When It Rains...

Wow! It's been a crazy couple of weeks for my uncle, aunt, and cousins. First off, my darling cousin Janalee had been having neck pain and went in for an MRI. Her neck ended up being okay, but the doctors discovered a cancerous growth on her thyroid. She just had surgery yesterday to have the growth removed and is waiting for pathology reports to see what kind of treament she will have.

When Jan found this out, her family had already planned a trip to Mexico and were leaving just a week after her diagnosis. The doctor told her she should go ahead with her vacation and just have the surgery when she returned. So, the family left for Mexico. While they were gone, their son Tyler, who was unable to go on the trip because he had to work, discovered he has a hernia and will also need to have surgery. (He is on the waiting list for next Monday to have his surgery.)

So, Tyler contacted his family in Mexico and let them know about his hernia. We were all dying thinking about Jan and Tyler both having surgery in the same week and were trying to figure out what the point was of Tyler having a hernia the same time Jan was diagnosed with cancer. (It's kind of like my Grandma dying a few days before my brother Brian's wedding or me going into labor the same morning of Gracie's blessing.) Honestly! Little did we know what was to come...
Yep! As they were driving home from Mexico, they were involved in a terrible accident in which the truck pulling the camp trailer rolled THREE times! My uncle Ric and cousins Kami and Marijka were in the truck and all of them were pretty beat up, but miraculously, they all survived. (You can visit Sean and Em's blog for a better play-by-play of the accident.)

Despite all of the craziness, our family has been so blessed and have truly witnessed many miracles. Just to name a few...

1. Jan's cancer was discovered. She was experiencing virtually no symptoms of the cancer and it most likely would have spread even more if she hadn't had the MRI on her neck.

2. Everybody survived the accident. Kami just happened to have her seat reclined and was told she most likely wouldn't be with us today if she had been sitting up.

3. My brother Brett and his wife Chelsea were at Brianhead for a mission reunion and their car broke down. Ric, Paula and family just happened to be passing through, so they gave them a ride home. Brett and Chelsea were originally going to ride in the truck, but ended up riding in the van with Paula at the last minute. If they had been in the truck, they would have been in the back seat, which means Kami's seat most likely wouldn't have been reclined, and we can only imagine how different the outcome of the accident would have been.

4. Brett and Chelsea were with Paula's family and were able to provide much-needed support and assistance.

And finally, the biggest miracle of all....I stayed with Kami today while Paula was at the hospital with Jan and did two things I swore I would never do...First, I touched their blasted dog! (He was crawling all over Kami's hurt knees and I had to get him off.) Second, I cleaned up dog #$%^ off the carpet!

Seriously though, I could go on forever about the many blessings we've experienced over the past few days. We are so grateful everyone is going to be okay and our prayers are with Jan as she recovers from her surgery.