Wisdom for All

Like any good Christian parent my children listen to fun bible songs in the car quite often. Each time the old song about the two men (a wise one who built his house on the rock and a foolish one who built his house on the sand) plays Elizabeth wisely proclaims “We don’t want to be like the foolish man Mom!”. I smile and reply with a voice of pride “That’s right sweetie!”

Tonight the above scenario took place on our way home and I respond with the usual “I have a wise child” voice tone but tonight I added a quick question I was confident she knew the answer too.

“Liz, your right we don’t want to be like the foolish man. Who do we want to be like?” Her response was quick,
“We want to be a woman.” Her voice tone one of prim and properness.

For some reason the first thought that came into my head was a scene from “I Love Lucy” where Ricky says “LUCY, Yuv got some splanin tu do!”

Lesson learned: Follow up questions are always a good idea! Particularly before thinking your child is going to be a wise Bible scholar. :)

Rachael

Doing Well

Dad's surgery went very well. The doctor's feel like the surgery was very successful! Dad lost a lot of blood but they were able to recycle his own blood and give it back to him. They feel he will now have 90 degree mobility in his hip. Last night we went up to see him. He seemed to be doing well. He had walked to the door in his room and back earlier that day. Of course pain managment one thing they are trying to stay on top of right now. The Doctor said that sometimes they open up the patient and really can't do alot for them. But they really felt they were able to get most of the extra bone that had formed and it would be of great help for dad's recovery.

Thank you so much for the prayers!

Greg is Having Surgery Monday Morning! Please Pray!

I apoligize for the delay in reporting this prayer need for Dad. Monday morning (10/4/10) he is scheduled to have surgery on his hip to remove the calcification build up. This surgery is a big deal but should help him tramendously with his ability to walk. We are not sure of the expectations of his walking ability after this surgery though because he has lots of damage in his knee on the same side which will be fixed by surgery later in the spring.

Please Pray for:
1.) Peace for Dad (and mom)
2.) The Surgeons
3.) Dad's recovery to be quick and as painless as possible (For his and Mom's sake :) )

Below is a recent article Dad wrote for our church newsletter:

