The Reason My Hair Turned Gray in Third Grade

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Ya know how parent’s say to children, “You’re going to make me go gray!” So…reverse that! It was somewhere between my third and fourth grade year when a small section of my hair started growing completely white! There was only one thing that we could attribute this to, and that thing happened 15 years ago today, when my Mom got in a terrible accident and apparently, caused my hair some stress!

This is my Mom, Lisa.

 

And here is what happened 15 years ago today, in her own words:

“It was Friday, September 5, 1997 ~  I had dropped off Tyler for his 3rd day of Kindergarten with Mrs. Barnett, and BreAnne to Mrs. May’s 3rd grade class..  I had breakfast with my friend Mary Hopper and then drove to Silver Creek Country Club to pick up paint from Eric to deliver to another jobsite off of Old Hillsdale in San Jose..  I remember pulling up to the stop sign on Vistapark and Old Hillsdale… the next thing I remember was trying to get off the ground and someone telling me that I was hurt and I needed to stay down.

Blink, and your whole life changes..  There were no witnesses so we only speculate what happened.  Either I pulled out too far to see both ways before attempting to turn left and was struck by a huge old cadillac, or the cadillac swerved and hit me.. either way, I ended up out of my car on the pavement..  and YES!  I had my seat belt on, or at least I remember that I had it on.. the other driver, on a suspended licenses, was unharmed (thankfully).  3 people were close enough to hear the crash, came to help. One was an EMT, the other was the Mom of one of my daughters friends…. I remember trying to get up and some one telling me to ” stay down, you’ve been injured.”  Thankful they kept me still, later I would learn if I had moved too much I would not have survived at all.

I remember the ambulance drivers talking to me, asking me for phone numbers for everyone under the sun and I was spouting them out.. mostly I was passed out except that I remember them lifting me onto the orange ambulance slab .. and then not much after that..

Unbelieveably they reached Eric’s cell phone on the first try.. which was nearly impossible as the reception at that time was fairly bad at Silver Creek.  They would not tell him anything but that I was heading to Valley Medical, in an ambulance.. he knew that was not good.

My Mom picked up the kids at school, telling them that “Mom had an accident..”  BreAnne’s response was, “did she spill her coffee?”  lol…  of course, she didn’t give them too much information since my Mom had been told how badly I was injured.

Upon arrival at Valley Med  Eric was met by the Doctor and my Dad..  I was in bad shape.. the Doctor basically said I had fractured vertebrae and the prognosis was not good.   Eric went into the emergency room just in time to help the ER doctors turn my whole body as I tried to throw up,  they had to be sure that I didn’t jerk my neck..   He was also there to assist the doctor with putting in the halo screws into my scull… 4 of them.. and of course, I don’t remember this at all.. (thank you Jesus..)

The results of the CAT scan were that I had fractured 3 vertebrae (C2 C3 C4)  similar injury to the same vertebrae as Christopher Reeve.  They did not think I would walk and said I was lucky to even be alive.  I was put in traction for 3 days, to see if the spine would straighten itself out without surgery..   I understand that those 3 days were gruesome for my husband and family.. thankfully I was sudated so much that I don’t remember any of it.

After 3 days, they did another scan to discover that the traction had indeed worked!  Praise God no surgery was needed.   I spent the next 3 months in a halo (which you can see in the attached photo) – more inconvenient than anything.. but so thankful that I would see a full recovery.. NO paralysis whatsoever, in fact, no after effects on my neck to this day..  Also thankful for God’s provision and care for Eric, the kids and my family during this time.  I think the hardest thing for me was knowing that they received that call that no one wants to get and had to watch me go through all of this.

There really is so much I could say about my experience and what God did during those days.. I look back every year and thank Him for allowing me to raise my kids, see their baseball & soccer games, to be at all of BreAnne’s theatre and vocal performances, to see them graduate from Jr, High School and College, to be at BreAnne’s side planning a wedding and seeing her married, and celebrating 25 years with my amazing husband…. I haven’t known why God allowed this to happen to me nor have I understood why He allowed me to live and live a healthy happy life all the years after.. until this year.

