On the road again…

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jer. 29:11

"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you." Is. 43:2

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deut 31:6

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deut. 31:8
...For those of you who just joined in, those who came in the middle of those who have been following since the beginning but don’t know all that took place…..When we started this journey we were in the good ole state of Alabama…Ben was stationed at Ft. Benning, GA for almost 2 years. This blog was started the day of our accident by friends and family to get the word out. I don’t think that the details were ever told. I want to share a bit of what happened (obviously way more details that happened but that would take weeks to list) that night and then fill you in on our next step!
August 27, 2009 Ben called me on his way home from work and said let’s go out for a simple dinner. I accepted because the night before I had just flown in from WA where I had been in a wedding. We headed out a bit after 5pm and we had decided on Panera Bread…one of our favorite places! We were in my Honda Civic and headed out of our development. I remember pulling out of our development and that is the last thing I remembered! Literally 200 yards from there the accident happened. According to reports a Ford truck t-boned us and sent us flying into 2 more lanes of traffic that we crossed and crashed into a fence and hit a parked box truck head on! The first person on the scene happened to be a nurse! She later told me that Ben was breathing on his own, had a good heart rate but was unconscious. I on the other hand was rattling off phone numbers and not letting go of my cd’s…but totally unaware as to what was going on or what I was saying! I was convinced I guess that I would never see my cd’s again so they told me to hold tight! We were both rushed to the hospital (we love you all at Columbus Regional!) and put on high, critical care alert. As far as for the guy who hit us all I know is that he was sent to the ER and discharged that night. I “woke up” about 5-6 hours later in the hospital. I didn’t have my phone so I had no contact numbers. I was able to get a phone book and find a land line number to our good friends. Meanwhile mine and Ben’s family were being tracked down because I had given out numbers earlier. ..and tracking everyone down was from the Lord!!
I was in and out for a few days. My injuries included a broken arm and two areas of my colon were torn. Both required surgery and both were done within a few days of each other. I now have to lovely scars to remind me of how the Lord spared our lives! Ben’s injuries were a small sacral fracture and a traumatic brain injury. They don’t know if Ben even hit his head because there was barely any scrapes or abrasions to his body. I still to this day have not seen our car (I have heard it is horrid and I want to see it with Ben) and do not remember anything about the accident and the few days following. So, in a report it may sound like I had to brunt of the injuries but just because Ben didn’t require any surgeries (I have not met one brain injury patient yet that has not had surgery…thank you Lord!) his injuries to his brain were massive!
About 2 weeks after the accident Ben was transferred to Shepherds Center in Atlanta, GA. We stayed there for about 4.5 months and then transferred to WA to be closer to family. Ben and I were there for about 3 months before we then made yet another move to Palo Alto VA in CA. We have been here since the end of March….
Ben has made AMAZING progress during our stay here and for that I am grateful! One thing with TBI’s (traumatic brain injury) is that they have times of great improvement and times of plateaus. Although Ben has been making improvements the last few months he has been “plateauing.” I know it sounds weird and almost like an oxymoron but it is true. His mood has been affected and that is a hard one! It was suggested to us by Ben’s docs here that Ben would benefit from a change of scenery whether that be home or another rehab facility. Well, after much research, prayer and wisdom from those we love it I have decided (and Ben agrees) that we are going to go to another facility! Watch out you East Coasters because here we come…again! We will be going to Kessler Rehab in West Orange, NJ! This place is a top notch rehab facility that rates HIGH on the nation’s top places to go!! Insurance has been approved, Ben’s bosses have approved and so has Ben…so here we go!
Yes, it is the East Coast that takes us further from the families but I really believe in my heart that Ben needs more impatient therapies. There are not a lot of places on the West Coast that offer what he needs so we’re going to them! This facility has a few extra things to offer that I have not found at any other place. I want to take advantage of the fact that this place is available to us and go!
I have begun sorting, tossing, giving away and packing all of what either needs to be shipped home or shipped to NJ.
Please pray for us as we make this transition! It is a time of new beginnings but also scary, overwhelming, heat heavy, crazy times! Also pray that the things that they have to offer will be just what Ben needs for his healing and recovery!! Lord, I so want my man back whole and 100%!!
As of now we are hoping to leave next week! There are still a few things that need to take place between the new facility and our insurance. Please pray this happens quickly!!!
I will for sure be keeping you all up to date as to what is going on! I will try and keep up with the blog during this transition but might miss more days than usual…but then again I may surprise you all with extras!
Although our time here remains short Ben’s team of therapists, nurses and docs are all still pushing him hard!! Ben is a man of God, man of honor, integrity, strength and such a HARD WORKER! He continues to never surrender and do everything to the best of his ability!! He will get better, we will fight this and with God on our side we will win!