Keeping It Together: June 2010

That's right, one month to go - or there about... Friends have been asking me if I go early, or stay fairly close to my due date, or if I go past.

My answer - all of the above.

Reminisce with me here (or bear with me).

Let's see:

Rylee
Due Date: July 21 2001 (I remember all my due dates. Do you? Funny huh)
Birth Date: June 27 - 3.5 weeks early (Spoiled. I'm convinced she was prayed out by my MIL so we could fly to Denver for a family reunion. Rylee was healthy and everything worked out perfectly. We flew when she was 5 days old.)
Birth weight: 5 lbs 12 oz

Clay
Due Date: October 30, 2002
Birth Date: October 24 (one week early, membranes stripped twice)
Birth Weight: 7 lbs 15 oz

Kaycee
Due Date: June 10, 2004
Birth Date: May 28 (two weeks early - membranes stripped and water broken. Thursday night before Memorial Day weekend :)
Birth Weight: 6 lbs 13 oz

Lucy
Due Date: May 21, 2006
Birth Date: May 22 (one day late - let her come on her own - shortest delivery of all. Glad I waited.)
Birth Weight: 7 lbs 7 oz

Olivia
Due Date: September 17, 2008
Birth Date: September 10 - one week early (Induced to get enough antibiotics before delivery.)
Birth Weight: 6 lbs 7 oz.

I wonder if there's a statistical way to look at these dates and calculate when this little guy will come; early, on time, late. There's got to be some method, right? :) I plan on letting him come on his own - no stripping membranes, etc., unless I'm feeling desperate. You know that feeling when you're at the end, uncomfortable and try anything to get things going.

I guess we'll see. . .

This post has made me a little anxious. Just as I felt when I felt inspired to share this experience in a fast a testimony meeting just a few months ago. I'm not sure if it was the actual sharing of the experience - something I hadn't done in a few years and certainly not something I had planned to do infront of an entire congregation, but perhaps maybe the things I have learned from it looking back.

I can't believe it's already been 15 years, and it makes me feel old to think that I can start using phrases like 10 and 15 years ago, I was . . . but this is it. On this day 15 years ago...

Background

I guess I should preface this all with some background. I was 14 years old and we were living in Regina, Saskatchewan when my parents were called to preside over the Michigan Detroit Mission. They decided it was best to put most of our belongings in storage and sell our house.

Just days before my parents would enter the MTC in Provo, Utah , my parents were goint to head down to Logan, Utah to watch their (then) only grandson for a couple days. While the rest of us weren't out of school yet, but had to be in Michigan by July 1, we stayed an extra day in Regina to finish up finals. We spent the night at our former Stake President's house - just kitty corner from our newly sold home and would head to my grandparents the next day in Cardston, Alberta - a mere 7 -8 hours away.

The day before we left, the day my parents left for Logan, we knelt down in the office at our house and my Dad offered a family prayer. Included in that prayer he blessed us by the power of the priesthood that we would be safe in our travels. If I remember correctly this was our first long trip without my parents. My sister Patti (almost 20) was the ring leader and so we were ready for our journey - me (14), and my sisters, Micki (16) and Reecy (13).

June 16, 1995

We went to school in the morning tying up any lose ends and finishing exams. We had some friends come see us off, headed for lunch at McDonalds and then hit the road. On the TransCanada Highway, Patti was driving, I was sitting in the front seat with Reecy behind me and Micki behind Patti. Some music was playing, windows and the sunroof open shining on my face, I fell asleep. About 3.5 hours into our trip something had happened. Something awful.

When I came to, there was a lot of commotion. I immediately felt pain in my shoulder so I reached up to touch it. Something wasn't right. It very much felt out of place. My sister Patti took my hand and said we'd been in an accident. I couldn't move. I kept moving my toes to make sure I wasn't paralyzed. I hadn't ever felt anything like this. Strangers and emergency personnel were at my side in moments and could hear Patti trying to get Micki's attention and saying over and over calm down. Calm down. Patti's voice was calm and she stayed right beside me. I knew I needed a blessing. A Priesthood blessing. But where was my dad? A man who proclaimed to be a priest there on the scene offered to give me one, but even in shock, it wasn't going to work. Thankfully Patti handed me the car phone and I heard my dad on the other end. There was no chit chat, he didn't ask how I was, but immediately stated my name and gave me a blessing. I don't remember the words of the blessing but remember him saying my full name.

I don't recall what happened after that. I remember seeing Micki at my window as I was still in my seat. I don't remember hearing sirens or anything except that a man came into the back of the car with a brown blanket and covered the back of the front seats and our heads. An extremely loud sawing noise came as the man explained that they had to cut the back door off along with the post to safely get me out of the car (little did I know then, nor did the man tell me that they were using the jaws of life to get me out.)

Next I know, I'm on a backboard in an ambulance. I must have panicked and started to cry as I still couldn't move yet. I looked down as Patti reached up and grabbed my hand, both of us on oxygen. She was laying on a backboard too. I don't remember how long the ride was but then realized I was laying flat (still) under an x-ray machine. Shirt open, bra off, completely exposed while 3 or 4 nurses lined the wall. Micki was calm and beside me.

It wasn't until we were all admitted into a room and I was somewhat coherent that I learned what happened.

