Taste and See

I must be getting old. I've noticed that I have started to keep track of the anniversary of a lot of things in my life. I guess I am thinking that if I can keep close tabs on what Time is up to, then Time won’t be able to cheat and fast forward like she has a habit of doing lately.

Monday, the 5^th was the eleventh-month anniversary of our arrival in Hong Kong.

Last week Wednesday, June 30 was the twenty-and-a-half year anniversary of my marriage to Julie. I know it was the twenty-and-a-half year anniversary of our marriage because, last Wednesday, June 30 also happened to be my 44 birthday. Yup, its true, I got married on my half birthday. Julie claims that I spent our entire wedding day going around telling people, “Today’s my half birthday. Today’s my half birthday.” I think that she may be exaggerating. Just a little.

Today, July 7, is the one-year anniversary of my burn accident. In an attempt to get the house and yard ready for our departure, I was burning brush in the back yard. Due to human error (me being that human), I had two gallons of gasoline blow up fifteen feet from me. The explosion was so powerful, it rattled the windows of all the stores and houses within a quarter mile of our place.

I had first- and second-degree burns over twenty percent of my body. I was in the hospital for 13 days –three of them in the intensive care unit.

All this less than three weeks before I was supposed to be moving my family to Hong Kong. It had been an ongoing desire of ours to live and work overseas as a family. It had taken months and months of work to pull this opportunity together. And now laying in a hospital bed at the Loyal University burn center, I was watching all those dreams disintegrate.

I wasn’t going anywhere soon. Ten days after my accident, the pain was still so excruciating that it was taking me three to four minutes to sit up and swing my legs over the edge of my bed. It wasn’t until day twelve that the doctors were able to confirm that I wasn't going to need any skin grafts.

But God is good. He was faithful to his promise. Less than a month after my accident, my family and I were on a plane for Hong Kong. Granted, we were a week and a half late, but we were on our way.

I was and am thankful that I wasn’t hurt worse than I was; that my eyes and lungs weren’t burnt. I am thankful for a loving wife who sang me to sleep on the nights when the excessive amounts of morphine weren't enough. I'm thankful for all the family and friends who helped out with our daughters. I am thankful for a school who was willing to hold my position until I could show up.

I am thankful that my body has made a fully recovery -other than some scars on my arm, back, and shoulders.

But like my mother said, scars are like tattoos; they just come with better stories.

Jack

Picture: Day twelve after my accident and the day before my release from the hospital. It was also the first day we allowed the girls to come to the hospital to see their dad. God bless my wife who had the where-with-all to snap a picture.