The Arpins, whose children were in a serious accident recently and for whom you prayed, write:<\/p>\n
Praised be Jesus Christ! Praise Him forever!
Dear friends,
We want to express our deepest gratitude to all of you for your loving support, prayers and generosity during this difficult time.You have prayed for us, visited us , clothed us, ministered to us\u2026..Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
First of all the best news. Jacob is finally home! He was able to come home last night after considerable negotiation by Maureen because of his rising anxiety level, so now we have everybody together. He still needs lots of care, as his gut \u201cwakes up\u201d and has about 6 weeks of recovery from the surgery and the pelvic and tail bone fractures. We are grateful for the care of the medics, staff at Overlake and Harborview for the care all our kids and Cole received was nothing short of amazing. What a blessing to have this level of trauma care when you really need it close by . A special tip of the hat to all you wonderful RN\u2019s and doctors,and medics out there, you are angels!
We would like you to hear from the horses mouth the short version details of the accident just to put to rest the rumors we have heard regarding what happened: Andrew was heading home from soccer in Fall city , heading west on Redmond \/Fall city road. A car heading eastbound was attempting to pass and had moved over into Andrew\u2019s lane, thus giving him two options, a head on collision or to veer off the road to the ditch. We are all very grateful that Andrew [through I\u2019m sure the inspiration of his guardian angel ] chose the ditch. In short , he is our hero and the police and medics told him the same .The car was going the speed limit as it was set on cruise control and everyone was wearing a seatbelt.
Andrew sustained multiple fractures around his eyes and will be evaluated by a surgeon today. He also has stitches on his knee- he has to pray standing up for a while :-). Stephen suffered a laceration (or a \u201cding\u201d, to use the surgeon\u2019s technical jargon) on his kidney. Thankfully he did not require surgery, though it was touch and go for a couple days watching for any other internal damage to show up.He will be off any physical activity for 12 weeks Michaela has a couple of compression fractures in her spine, a fractured wrist and bruised ribs. She wears a back brace most of the time. Cole suffered a broken pelvis and lots of internal and external bumps and bruises. Everybody has a good 6 weeks of gradual recovery from all the injuries and have quite a bit of pain to deal with, but considering what it could have been , we are so grateful. As difficult as all of this may seem, both the Arpin and Schneider families are feeling very blessed to have all our children still with us and all moving toward complete recoveries. Given the severity of the impact and the damage the vehicle sustained, we believe we have seen a miracle of God\u2019s protection of our kids.Maureen and I have never experienced God\u2019s love and mercy more profoundly than through this time. Our God is an awesome God and we are so thankful.
So back to the THANK YOUs. Through this whole time we have been so blessed by such an outpouring of love from so many people, some of whom we have never even met. So many have stepped forward to provide meals, cards and letters of support, running errands and helping with everyday housecleaning, gifts for our kids and tremendous spiritual support. For all of our dear friends who kept vigil with each of our kids as Alan stayed at Overlake with Michaela and I ran from kid to kid at different parts of Harborview. The Staff at Harborview asked several times \u201cjust how big is this family of yours?\u201d My quick response was , \u201cjust as big as the Catholic church.\u201d It was an amazing outpouring and example of the community of the body of Christ that we are so honored to be a part of. And quite a witness to the people at Harborview.
We have received so many Mass cards and have been told of Masses being offered all over, including in Rome. The online prayer vigil that was set up for our family, The Rosary vigils offered at Holy Family and St. Monica\u2019s were so appreciated and We continue to use the rosary meditations of the healing miracles of Our Lord that was put together by the angels at Holy Family parish in our family rosary.Thank you all so much.
A very special thank you to all the priests who came to the hospital to annoint and pray over the kids, and bring us Holy Communion; Fr. Rob of the Harborview chaplaincy staff, Fr. Raphael Mary, Fr. Jordan and Fr. Boniface from Blessed Sacrament and the Newman Center, Fr. Joseph and Deacon MIchael, from St. John Chrysostom, Fr. Nagel and Fr. Steve Szeman from Holy Family in KIrkland, Fr. Frank Schuster from Blessed Teresa, Fr. Dave Rogerson from St. Jude\u2019s and Fr. Ed White from St. Stephen\u2019s in Renton. Also, our favorite seminarian and former youth leader at Holy Family ,Cody Ross who was there to really help the older boys with their emotional healing\u2026\u2026
So we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts and we humbly ask for your continued prayers for all of the children. We offer our prayers of thanksgiving for the amazing , faith filled people Our Lord has placed in our lives. May God bless you all a hundredfold.
With all of our love and thanks through the prayer of our Holy Mother,
Alan and Maureen and all the Arpins<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThanks and praise be to God our Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ! <\/p>\n
Thanks for your prayers, folks!<\/p>\n