From: Paul Dial <pdial@earthlink.net>
Subject: FW: Jim's update
To: "Mavis Dial" <mavisdial@att.net>, "Danny Gonzales" <cocoonministries@yahoo.ca>
Received: Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 11:19 AM
About our friend at church, run over by his tractor.
From: Dawn Lawless [mailto:dawn@counselingconnections.info]
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 10:06 AM
To: Wayne Calder; Welcome, Elaine
Subject: Jim's update
Believe it or not, today is our 13th anniversary. We are sitting here drinking our coffee and processing the weekend's events (I'm certain that will last for awhile). We are truly thankful for all of the prayers that surrounded Jim and our family and we are continually praising God for this miracle. The reality is we could be planning a funeral right now or at a minimum, figuring out how to convert our home for handicap access. The chain of events during all of this are pretty amazing and as we've combined the stories for a full picture, we are certain that GOD was with us.
For those of you who don't know, Jim's tractor is not a riding lawnmower. It weighs more than 2-tons and the mower on the back will easily chop 6-inch trees. I don't want to revisit all of the events again, but we want you to hear that we believe all of the intentional prayers actually saved him. When I got the call from Alyssa that "Daddy was hurt really bad by the tractor, you gotta come now." I picked up the phone and called 911 as I was driving to them. After the emergency call, my phone literally died and I couldn't make any more calls. I believe this was God providing an opportunity for me to focus. I began praying that the girls wouldn't be too traumatized, that the traffic would clear so I could get there safely, and that he wasn't hurt too bad. What I've now learned is that after the call to me was made, Alyssa and Macy said, "We need to pray for daddy"…and they began to ask, "God, Please watch over Daddy and make him feel better." Wow! Jim gets tearful each time he thinks of this. Then he laughs as he recalls Macy (5-year-old) say, "Okay, I'm gonna ride my bike now til mom gets here." Is that what Faith looks like? Did she know without a doubt that since she asked He would answer?
When I saw Jim, the girls were with him (Macy on her bike circling him) and he was laying on his back not moving. There was minimal blood and he had all of his major body parts. I was somewhat relieved! Then I checked to see if he was awake and it took him a few seconds to reply. I thought, "Great, I can't remember how to do CPR", but then he started mumbling…Halleluiah! A second wave of relief set in. I was still wondering where EMS was at this point (there really ought to be a station on this side of Pearland). Then the sheriffs showed up. EMS was quick to follow and so it began. I told the officers that the blade was off during the accident because I was certain he would have shut it down before hand, but I later learned that it was actually still cutting and that his leg was under the mower. Jim said, "I just kept thinking, I NEED MY LEG", as he visualized the alternative, and somehow it was released.
We actually weren't surprised by the life flight decision due to the weight of the tractor and the locations of the scrapes and bruises we could see. At this point, I was concerned with his back being broken or his lungs being punctured (he was having trouble breathing and he kept saying that he heard his bones cracking/breaking). The girls were asking lots of questions, like "Did the tractor squish him?" "Is Daddy going to heaven today?" "What is that thing on his neck?" The play therapy training sure came in handy here. "Sounds like you are scared…you are worried about your daddy…we love daddy and want him to be okay…you really knew what to say to do…you did perfectly by calling me so I could call these people to help us" The police and EMS guys were also awesome with the girls. They answered questions and praised them for their bravery. Pastor Wayne was also there offering prayers and talking to the girls.
Despite all the questions and the unknowns, there was a sense of calm. Jim said he felt it, too! We both knew he wasn't "going to Heaven" today, but we also both knew that this was major enough to get a trauma team to look at him. My parents met us at the hospital, and we actually saw the Life Flight EMS guys walking out with trays of food. They said they had been there awhile and that Jim did great on the ride over. The emails started flooding in and we knew that God was all over this. Then we waited for the x-rays and scans to be read. They came back totally clear. How is that possible? We were amazed and thankful! Jim said he was like a trauma spectacle and that people who worked in the center kept coming back to look at him with amazement. They kept saying, "we get tractor injuries all the time, but they never look like this."
Did I mention that my daughters still have a daddy? Did you hear the part about the intentional prayers and the immediacy of those prayers and how you all saved my husband? We have no idea what we are supposed to do with this new experience, and we don't know what type of healing occurred in his body before the x-rays were taken, but we do know that we are to continue praising God for what he has provided; namely, great friends and family like you. Jim is hobbling around and still struggling to get up and down off of the bed, but he is hobbling and he's hobbling on both legs…praise God!
Dawn A. Lawless, LCSW, LSOTP, RPT-S
Counseling Connections for Change, LLC
Bringing Clarity to the Puzzle of Life!
2225 CR 90, Suite 119
Pearland, TX 77584
Office: 281-485-9280 Fax: 281/485-9070
www.counselingconnections.info
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