This past year God has begun something new in the life of our family.  It has not been nor does it continue to be easy, in fact, it has been the most difficult journey of our lives..  despite all of it, on this 15th anniverary of the miracle the God allowed in my life, I know that He had more for me to do, more for Eric & I to do together and more for our family to do for Him...  I trust Him and know that His plan is perfect for my life…  thankful everyday for every minute God has given me with my family and friends..  this year more than any year, I celebrate God’s goodness and what He has planned for my future..

Jeremiah 29:11  ~ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Do we ever tire of hearing this verse.. never, thankful to stand on this promise every single day..

God bless…

-Lisa”

Is my Mom awesome, or what? =)

I woke up this morning, read that blurb she had posted in a note on Facebook, totally cried (thanks Mom), and thanked God that she walked away from that accident. When I think about it, I would have been an entirely different person without my Mom. She has been such a huge part of who I am, and I am so grateful that God allowed my family to keep her.

Oh ya, and thanks for my “Shock Spot” Mom =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Netflix Marathons & Sewing & Such

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Jackie and I have been marathoning it, watching about 6 episodes a night of Vampire Diaries! LOL So intense. I’ve seen it all already, but she hadn’t watched it yet so we are catching her up. Oh my gosh, this show is interesting. TEAM STEFAN!

Anyways, I have also been sewing while we watch…and coming up with new designs for hair accessories…and creating a new portfolio-blog for my hair accessories (check it out here)…and I ordered business cards for them today!

I’m really excited about that! I recently met with Gabrielle, the owner of Gabrielle’s Bridal Atelier in Downtown Campbell, and there is now a case of my hair accessories being sold in her shop!

Here’s a photo of some new ones I sewed recently!

Now back to Vampire Diaries…haha

Hey That’s My Face!

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Yesterday was such a crazy day. The husband and I have been growing our photography business on the side for a little while now, and I recently found this great tool for submitting our work to different blogs and publications. There are a plethora of wedding blogs and magazines, and I just wanted to know HOW to get our photos to be at least looked at! I was super excited when I found this new tool, and I was even more thrilled when we started getting our photos accepted to different blogs!!

So far, our work has been featured on three different blogs! EEE! So fun.

The first thing posted was our amazingly fun, after-the-wedding, not-so-trash-the-dress session with our friends Karla and Steven. This session was posted on an adorable blog called LoveToastBlog.com!

View the full post here!

We were really excited when we saw those photos posted…and yesterday, we were sort of ecstatic when we got published twice!!! (This is a big deal for us, so bear with me! haha) Photos from my graduation session were posted on this lovely, photographic inspiration blog called Evoking You. Seriously, loads and loads of gorgeous photos on here, and we were really honored to be featured. It was a little crazy to see my face that big as well since a lot of the photos they post are LARGE. I pulled up the page and thought “Hey, that’s my face!”

View the full post here!

AND THEN WE GOT A “DELIGHTFUL” SURPRISE!!! Yesterday afternoon, one of our wedding’s was posted on the mywedding.com blog called Delightfully Engaged! We are big fans of the blog and of mywedding.com. I, personally, jumped up and down!

BIG DEAL!

View the full post here!

So ya, it’s been fun! I mean, yes…I did submit these photos…it’s not like they tracked us down and had to have them (haha), but there is something about getting published like this that just feels like a big ‘ole acknowledgement of your work!

If Two of You Agree…

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So what if 50 or 100 people agree in prayer? Big things coming, I think!

Will you join me in prayer? If you don’t already know this, my family and I are working to build a company with the objective of giving clean drinking water to people around the world. (And the need is huge…approximately one billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and it is unacceptable!) We are also working towards efforts to provide other necessities like food and clothing to those who need it.

More importantly, we want to get the Gospel to those who have not heard it!

I recently passed the 10,000 views mark on this blog (exciting!), and when I saw the above photo from 365promises.com today, I had a thought. What if we could get the support of everyone viewing this blog?

Will you support us in prayer?

Thank you!