Our Crazy 4th

Well, yesterday wasn't the wonderful day we planned it to be, but we are all alive and very thankful for that. We drove down to Northport yesterday with Bill and Suzanne to have lunch with Jason’s Grandparents. We dropped Bill off at their house and then headed to Dreamland to pick up lunch. Gracie had fallen asleep in the car, so we kept her in there to get a few more minutes of sleep. At the light before turning into Dreamland some moron ran a red light and t-boned our car. We had been sitting at the red light and it had just turned green so we were not going very fast at all, but he was going very fast we think. The impact was mainly on the front passenger’s side door where Jason was sitting. Jason was pinned between the door and the center console. He has three fractured ribs and had a small pneumothorax yesterday, but that has resolved and he just has a bruised right lung and the fractured ribs. Jason was admitted to the hospital in Tuscaloosa for observation and was discharged earlier this afternoon. Gracie was sitting directly behind Jason. It’s a miracle that she doesn’t have one scratch on her little body. She had been sleeping soundly but woke up on impact. She screamed a lot and was reaching for me. I didn’t see any blood on her and the door didn’t seem to be pushed in, so I took a risk and got her out of her car seat. She calmed down fairly well after I got her out. Suzanne was driving and I was sitting behind her. We are fine, just bruised and very achy. We are all back in Birmingham tonight recovering in our own home. We are so thankful to be alive and that Jason’s injuries aren’t any worse than they are. After our wreck in 2004 I didn’t think we would ever have to go through something like that again. Our injuries aren’t as bad as they were then, but the mental trauma you go through is just as bad. One thing we learned from that wreck and have learned again is that you can be in control of your own car, but you can’t control how others are driving around you. During Jason’s recovery over the next two weeks he won’t be able to lift anything over 10 lbs, which means he won’t be able to pick up Gracie. We’re all very sad about that. I’m just praying that she will have some sort of understanding of “Daddy having boo boos” and that she won’t try to jump on him. We were grateful to have my parents drive down so quickly to be with us and for my family in Northport and Tuscaloosa who came to visit with us. A big thank you to those of you who have already been praying for us. We just ask that you continue to pray for a quick and smooth recovery for Jason.