Greetings to my wonderful church family! God is good all the time! All the time God is good! It has been a long time since I have written a Harbinger article. It’s been so wonderful to see each of you over the past few weeks. How can I ever thank you for the incredible love and support you have shown to me and my family. Kim has shared with me from her journal records all the visitors that have come to see me and have offered prayers on my behalf since my accident in April. You are all so very important to me. Thank you seems so inadequate. As many of you know, Justin and I were in a rollover collision April 10th. That day will go down as one of those life-altering days. Our lives will never be the same. As so many different people lifted prayers to the Lord, He has answered them so amazingly. Justin has almost fully recovered and may have one more surgery to remove the screws that were placed in his ankle. Praise the Lord! The Lord did not cause our accident but He has certainly been with us throughout the entire ordeal. He promised in His word that He would never leave us or forsake us, He is Faithful! My injuries were a little more severe. I was thrown from the vehicle (wear your seat belts!) and landed 75 feet in front of the car after it stopped rolling. I do not know how I came out of the automobile, but I do know that God caught me and caused me to land easier. I was told that I did not have but one scratch on my shoulder. Unfortunately I did have some internal injuries. My pelvis was broken in half and had 8 other major breaks in it, I had 12 broken ribs, both of my lungs collapsed, I tore the ACL and MCL in my knee, had a perforated bladder, and sustained a brain injury. They only gave a 20% chance of survival those first few days. I praise the Lord for His goodness and love for me. I have never been closer to Him than I am right now. He has sustained my life and blessed me more than you can imagine. The enemy, Satan, tried to destroy me and keep me silent. He was unsuccessful in those attempts because of all the prayers offered for me. God once again thwarted the attack of the enemy and has given me life! What Satan means for evil, God will turn to good! Praise His holy name! The road to recovery will not be an easy one. I was in a coma for the first little while. I had 3 surgeries during that time period and do not remember anything about the wreck or treatment until early June. I am so glad to be at home now after 111 days in the hospital. My family is so amazing as they offer me care. I can hardly do anything for myself. Even picking up something that I drop is almost impossible. Kim is God’s choice for my wife. He has given and continues to give her unbelievable grace to serve me over and over again. I am so thankful for such a wonderful bride! Today Kim and I went to see my orthopedic doctor. He told me that I had done very well in my rehab and looked like I was getting much stronger. He had me do a CAT scan while I was in his office so that he could more clearly see my hip. They took over 1000 images of my hip and treated a 3-d image on the computer. As we looked at the image he smiled. We could tell from his face and words that he was encouraged! He said that the surgery ahead would be a difficult one, because they will have to go in and actually remove bone from the hip area that grew while I was motionless in the coma. The position of the bone is what encouraged him. He said that he thought he could get to the” extra” bone without cutting through any muscle. This will make for a much easier recovery. He is working with the other doctors to schedule a time for surgery but would like to do it the first week of October! Praise the Lord, again He has changed the schedule and is moving the surgery forward. I will be in the hospital for at least a week and then perhaps be able to come back home. It all depends on how I recover, so I ask you to keep that time in your prayers! After the first of the year I will need to have some surgical work done on my knee. I have 3 ligaments torn or damaged. We will once again trust the Lord for the results and the timing. Today we are simply rejoicing in the Lord! I attended Pastor Jerry’s class last evening and we learned that God called himself Jehovah Kennaw, which simply means I am a jealous God. We saw through scripture that the Lord is always pursuing us simply due to the love that He has for each of us. His love and goodness continue to overwhelm me. He is such a great God! Thank you again for all of your prayer, love and support for my family! If not for the Lord this would have been much worse. God is good all the time, all the time God is good! I am resting at home doing some research on the upcoming surgery. I have sent Kim to a day spa to have a lady there give her a full back massage! She deserves so much honor and credit for where I stand in the recovery. She has been with me every day since the accident April 10th. We both prayed for you today just before she left. You are on our minds and in our thoughts. We are so grateful for your love, compassion, and most of all your prayers. May God reward your efforts and may we see His hand together in a complete and quick recovery.

To God be the glory! He is good all the time!
Pastor Greg

Our family LOVES the tradition of going to the state fair. We normally go more than once. Opening day Brandon and I brought the girls. It was a bit hot outside but we all had a great time. Tickets for the ice capades were on sale for the opening night so I bought two and Elizabeth and I had a “Mommy, Lizzy time” . Traffic was HORRIBLE on the way there and so we were thirty minutes late. I was quite frustrated considering I had already allowed myself an extra thirty minutes than what I needed to get there, but we still had a great time and it all worked out ok. My Aunt Rhonda always took us to the ice capades when we were little. I have great memories of those times and so I think it was a bit sentimental for me to take Liz. I didn’t take my camera to the show because I didn’t think they were allowed. So they are just memories in my heart.

Then on Tuesday evening the Werner family went to enjoy the fair. We enjoy fair food during this visit. We like to look around and watch a few shows and just enjoy each other’s company. Nanny and Papa are the stars of this trip since they, well, pay for it. J Elizabeth and Katherine LOVED riding the horses and Elizabeth enjoyed the camel ride with Uncle Justin too.  

With the events of the year I think we all cherished our Family Fair Tradition a little more this year. Thank you Lord for Your goodness to us!

THE Event

Many of you have already heard that I was in a car accident on Friday evening just after 5:00 p.m. The weather had been absolutely amazing on Friday and I wanted to get some clean quiet country air to go along with the beautiful day. So, I headed out to one of my all time forever and ever favoritest places, Tuterville. My dad is home from Dallas but with mom still there I thought a visit from me and the grandbabies would be a welcome surprise. Originally I had planned on going out early in the afternoon but I had some things that needed done at our house so I finished those things up during the girl’s naptime. The entire day had been shaping up to feel like a Saturday. Brandon is off of work on Friday’s so he had been in and out of the house all day and had even helped me with a couple of projects around the house. When I got on the road headed out I was again reminded that today was not Saturday but rather a Friday evening just about rush hour. The thought of slow traffic didn’t bother me much though because after all it was a beautiful day and I was really in no hurry. No reason to let a little thing like traffic ruin my day. To make the trip more enjoyable, the girls and I began bobbing our head to some Veggie Tales tunes. Everything was splendid.

