15 years ago....

There are big things that happen in every family that shapes who they are and who they become. 15 years ago today, was one of those moments for my family. We almost lost my little brother at the age of 12. There are so many details that my parents have shared with me over the years that I didn't know about at the time, or was oblivious to because I was a 15 year old kid. I've never written any of them down, or shared much of the story with a lot of people. But it seems fitting today as we celebrate the last 15 years that we have been able to share with Parker.  Especially since we were so close to losing him. I have found us talking about it so much more recently, as Parker and I are both parents now and realize the reality of what it would be like to almost lose a child.

Parker was 12 (6th grade) and I was 15 (8th grade). We went on our school's annual ski trip to Snowshoe, WV. My parents went along as chaperones (by God's grace!!). Parker went skiing with my friend and I that day. On one of our trips down the mountain, I looked behind me and realized he wasn't with us anymore. We stopped and waited, but when he didn't come we started moving back up the slope to see if we could find him. We saw ski tracks going down a bank into the trees, and when we looked down we saw him. My friend, Julie, and I jumped down the bank, and to this day, I can still vividly remember his face when he turned to look at me. His entire right eye area was crushed and bleeding. My reaction was screaming at the top of my lungs. Julie told me to go find help and she would stay with him. At that time we had no idea how serious it was. We just saw blood.cJulie's mom is a nurse, and I am so thankful Julie had enough medical sense to keep him awake. He kept telling her he wanted to go to sleep, but she  did not let him. She kept him awake. I found help, they got him down the mountain, and took him to the clinic at the ski resort. This doctor stitched up his eye and sent him up to the lodge. That's it. 

Later that night my mom could tell Parker was not acting right. They called an ambulance and had him transferred to a local hospital. It was snowing like crazy and th roads were treacherous! They discovered Parker had crushed his entire eye orbit in the area that doctor at the ski resort had just stitched up. Air was now escaping into his brain and pieces of bone were splintered and close to his brain. 

The local hospital said they could not handle anything this serious and they would need to transfer him to West Virginia University Hospital for major surgery. This hospital was not close and the roads were getting worse. 

They rushed Parker into surgery. Which involved making an incision from one ear to the other, reconstructing his eye orbit, and placing a metal plate in his forehead area where they used as an access point. 

He was in the hospital for 10 days. I was able to go visit him at WVU after his surgery thanks to our dearest friends. Danny Cox had gone as a chaperone as well, since his oldest daughter was on the trip. He had driven up earlier in his suburban and not ridden the bus, so he and Amber went with me to the hospital, but our luggage went home on the bus:) The little things like that happening made our trip back to NC an adventure and took my mind of the seriousness of things in WV. The hospital gave us scrubs to wear and went to walmart to buy some clean underwear since we no longer had any clothes. We were trying to drive back home in a snowstorm and eventually had to stop and spend the night even though we were driving a 4WD vehicle. I've never seen so much snow in my life. 

We made it home after quite the adventure and I stayed with the Cox's while mom and dad were at WVU with Parker for the next 10 days. We were greeted at home by the Cox boys having shaved their heads in honor of Parker, since his head had to be shaved for surgery. 

Parker turned 13 just days after he got home and had a long recovery. He was instructed not to play any contact sports for quite awhile, which was extremely difficult for this sports fanatic! That's when he picked up Golf:) He competed in tournaments for the remainder of Highschool and got a golf scholarship to Liberty university. 

This was definitely a defining moment for our family. The Lord taught us all a lot through it. It definitely could have ended differently, but The Lord chose to spare Parker's life that day! We praise him for it!  We are so blessed and extremely grateful to The Lord for the last 15 years.