Friday night was quiet and relaxing. My husband, Andy, and I were on X-Box Live playing BF3 with our friend, Kevin. Kevin, happens to work with our son, Adam, and son-in-law, Ryan. My cell phone needed charging earlier so I had it plugged in over by my TV. At 9:20 PM it started ringing. I could see that it was Cheryl, my son-in-laws mom. The game we were playing was about 2 minutes from being over. I knew that by the time I got my head set off and got over to the phone, it would be done ringing. That was exactly what happened. Then Andy's phone started ringing. He thought I was calling Cheryl back so he didn't answer. Cheryl immediately called me back before I could even start dialing her number. She told me that Adam had been in a terrible dirt bike accident and was being airlifted.
Adam, our 32 year old son, was riding his dirt bike on a farm owned by his friend, John's, parents. John also lives on the farm and tills the land. John's mother, Renee', used to work with Clark, Cheryl's husband. As most people, Adam didn't have ICE ( in case of emergency) by any numbers in his phone, and had everyone listed by name, not title such as Mom, Dad, sister, etc. Since I'm remarried, and Adam's sister is married, we don't share the same last name with Adam. Renee, knew that Cheryl and Clark were connected and called them. Cheryl gave us Renee's number and Andy called. I was too upset. Renee put an EMT on the phone with Andy. Andy heard Adam in the background asking him if he was talking to Andy. They told us they were airlifting him and the other victim to PRMC.
Andy and I changed clothes and headed to the hospital immediately. I called our pastor and left a message on his answering machine. Andy alerted our associate pastor and the elders of our church.
As we drove up to the hospital, we saw the helicopters circling. Andy dropped me off at the ER door and went to park the car. I turned, and there was our pastor, Jason. When we all finally got back to see Adam, this is what we found.
The blood was coming from this 2+ inch gash on the crown of his head. Heads bleed like crazy.
His left radius had a compound fracture.
A loose left front tooth and a number of chipped teeth on the upper left side of his mouth as well as very bruised lips. He also has a small fracture of his left transverse process of his C6. His neck muscles hurt so much. The soft neck collar helps relieve some of that pain.
We don't really know all of the details. Both of the injured people have no memory. Here is what we do know. Adam worked 1/2 day Friday. When he came home, he was working on his lawn mower that evening when he received a call from his friend, John, inviting him to come to the farm and ride dirt bikes. John and Adam have a mutual friend, Chad, who was there also. Chad's wife , Jamie, and their children were there as well. Adam has his own dirt bike. Chad got on John's dirt bike. John rode a Four Wheeler and had Chad's 8 year old son with him. The dirt bikes were going faster than the 4 Wheeler . Somehow, we think that Adam and Chad hit head on. The damage to the bikes indicates a head on collision. Maybe Adam went ahead and turned around to come back and they didn't see each other? No one knows. Since John and the 8 year old were following, they came up on a terrible sight. Adam and Chad were laying on the ground unconscious and covered in blood. It scared John to death. He , or someone, called 911. The accident happened around 8:20PM.
Chad has broken ribs, a broken right humorous, broken right clavicle, and a cut on his right jaw line.
Adam was hyped up on adrenaline and morphine when we first saw him. Occasionally he let down his guard and showed how scared he was. He was around 3 weeks away from getting health insurance through his new job. I assured him he has many who love him and will stand by him.
How do I see God's hand in this? Well, lets start back in March. He left his old job which treated him very poorly. He couldn't find a job anywhere. Our son-in-law, told him that his place of employment had an opening and would love to have Adam especially since he has his CDL's. Ryan's cousin, Ritchie, is the manager and his mom is my oldest and dearest friend so we've all known each other for a long time. The owner and his wife attend my parents church and Andy has done IT work for the company. Adam LOVES the job. If Adam had still been at his old job, he would have just been a number and no one would have cared that he was missing work and pay. Here, everyone knows and cares about him. Instead of being out of work for six weeks, they are allowing him to ride with Ryan and help him. Thank you Lord, for the job change. Just coincidence that he changed jobs over two months before this happened and had time to form a bond with his co-workers?
The air mattress. Almost three months ago, we purchased a really nice air mattress. I kept telling Andy that we needed to inflate it to make sure it was okay and that we didn't need to send it back. It's been sitting unopened in it's storage bag in our living room so long that I didn't even notice it any longer. Thursday evening I walked by it and it stood out to me. I was impressed with the need to stop everything and inflate it right then to see how it works and if it worked properly. It did. Lauren, our daughter, had said she had twin sheets we could have for the mattress but she had forgotten to give them to us. When I blew up the mattress, I remembered that we hadn't gotten the sheets and texted Lauren. Friday morning she had to come to town and says she couldn't get the sheets off her mind and made a point of dropping them by our house. Just coincidence right?
My downstairs bath. I honestly hadn't cleaned the downstairs bathtub in several months. No one uses it except once a month we bathe the dogs in it. Friday I just HAD to clean the downstairs bathroom thoroughly, right down the washing the rugs. After three or more months, why did I just have to get it done that day? Just coincidence. Or was it God saying that He knew what was going to happen and He was going to take care of the smallest details?
Adam had a clean bed to sleep on when he was discharged and a clean bathroom to take a shower.
With his loose front teeth, he couldn't bite anything so I made him a protein shake when we got back to our house at 4:30 AM. It put him out like a bottle for a baby.
Andy got his prescription for pain medicine filled on Saturday. Adam slept a lot at our house on Saturday. Lauren and Ryan traveled to his house on Friday evening and again on Saturday morning to care for his dog, Maya.
Our dog, Tommy stayed close by his side all day long as he dozed. I made him spaghetti sauce to take home since that won't require biting.
My biggest sign that God was present in all of this? Adam is here, he's alive, and his injuries are ones from which he can heal. He realizes that it could have all "been over" as he said. I reminded him that it isn't really over when we die. It's just the beginning of eternity. So important to know where you are going to spend it.