Not far past Anderson Road heading East bound on I-240 two interstates combine. It is a common place for traffic to slowdown and I’m pretty positive there is almost a daily “jam” in that location. This day it seemed backed up a bit further than normal. I’m not sure of the reason. Elizabeth let out a small giggle with a “Whoa” accompanying it as I noticeably hit my brakes to slow with the quickly stopping traffic. Naturally when traffic comes to a quick stop after getting your vehicle to an appropriate speed you check your rearview mirror to make sure the guy behind you has done or is doing the same thing. The view in my mirror wasn’t a real pleasant one. A truck. A big truck. Going fast. Very fast. “Slow down, “I thought. He was approaching at speed limit or greater and had appeared at no attempt to even slow. My suspicions were confirmed the moment he did see me and hit his brakes but it was all over. Too close, too fast. He took a quick swerve right and then a hard swerve left. In an attempt to avoid collision I went to the right a bit trying to get to the shoulder creating enough of a gap for us to remain on track for our original destinations, body parts and vehicles intact with nothing more than a tale of a super close call. But our attempts were somewhat in vain and crash, bang, whiplash and all our vehicles would never be the same. The impact was hard immediately shattering my back windshield and driver’s side rear window. Glass was now accompanying me in the front seat and my babies were shrieking in fear complete unaware and unimpressed with what had just happened. I’m sure at some point the words “oh gravy” slipped from my lips. I waited for a second impact not sure of where the other vehicle was currently at or what other cars might come flying my way at any minute. I feared he was a roll over as pieces of debris and dirt began to fly in all sorts of directions. I am unsure of what all came off of his truck but I do know he lost his tire. Yes, his tire came sliding across the road taunting me of April’s events. I realize I may be overly sensitive to flying tires but I feel I am justified in that sensitivity given recently family occurrences. The tire never became anymore of an issue besides a mere piece of debris and it came to a peaceful rest without causing further insult or injury.

Upon realizing all vehicles had come to a complete stop, mine about 25 yards on down the road from the initial impact now resting in the grass rather than the pavement. The truck was now facing south bound in the center median still upright not having rolled. I turned my head in an effort to check on the girls. All visible signs gave me a peace that they were nothing more than scared. I reassured them we were fine and proceeded to do the next thing, call 911. No Brandon. No 911 is who you call first. I forced my brain to work the fancy features on my phone and begged my brain to send loud and clear messages to my hands to calm themselves and stop shaking. A touch screen is very difficult to use with shaky hands. Even dialing 911 can be the most difficult of simple tasks. My brain demands worked and my hands steadied enough to dial in the numbers, 9….1….1. “Wait, what if they want me to stay on the line with them until they get here because they hear screaming children in the background? I think I should call Brandon first. Yes, I need Brandon. He can do the thinking for me.” Backspacing the emergency numbers I had worked so hard to enter I dialed now the digits to my love. My hero.

Starting the conversation with “We are fine, we are all just fine.” He cut me off before I could get to the point of the call.

“Have you been in an accident?” he asked

“Yes, a pretty bad one, but we are all just fine. The car is not fine but we are.”

The conversation ended and he was on his way to help.

