Six months

Six months ago, it was a Sunday morning. My alarm went off telling me it was time to get up and get ready for church. I got up, fixed Corey’s breakfast and was starting to fix my own when my cell phone rang. It wasn’t unusual for Justin to call around that time because of the time difference between Afghanistan and Georgia, and it wasn’t unusual for him to call from a random international number that I didn’t recognize. I answered the phone, and sure enough, it was Justin. He told me he has some bad news for me. For him, bad news could mean anything from the commemorative rifle order not going through to getting orders that we would have to move somewhere that I didn’t want to live. Then he told me that he’s been in an explosion and had lost both legs above the ankle. My first response was “are you serious?” You see, Justin has a weird sense of humor sometimes and has joked for years about getting springy legs like the guy in the Olympics, so I thought he was joking with me. Then he said “yes, I’m serious” and I could hear the pain in his voice and realized it wasn’t a joke. It took me a minute, but I pulled myself together and reminded myself that at least he was alive and it could have been a lot worse. He told me he wanted Pastor Lou’s number (the pastor of the church we grew up in and still consider home) and we talked for a few minutes before he said he needed to call his parents and handed me off to the nurse to answer any questions I had. I was so thankful he had been coherent enough to call me himself so I could hear his voice and know he was alive. I was also thankful that he called his parents. That was one phone call that I didn’t want to make, and I know they would rather hear it from him so that they could hear his voice too. The nurse explained to me a little more of what had happened and medically what would be happening next. At this point I had a million things running through my head. My world got turned upside down, and I was struggling to figure out which way was up.

My first call was to talk to my parents. Given the time of day on a Sunday, I knew they were in choir at church. I tried my mom’s cell phone first – no answer. It was in her purse in the pew and she was in the choir loft. I tried several other numbers with no answer. Finally I tried my dad’s cell phone. A lot of times he leaves it at home on Sundays, so I knew it would be hit or miss as to whether he’d answer it either. Thankfully he had it on him and was able to pass it off to mom and they both slipped out of the choir loft. I told them what had happened, and even though they had just gotten back the day before from another trip, they said they’d be on their way as soon as they got home and threw their clothes back in the suitcases. They let a few people at Faith know what happened so they could be praying. One of them has a daughter who goes to our church in Georgia, so she passed it on and then our church in Georgia was praying too.

My next call was to my friend, Katie. She and her husband were two of the first people I met in Georgia after Justin and I got married. Neil and Justin deployed together for their first deployment and have been close friends since then. Katie and I became great friends from the first time we met practically and the four of us have kept in touch and finally we back together in the same duty station after we returned from Germany.  I told her what happened and she said they’d be over right away. I started to tell her that if I didn’t answer the door right away, to let themselves in, but then realized she’d already hung up the phone. They made it to my house in record time and stayed until right before my parents arrived. We laughed together, and we cried together. Katie helped me clean up the house while I was answering calls, emails, and Facebook messages. Neil was on the rear detachment, so he was making calls trying to find out more information for me.

After I got off the phone with Katie and called Justin’s parents, I went back out to Corey. He’s usually very sensitive to my emotions and saw that I’d been crying. He asked what made me cry. I told him that his daddy got hurt and that the bad guys had taken his legs. He handled it better than I did and gave me a big hug. He was excited that Mimi and Papa were coming to see us later that day and that Neil and Katie were on the way over.

Throughout the rest of the day, it was a blur of phone calls and sitting around waiting for more information. Justin was able to call again later in the day and they must have upped the dosage of pain meds because his pain was more under control and he was joking around. He asked to talk to Neil and joked with him about beating him in a PT test once he gets his springy legs. I felt a lot better after that call because he sounded so much better. One of the other phone calls was from one of the ladies whose husband was also deployed and saw Justin after he was injured. He told his wife that Justin was an inspiration. When she told me this, I nearly started laughing. Before he got hurt, nobody had ever used the word “inspiration” to describe him. He laughed when I told him…though I had to tell him a couple times before he was coherent enough to remember it. There’s a lot that he doesn’t remember from those first few weeks. Not long before my parents arrived, Pastor Steve from our church in GA came over to the house to talk to me and pray with me. While he was there, my parents arrived and were slightly confused when they saw two nearly identical trucks in the driveway.

The majority of that week was spent waiting for information. The Army information line was great at keeping us informed. While Justin was still in Afghanistan, he received his Purple Heart. I was emailed pictures from when he received it and that was the first I had seen of him since he was hurt. I had heard his voice, but what a relief to see him alive! When Justin was transferred to Germany, his platoon sergeant from when we were stationed in Vilseck was at the hospital waiting for him when his plane landed. Usually I hate that I have friends spread out so far because I can’t see them very often/ever, but on that day, I was thankful that we still have friends in Germany who could be with Justin even though I couldn’t. The next day, another friend (who had deployed with Justin in his first deployment, was a groomsman in our wedding, and later was stationed in Vilseck) visited Justin. I’m so thankful that these two drove about three hours each way to spend some time with him. I felt better that he wasn’t alone over there. I was also able to call Justin while he was in Germany. I could call the Army information line 24 hours a day and they could patch me through to the hospital in Germany. I woke Justin up nearly every time (though in my defense, he did sleep a lot due to meds…I was careful to take into account the time difference before calling) and he joked that I was getting him back for all the times he woke me up during his deployments.

While we were waiting to hear that Justin would be transported back to the States, I was overwhelmed at the outpouring of love from family, friends, our churches in Florida and Georgia, and our neighbors. I know I missed responding to many of the messages people sent me, but I read them all and appreciated them all. We are truly blessed by so many people who care about us and have been encouraging us and praying for us these past six months.

Less than a week after he was injured, they were transferring him to Walter Reed. Usually things don’t move that fast from what I was told, but he was strong and stable enough for transport. On June 14th, they loaded him on a plane and booked my flight. We landed in the D.C. area around the same time and that’s where we’ve been for the majority of the past six months.

Right now we’re still waiting for Justin’s left leg to finish healing. Sometimes it gets discouraging seeing so little progress with it. Please pray that it will heal up and Justin can get things got with a prosthetic after Christmas. The right leg is doing great! He’s working closely with his physical therapist and the prosthetics people to get it to fit comfortably. He’s been able to wear it out and about and is getting used to having it. In PT, he’s been walking on it and doing exercises with it. It’s been awesome to see the progress he’s making with just one leg. So far, they’ve been able to mold the leg socket in such a way that it doesn’t aggravate the weird bone growth (H.O. – I mentioned it previously). We’ hoping and praying that it will continue to work out so that he doesn’t need additional surgery to remove it. He’s tired of surgeries and being in the hospital and who could blame him.

Thank you all for all your love and support these past six months! It means the world to me. Different ones have called, let me vent, helped out with Corey, sent cards and notes on Facebook, brought meals when we’re in town, and prayed continuously for us. We are blessed.