Cruising west down the TransCanada highway, going about 110km/hr (70ishmph) there was a small intersection. From a side road there was no on ramp onto the highway, but a stop sign, red flashing light and rumble strips to be able to cross over. Apparently there was a car that failed to heed any of these road signs and tried to cross over the highway. I'm sure anticipating what was sure to come, Patti slammed on the brakes (my seat belt breaking my collarbone) leaving 10 feet of black rubber on the road, we broadsided the car. Slamming into the driver's side, the driver was killed immediately. Micki and Reecy were NOT wearing their seat belts. Reecy had been asleep as well and didn't move. Micki who was awake for it all, tried to brace herself for impact, felt something (like hands) grabbing her shoulders and pushing her down into her seat. The cars spun and Reecy and I took the door windows out with our heads, gashing her cheek and me my head. Blood was everywhere. I hadn't ever noticed the blood, just my shoulder and I never saw Reecy until at the hospital.

I assumed that Patti had just called them from the car phone when the accident happened (hence me getting a blessing) to let my parents know what happened, but my sisters informed me that the phone was damaged in the accident and they couldn't use it. She hadn't talked to my parents at the scene. Confused, I didn't understand how I had heard my dad giving me a blessing.

As it turned out, Patti was able to give information to our Stake President (or to someone who later contacted him) and give him the number (actually the wrong area code) of where my parents were at. President Svenson had made the call down to my parents to let them know that we had been in a car accident. My dad talked him and assumed it was a little fender bender until they quickly found out that there was a fatality and we were all at the hospital. Immediately, my parents got on their knees and again my dad blessed us by the power of the priesthood that we would be okay. They borrowed a van and found someone to watch their grandson and headed right up to us.

I was thankful to have my sisters there, even if we were all laid up in bed. Micki was in and out of bed as she didn't sustain any physical injury. Patti had an awful burn on her chest from the seat belt and a puntured knee - I believe from the phone that was placed between our two seats. Reecy was groggy and concussed with a stitches on her cheek. I laid in bed with a broken collar bone slinged up and stitches in my head, concussed as well. I remember looking at my hands and noticing all the dried blood under my nails. I had no clue what I looked like.

Two local priesthood brethren came and administered to us and we visited as we could hear the thunder and pouring rain. My 2 Aunts from Cardston (about 4 hours away from this little hospital in Maple Creek, SK) drove through this awful storm to come and be with us. We were so happy to see them and they met our every need. Things like rubbing our feet and getting us food. It was a great comfort to us to have them there - and bless their hearts for sleeping in their car during the crazy weather. Mounties (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) had come to our hospital room to get our testimonies of the whole accident, but I was useless. I didn't know a thing.

My parents drove through the night and I remember in the morning my shoulder was so sore, I was so uncomfortable and in pain. Just minutes later, my parents walked in our room. I started to cry when I saw the tears in my mom's eyes. What a relief to have them there!

That morning my parents went to get our belongings from the car and see the damage. Mounties were there again and exclaimed how our car had stayed intact like it had. They were impressed. They said that the car had crumpled just right and how they would have suspected it to have been in a 40km(25mph!) car accident. Not one going 70mph. They even joked that it should be in a Toyota commercial.

It didn't take long for us get settled into the van and start traveling again. Word traveled quickly and all the family - extended family, friends and all, knew what had happened the miracle of it all. It wasn't until a few weeks after we arrived in Michigan that we realized the significance of our 4 Quad Scriptures in the back window not shifting in the accident. We were at a zone conference with the missionaries watching a fleet (car) video where a sheriff was talking about how he's only had to unbuckle one dead man from his seat belt. It was because he had been going 25mph, slammed on his brakes and a kleenex box that was in the back window flew forward and severed his spinal cord. Whoa. Micki had a Work and the Glory book resting on one of the scriptures that flew out the window and down the highway. These quads didn't move. Reecy and Micki had stayed in their seats although physics would predict that they should have slammed forward (into the front seats) with impact tripling their body weight. And those 10 feet of skid marks, very well saved us from being broadsided.

We got down to Logan and my parents headed into the MTC. My two oldest sisters - who were not with us in the accident where so good to take care of us. Days after the accident, my sisters would wash my hair in the sink and pick pieces of glass out of my head.

I hadn't gone into that much detail in my testimony a few months back, but wanted to have the experience (and pictures) recorded for our children. Having grown up having missionaries around our home and then spending 3 years living in the mission home, there's no doubt in my mind that there was someone trying to stop the work my parents had to do (on their mission) with this experience. I'm grateful for the Priesthood and for the countless miracles that we witnessed through this and that we only came away with bumps and bruises (and a broken collarbone :) It's an experience that I won't forget.

**Be warned that some of these pictures may be a little disturbing.
But, thanks to my mom for sending them to me.

Our car:

Note the back door off and the post between the doors gone, along with the windows - thanks to the jaws of life to get me out.

The brake pedal pushed all the way to the floor.

The other car:

The blue Oldsmobile is the car we hit. We learned later that the driver was from Ethiopia and had only been in the country for 6 months. We don't know anything other than he failed to stop before attempting to cross the highway.

Patti getting cleaned up.

Reecy and her stitches

Me, in my mom's pj shirt. Blood under my nails, in my hair, eyebrows and on my pillow.

My stitches and bruise

(Ryan was really surprised that they let me keep my hair - I hadn't thought anything about it :)

Just days later at the MTC when my parents were being set apart. Micki, John, Reecy and me. We got to see my brother who had come down to the MTC in May and before he left for Philadelphia (Laotian speaking).

I know we have a full family picture together somewhere at the MTC, but even with this event, we were all able to report on time in Michigan. All braced up and all.