By this time passersby were stopping to check on us. I couldn’t open my door and the girls continued their screams. Trying to prioritize things I decided we needed to exit the vehicle. But how was I going to get out? I had already given the man checking on us a “thumbs up” that we were ok and he was headed over to check on the other guy. His back was to me. How would he see that we were stuck? As I looked to try and get someone’s attention I saw fluid pouring from the other guy’s vehicle. What if my car was pouring fluid? What is it was gas? Our situation could go from just fine to dead in an instant! I’ve seen the movies. No one, and I mean no one survives those explosions besides Jack Bauer, who was not currently present, and we all know Hollywood’s main goal is to make those scenes realistic. Yes this could get bad! It was then that I realized my car was still running and I could in fact just roll down my window and ask for help. I told my brain to stop the drama and to think rationally. I would reward myself later with a cappuccino chunky chocolate shake made with coffee instead of milk from Braum’s. The bribe worked and the following events were dealt with in a non Jack Bauer manner. The kind passerby opened my door and then when to the passenger side to help me get the girls out. I discovered that Liz was crying mostly because the impact had caused her to lose her snack bag of pretzels which had fallen to the ground. Her tears quickly subsided after I had reunited the two of them together. Kate also calmed quickly after I had her out of the vehicle and in my arms. She also had “buckles” her trusty steed, that she takes with her everywhere, to provide an extra measure of comfort. All parties involved were ok besides jolted and sore. Soon I would discover muscles I didn’t even know existed had been tensed up during the ordeal. These muscles introduced themselves to me and I have thrown them a welcoming party with Loratab. The two are getting along beautifully. My hero showed up about the same time as the emergency vehicles. He did exactly what I was hoping and took care of things for me. We ended up transporting Liz by ambulance to the hospital to get check out because she was complaining about one spot on her back and because these things always tend to happen on Friday’s after doctors offices close and Monday is a holiday. Go figure. If something was wrong I’d rather nip it in the bud.

 She was thrilled to ride in an “ambilance” and before her hospital discharge she was more concerned about going out to see and play with Nanny and Kate than the spot on her back. The doctor and Brandon encouraged me to get myself checked out too and by the time we had gotten to the hospital I was rather sore. So, after Elizabeth’s discharge transport took me to the presby tower to be seen by a doctor. I feared we would be there for many hours as I heard people in the waiting room complaining of waiting for three hours without being seen yet. Fortunately I didn’t have to get an official room and within the hour x-rays had been taken, prescriptions written and we were on our way home, all in one piece thanking the Lord for his protection over our family. On the way to the hospital the paramedics told me when they got the call on the wreck medi-flight was in route because with the sight of the wreckage they were certain someone would need it. Greg and Kim took our girls for the night and so I was able to get a good night’s rest and sleep-in in the morning. I snuggled up next to Brandon that night grateful I wasn’t in a hospital bed or mourning the death of one or both of our daughters. Today I took an extra minute to tuck my girls in bed to look them in the eye’s saying “I love you”.

After you read this I hope you will take a minute to go snuggle up next to your loved ones just because you can and look them in the eyes and say “I love you”. Not to bid them farwell as you rush out the door with a million other things on your mind but in an effort to savor a moment. Because the truth of the matter is that the chances of that happening to me are no less than the chances of that happening to you and not everyone is blessed enough to walk way. Cherish each moment. Know your eternal destination. And always pay attention to the traffic in front of you.

You know what? I still owe myself that shake from Braum’s.

Rachael

A Note From Greg Werner

God is good… all the time!!!!!

This is the long awaited update that I wanted to send. I am so happy to report to you that after 111 days in the hospital and rehab I have been released! I am currently undergoing outpatient therapy and waiting to see my orthopedic doctor to help make a new plan. I have two surgeries still waiting for me. The first will be on my right hip to remove calcium making my hip unusable. The second surgery will be to repair torn ligaments in my knee. I am not sure when we will schedule these, but the first should be sometime this winter. We will know more after we see the doctor.

I want to take time to thank those of you who have stood with my family through this ordeal. Many of you have given money, food, comforting words, cards, and prayer. How can I possibly begin to say thank you? This has been the longest tragedy that I have faced to this point in my life. April 10th will go down as a life changing day for my family. The vehicle accident is forever etched in our minds! Though we would never choose this event, God has been faithfully reminding me to count my blessings. I am so grateful to be alive and sending this update. I could easily have been killed in the accident. I was ejected from the rolling car more than 70 feet down the highway. I have had three surgeries to date to repair my pelvis, which was shattered, and to remove my spleen. I was in a coma for many days and can’t remember any of the accident. That within itself is a blessing. I slept through some very difficult procedures and days! My greatest blessing is my amazing family. From the very first day my boys have risen to the need! They have served me in numerous ways. Brandon and Rachael took on all of bill pay duties personally and for the church, and kept an ongoing blog to help keep you updated. Thank you so much! Jon took care of things at home and really became the man of the house. I am so proud of him, he also took over my Glory Seals class. Lauren called and visited me often and loved me unbelievably. Justin is still healing but spent many days under the loving watchful eyes of Terry and Cyndi Myers. You guys are amazing!

