A Severe Mercy

Yesterday at about 9 a.m. our son, Neal, was involved in a truck to truck collision. As he was turning left to deliver a package for his company a dump truck, traveling close to 50 mph, struck the left rear side of his vehicle and ejected him onto the pavement.
A helicopter airlifted him to a trauma center about 45 minutes away.

When we received the news we expected the worst. How will Neal's life be changed because of this? Will we arrive in time to say goodbye? 

Praise God, Neal's injuries are ones from which he will recover. He has a skull fracture in two places, which is being monitored at this time in ICU. There was some bleeding, but the CT scan this a.m. showed no new blood. The heel of his left foot has deep gash in it and has about 6-8 stitches in it. His head has two staples at the back.The left side of his face and right elbow are scratched up pretty badly. 

The nurse, April, had him try out his walker for the first time today, two more trips down the hall and back to go. We teased him that he's got a walker even before his parents. 'Course, that may not be too far off for us! Right now he is asleep, something that is rare in a hospital. 

Neal told us yesterday that when he couldn't raise his head up from the pavement, he expected the worst case scenario. But even then he prayed, "Lord, give me the strength to deal with whatever the future may bring." That encouraged our hearts to hear his cry of faith.

We praise God for all the prayers on behalf of our family and would be greedy and ask that prayers continue for Neal. It will be several weeks before he is able to return to his normal activities. At least he is still able to write on Facebook!