MY STORY

    I was a single mother of  two children- now young adults raised in the same household, same rules, same beliefs, but with completely different personalities and choices for what they did with each circumstance for them.  We have had our own struggles like your average American single family.

   My son Robert graduated from high school the spring of 2005 leaving  home immediately after graduation. He held an attitude feeling invincible and ready to take on the world.  I kept praying and lifting my son up to the Lord throughout the previous years and various trying situations. He was living life and having a fun time, with very little concern about what the elements of this world might bring upon him.
  Robert was in an auto accident September 2005 on Labor day which was only 3 months after graduating from highschool. While working for a small business that shuttles privately owned vehicles along the river for recreationalists around Fort Smith. A front tire blew out on an unfamiliar vehicle he was driving and he lost control. When all was said and done, he ended up laying beside the overturned vehicle, unconscious and body laying in a slump barely breathing what the medical personnel described as breathing his last breath. Had they arrived a few minutes later he would not be alive today.  Robert suffered TBI which is Tramatic Brain Injury.
  
   As a mother I can tell you I remember every single moment from the time I got the phone call about his accident and frantically finding my way to the emergency room in Billings, awaiting arrival of my son by Mercy Flight. I had waited hours to hear when the medical team would transport him to the hospital from the accident scene because they had to wait until he reached a safe medical level for transport.  It happened far from any hospital. I was wondering what to expect, only told he was unstable and had suffered severe head injury. My imagination of course went wild to all the possibilities. I had no concept to what "Tramatic Brain Injury" entails.
All I could do during those moments was cry out in helplessness to God and anyone who could hear me, feeling so many strong emotions.
He arrived at the hospital in Billings but I couldn't see him right away because they had to clean him up and prep him for immediate head surgery. Every single minute not knowing if he would pull through or not. Doctors dealing with the swelling in his head and telling me that the first couple of minutes were so critical and once we got past them it became the next couple of hours would be critical and then beyond that stage we faced the next couple of days would be critical. But even among all of that uncertainty  there was this inner, deeper feeling of complete assurance that our God knew what was going on and was preparing the steps for us to follow. I went through all the emotions of shock and uncertainty which is normal, but I still had a very deep confidence that things would work out.
Sounds a little strange I know but I had choices- I could choose to trust and believe God knew what was going on and was directing the whole situation or listen to the lies of the ever-present deceiver and become hopeless and completely give up on everything.

   God said that whatever you believe in your heart with no doubts it will be done for you. Believe and trust with true confidence. [Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! And does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him. For this reason I am telling you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you]  (read Mark 11:23)  

   I began to pray and I asked everybody I knew to pray. I didn't know what the outcome was going to be with this crisis in our life and what condition my son would end up in, but I had assurance through reading the bible and visits from people I knew from church and prayer partners from Faith Chapel sharing and telling me that God knew and God was going to see us through this crisis. God was making a way where there seemed to be no way. [Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. (read Philippians 4) .

   I had no idea what we would be up against in the following days, or weeks, or months or even years ahead. My faith and trust is in God  and continues to be the strength that I rely upon. God never promised us an easy life here in this world, but we are not alone in our struggles. He is with us, His Word reminds us, and I find great comfort in that!

   There were  moments they told me my son Robert was going to die, a moment when the lead doctor came to me and told me to "make necessary arrangements."  My heart sank! But I still didn't give up believing he would get through this!
We were given a very hopeless scenario of my son's future care. Should he survive  we might have to take him out of state for additional special care, but they might not accept him as a patient if he didn't respond more then he was doing. It went on and on, day by day. I sat next to his bedside every day for a month, I was not going to leave my son in case he woke up and needed me. I kept remembering reading stories how survivors from a coma said they heard conversations and knew what was going on around them even while they were in a coma, and I just knew I had to stay there and talk and pray over my son and not leave his side. God was taking care of all the needs during this critical time.
Throughout the weeks  of  being in ICU we had strangers drawn to us because of our unity in prayer, and doctors and nurses telling us later on how amazing and "miraculous" it was to see the "unexpected"  occurring in my son throughout this time. Many didn't think he was going to make it or if he did he wouldn't be able to function like before, and they all watched me staying at his side praying day after day not giving up. I somehow just knew who was in control and I knew God was preparing us and I held onto that faith.   

   Weeks of therapy after ICU brought about a lot of stages in the healing of Robert's brain, going through things that I would rather not talk about here. What occurred were several stages that nobody can be fully prepared for. I had moments wondering is this the stage he will be stuck in forever? Is this the worse thing or is there even worse yet to come, etc . To me the worst thing would have been death and I could not even remotely consider that.  I still had the knowledge that I would draw my strength on the Lord, and He would see us through all of this nightmare somehow, someway.  

   Waking from the coma my son had to re-learn to eat, swallow, walk, talk, in fact every function that we take for granted each day, he had to re-learn and retrain while his brain was healing. He didn't remember his dad at first and didn't remember me at  one moment. In fact at one time when he was first starting to talk he asked me for my cell phone so he could call his mom (me) and ask why she hasn't been up to the hospital to see him. So tell me how does a parent prepare for that? You don't, you just don't.
While the brain is healing there are alot of things that take place both for the person hurt and for the family that is standing by their side. A person isn't prepared for any of it and there are no "How To" books.  I feel that God gave me the strengths needed to get beyond this crisis.
Has it been difficult?  Yes!!!  Were we ever promised an easy life?  NO!!! As God is my witness, I can say my faith has increased and my heart is filled even more with thanksgiving and joy.
I could have chosen to blame God for everything and despise the hardships we endured, but I choose to see the good that occurred, the slow healing of a mother/son relationship that went bad during his high school years, the prayer in my heart  asking that the Lord touch my son, the prayers of the many people, some who didn't even know us personally .....

on-going changes through the years are still completely incredible. 

THANK YOU GOD!