The blessings don’t even start to end there. God has been so faithful. He has provided the most amazing staff of doctors and therapist to help me. So many men stayed with me through the night. Odus Compton visited me often; Pastor Jerry gave me incredible love, support and council, and many of you served us, all so amazingly. My mom and my younger brother stayed with me constantly. They have provided me with unbelievable support throughout the entire time I was hospitalized. So many of you have loved me and served me through prayer and acts of kindness that they are too many to recognize in this article. Let me just say thank you all so very much for loving us and giving us support!

I would miss this opportunity if I did not recognize my bride Kim. No one has loved me more than she has. She has been with me every day since the wreck loving and encouraging me. She is a rock! The Lord has given me the perfect help mate! We have laughed and cried many tears together. She has always been there to encourage me and to love me.

I still have a long way to go. I can’t walk without a walker or help. I still have the surgeries ahead of me. But through it all I have learned to trust Jesus more and more. He didn’t cause this to happen to us, but he has been with us every second of the day. His word says that he will never leave us or forsake us. He is faithful! I certainly could not be here today if not for His blessing. He remains the greatest blessing that I can count. I have often said that the greatest asset of our lives is the blessing of Christ. He is good all the time!

Please continue to pray for us and keep us in your minds. We still have a long road ahead of us. God will provide and protect us giving us everything that we need. Thank you for loving us so much and praying for us so often. May God richly reward you for your investment in our family.
God bless you all! Greg Werner

Dad also asked me to include with theses pictures a huge thank you to Ken Haywood and the Hobby Lobby team who did a GREAT job on the remodel of the bathroom. It is beautiful and will be much enjoyed long after the "need" for it is gone.

Double sinks with the vanity built in such a way that dad's chair can slide right up to the sink!

The shower is awesome with no ledges so that there is nothing to step over. It is AMAZING!!! I love the colors and designs of the curtains. Courtesy of Aunt Tammy Werner.

Please Pray with Us Tomorrow!

The following is the latest from "Ella's Journey". Please be praying for her tomorrow!

Surgery is scheduled again for tomorrow. They say Ella will be first case in the morning, maybe second case. That is hospital time in case you didn’t know. :) The plan is for the surgeons to complete the procedure they began last week. As I am sure many of you remember last week’s procedure didn’t go as planned. They began the first of a three part series to fix Ella’s heart. However, once they got started there was more swelling and damage than they originally thought and so they did a very temporary fix and closed her up. They wanted to more seriously consider a heart transplant. After reviewing the options they decided to continue pursuing the three surgery series fix. So, the goal tomorrow is to complete the first of the three surgeries. This is a very high risk surgery. It should take several hours and her recovery will tell a lot about the surgeries success.

Here are the specific requests:
1.)The Lord’s hand to be guiding the surgeons and giving them wisdom
2.)Ella’s healing and protection
3.)Ella’s other organs to be protected and to continue functioning properly
4.)Peace for…well, everyone. :)

I will let you know as soon as I hear when Ella goes into surgery. Please pray tomorrow when you are prompted!
Psalm 10:17O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear.

In the meantime enjoy, with a tissue, this video we made for sweet Ella. Then go and give your kids a hug and kiss. Each child truly is a blessing and a miracle!

Ella Likes to See Mommy Getting Kisses!

Ella is currently stable. She had a procedure yesterday that didn't go exactly the way it was planned. When they started the surgery there was more damage than they anticipated and so they only did a temporary fix adn will be making a decision on how to proceed within a day or two. This video was taken after Ella's surgery and was good way to end a somewhat difficult day.