all at once, we put Carter on the counter, began to take off his shirt when we realized, we didn’t have time to assess the damage, I grabbed a kitchen towel wrapped his arm tight, squeezed and carried him to the van while Tommy got Conner and Eleanor in the van.

I held his arm more tightly than I’ve ever held onto anything. Tommy sped through neighborhoods to get us to the Hospital as fast as he could. He was my rock.

He called his mom to meet us there. She answered on the second ring, if you know her, you know that was a surprise we were incredibly thankful for.

The hospital ER got him stable after he lost consciousness in the van from loss of blood.

They put a tourniquet on his arm. Gave him blood. Gave him oxygen.

They said he needed to be sent to the LeBonheur Children’s Hospital via life flight helicopter.

That’s when I knew, this was much more serious than I realized.

The nurses gave me clothes to replace mine that were soaked through with blood.

Before long, Carter began to speak. He never has liked sleeping. He fought to stay awake.

He is stronger than I could have imagined.

I’ll skip a few details, because otherwise I’d write a novel.

We flew to LeBonheur. They finally began his triage, waiting for the vascular surgeon to arrive, yet racing against the clock of the tourniquet.

He was in surgery for hours. I think it was 3 or 4. When it was finally over the doctor came out to report…just like you see in the movies.

This is when we received the wonderful news that he was okay. But we also received news that didn’t even cross my mind at the time. He was going to need another surgery because a major nerve had been cut, and his arm could not function properly.

His doctors expressed how lucky he was, how they don’t normally see patients alive who suffer injuries like this. 

His surgeries were successful.

We went on to be discharged from the hospital after being there for 6 days. Much shorter than I expected but thankful he got to come home to heal.

He was in pain. He couldn’t sleep well. The wound care seemed like it would never end. Those moments felt like eternity, when truly it was a short time. 

He began therapy. Physical therapy and occupation therapy. He continued for months until he was discharged from physical therapy. He continued occupation therapy twice a week for almost a year. He now only goes once a week.

At first he couldn’t move his arm.

Then we began to see improvements, slowly but surely he has made such miraculous improvements. 

Now he can swing, ride his bike, do cartwheels, and much more. While his hand strength and function may not be back to normal yet, this year has been a journey of SO much growth—physical and spiritual.  

I’d love to share a few things I’ve learned over the past year. If anything I’ve learned can encourage your faith or bring you closer to God, then Carter’s accident has brought good.

We are blessed.
I wouldn’t call this journey a blessing in itself, but I have found so many blessings along the way. Small and big reminders of God’s presence, His people, and His plan for our eternity.

We are meant to be surrounded by other Christians.
Family was a huge support, but we were overwhelmed, in the best way, by our church family. Cards, texts, visits, calls, prayers, meals, and kind words from people we barely knew or hadn’t seen in years. God’s design for the Church is beautiful.

Being at worship is so important.
Even when it’s hard, oh, especially when it’s hard. I remember watching Carter sit in the pew with tears in his eyes. It was uncomfortable. He couldn’t play like he used to. But I’m so thankful we reminded him (and ourselves) that worship isn’t about comfort. It’s about honoring God and showing Him He’s the priority in our lives.

Patience.
This year has taught all of us patience in ways we never expected. Patience through caregiving. Through emotional and physical healing. Through countless appointments. Through explaining hard, grown-up things to a six-year-old boy. Patience when things felt painfully slow.

Tomorrow is not promised.
Life changed so fast that night, and it could’ve ended so differently. Time on earth is not forever. That truth has never been clearer. But what a comfort it is to know Heaven is forever, and far better. We’re reminded that we can’t put off our relationship with God. We must live in obedience today. We must be ready today.
“Are you ready, are you ready, are you ready for the judgement day?”

God commands humility.
I’ve never liked asking for help. But I had to. I couldn’t have made it through without the help of others. Women from our church who watched our kids, meals brought to our door, Christians helping with medical bills, family who helped clean our blood stained home, family who cared for our children while we were away, help when we were scared. And more than anything, help from God. The only One who could give us the peace and strength to keep going. We cannot do this life alone. Trust in the Lord.
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way” 

Everyone has problems.
Pain doesn’t play favorites. What we went through was traumatic, his injury was serious and life threatening, but I’ve realized everyone is going through something tough. Every struggle feels big when you’re in it. And while we came home with Carter, not every family does. One of those families is our friends. I’ll never forget that.

God will use this for good.
I don’t believe it was God’s plan for Carter to get hurt. This world is broken. I don’t know yet how everything will unfold, all the good that may come from our experience, but I do believe God will use what happened for good. Some of it we may see, and some we may never know about. Heaven is perfect. Earth isn’t. The pain here is confusing, but we must remember the pain isn’t forever. “Heaven is a wonderful place”  

I know I’ve learned more than this in the past year. But these are the ones that rise to the top.

Last night my husband, Tommy said, “Let’s celebrate tomorrow… because Carter is doing things today that a year ago, we never thought he would.”

And he’s right.