Where my heart and head have been...

This is a picture of a person who's been on my mind a lot this past week. As of last Friday, he's one of the luckiest people I know, though the picture might suggest otherwise. Every year, my cousin Jesse goes to Madeline Island with some friends. This year's activities included taking some mopeds for a spin. If you'd describe him as looking like he got in a fight with a car....and the car won...you'd be right. While enjoying a ride and minding his own business, Jesse got in a pretty bad collision.

While I didn't learn about any of this until the next day, the prognosis on Saturday didn't seem that great. Having had a friend in the ICU for a far too similar situation (and the sad reality of that friend never leaving ICU) put my brain into overdrive, so I did the only productive thing that I could think to do....start soliciting prayers for Jesse. Unless you were at my wedding, and you were one of the more outgoing people there, you have probably never met Jesse, but there were and are countless people praying for him...thank you.

A couple days ago, I got to chat with Jesse for a while on Facebook. As impersonal as Facebook chat (or any online messenger) can be, it was the first time that I've been literally overwhelmed with emotion just to be "talking" to someone. My husband asked me, when I told him that I cried, why. I said...I'm just so happy that Jesse is alive. After losing someone who, while I considered him a good friend, wasn't nearly as much a part of my life as Jesse, this one hit even more close to home. Just the fact that he was home, and awake, and on Facebook...all those things are a HUGE blessing. I was trying to, no pun intended, put all the pieces together, and all I can credit for what seems like a miraculous outcome is the grace of God and the prayers of all of you.

Jesse is having surgery on monday. Having one of my good friends from college going through far too similar of an operation about five years ago, but also knowing how great God was to her through all of that, I have faith that God will do the same for him. Because I'm not so good at praying sometimes, period, and knowing that Jesse could definitely use more prayer than I am able to offer up, I'm again asking for your prayers. Pray for him, that he would heal quickly. Pray for his doctors, that their hands may be guided, that they get plenty of sleep Sunday night, and that they are able to put him back together as flawlessly as possible. Pray for Jesse's parents, as he's their only child, and all this hospital stuff is scary...especially when this is one of their only experiences with it (and he's only about a year and a half younger than me).

We have all learned a lot about love through this experience. A lot. Thank you so much for all your love, support, friendship, and most of all, prayer. You are all great.

-Erin