One Week Later

Travis is getting around much better; one week after the accident. He is off of his prescription pain medication and no longer uses crutches to walk. He is not graceful, but he is mobile. The emerging problem - boredom. After all of the pusing and pushing and pushing for him to get a job, he took two calls while lying in the hospital from companies asking him for second interviews. He, of course, was not in a position to take advantage of those opportunities. Anybody want to pay Travis to stuff envelopes or something?

Stress management? I pray hard and lean on my church family. They have been wonderful. Between them and the kids' school (Lancaster Christian School), we have been getting streams of cards, calls and visits. I also pray that God will show Travis how Romans 8:28 is alive in his circumstances...

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

Yesterday, Loretta had outpatient surgery. We thought about rescheduling, but the schedule doesn't get any easier for the rest of the summer. So yesterday was pretty stressful for Mr. Mom and Mr. Nurse. I didn't do much to manage the stress, just bit the bullet and felt sorry for myself. This morning, though, I rode 12.5 miles on the bicycle and got back before the rain started. That helps. One of the pastors called yesterday and wants to bring pizza for lunch today and visit with us. A few families from our church caregroup are providing dinners for the next couple of nights too.

For You Left-Brainers

This is a product of a free program that Bill Haughery mentioned on our church blog today. It is all about Travis' accident.

Home At Last

Hello again everybody. Travis just arrived home almost twelve hours later than what we were hoping for at this time yesterday. He is relying heavily on his pain medication. We have him set up on the couch for this evening and later will talk about where in the house he should be spending most of his time for the next several days.

Thank you all for the cards, calls and visits. It means a lot to Travis.

Changed In an Instant

In an instant your whole day can change, even your whole life. Yesterday (June 18th), Travis found this out for himself. He was finishing up his mowing on our church’s farm. With just three passes left with the 6.5 horsepower push mower, Travis slipped on a bank.

I was in the barn helping to set up for Youth Camp ’08 when someone came in and told me that Travis had cut himself with the mower. It didn’t sound serious judging by the calm manner of whoever told me this. I don’t remember who it was, maybe one of the youth that were also there helping. I kind of jogged over to where he was until I saw a couple of people gathered around him lying on the ground. Then I moved a bit faster.

It was serious. I saw a lot of blood and an open-toed sneaker on his left foot. I gave him a hug, started applying pressure and prayed for him. We gently rolled him on his back and elevated the foot. He was in a whole lot of pain. Peter (our senior pastor) quickly arrived with a first aid kit, and handed me a roll of gauze. I put that between my hand and Travis’ wound and continued the pressure. Chris Strayer was there as he was delivering lights for youth camp. He is an EMT and helped monitor the situation until the ambulance came.

Unfortunately, Millersville’s ambulance crew was out on a call, so we had to wait for a crew from Lancaster city. It had already been lightly raining, but as we waited it started to rain more heavily. At this point there were many concerned church members (i.e. family) at the scene doing whatever could help. Peter and some others searched for parts of Travis’ toes. Someone went to get an umbrella and held it over Travis. Someone else brought water, and a blanket. Mike Minich stayed close to Travis and made small talk trying to keep him calm. I think everyone prayed.

The Lancaster Ambulance arrived as soon as they could and took over. They were a good crew. They took a close enough look at the wound to determine that half of Travis’ big toe on his left foot had been severed. Amazingly no other toes were lost (check the picture below to see just how amazing that is). Peter found the toe over forty feet from the site of the accident, and was able to send it to the hospital with us in the ambulance. When we arrived at the hospital, there was a lot of waiting for an orthopedic doctor to be called in. He examined Travis and gave his opinion. He seemed very confident in telling us that attempting to reattach the toe would not be a good option. We asked for a second opinion, so he consulted with specialists from Hershey Medical Center. They confirmed his opinion. So we consented to surgery to clean the wound, trim the bone and close it up. After surgery, the doctor was all the more certain that it would have been a mistake to try to reattach. He does have about half of the big toe left, and has always had very long toes; perhaps an evolutionary left-over (JUST kidding). His walking will be affected some. Only time will tell how much.

This is all still very new. I am typing this the morning after. Travis will be coming home later today. He will appreciate phone calls and visits from his friends. He will be fortunate to be able to catch one or two or the main meetings at Youth Camp ’08.

Below is a picture of Travis’ sneaker. He is very fortunate to have any toes at all, or even a foot.

Good-Bye Jessica Part 1

At the end of May Pamela and her friend Lauren threw a surprize good-bye party for their friend and classmate, Jessica. Jessica was in their class for the 2007-08 school year after coming back to the United States from the mission field in Brazil. After making some close friends at our school, Jessica and her family have gone back to Brazil to serve the Lord.

It rained in Biblical proportions right up to the time of the party. We waited until close to the last minute, then decided to move the festivities indoors into the basement. Once we moved operations inside, the skies cleared. It was a bit too late to move everything back outside. I said all that to say all this. The lighting for the videos, particularly the first one immediately bleow, is very poor. Videos posted on the Internet also tend to be darker than on a television, so most of it is like a black screen with occasional ghostly images. If you are one of the girls that were there, especially Jessica, you might still want to watch as the audio is fine and you can hear the girls yell, "Surprize!" and their beautiful, heartfelt prayers. The second video is much more watchable. That is the one with each girl giving their own good-bye message.

Below is the first half of the video of their good-bye party. Below that is the second half. Altogether the video is about 12 minutes long. Since YouTube only allows videos of ten minutes or less, I had to split the video into two unequal halves. I hope all you girls enjoy it, especially Jessica.

Good-Bye Jessica Part 2

Here is the second part of the video of Jessica's good-bye party with the personal good-bye messages.

Ice Cream Run

It was a hot Sunday today. Kimberly went to the pool with a friend, but Angela and I went for ice cream. Here is a quick video of our afternoon.