AnnMarie won a trip to Germany with her company, SAP and Matt tagged along. Three hours into their first full day of touring Heidelberg Matt broke his ankle - on his birthday none the less.
He has spent the past 10 days in University of Heidelberg Hospital with his sweet wife by his bedside every hour she is allowed to be.
At first it seemed like a nightmare to all of us, especially them. Reality sunk in that this was going to be a long stay. Their two beautiful and easy girls are at home with a full-time nanny as well as AnnMarie's mom taking the night shift. Matt and AnnMarie miss them so terribly.
AnnMarie wrote this on facebook about how it happened:
"It was a pretty large playground slide, built into a hill with 2 turns. What made it so dangerous, was 1) Matt sat on his jacket on the metal and flew so fast and 2) there was a large hole at the bottom, and his foot hit where the ground sloped up."
Matt broke his ankle in 3 places. It took 2 surgeries to fix it up. After the first surgery they had to wait for the swelling to go down. It took 5 full days for that to happen. He is now on the road to recovery and they are taking one day at a time. They don't have the go-ahead to get on a plane any time soon, but they are focusing on each day and Matt getting stronger.
This has been a really crazy week and a half for me. I've never prayed so often throughout the day, checked my email and Instagram so frequently, and been so up and down emotionally over circumstances. God was so incredibly faithful on Thursday when I was at my end; here's the story...
Wednesday came and was going and Matt'e swelling wasn't down enough to have the 2nd surgery. AnnMarie asked us to pray for a miracle. I was praying and praying and I know lots of other people were too. I was so frustrated with God and disappointed to wake up Thursday morning to still no progress with the swelling. At that point I was at the end of my rope. I had no more ability to pray and I was frustrated that God wasn't healing my brother.
I went to my friend Susie's that morning for a play date. I updated her on the story and told her how Dave and I looked into mailing a package (too expensive) and I even looked into airfare (way, way too expensive). These were her next words, "We have a German students staying with us and he's leaving this afternoon to go back home."
What!?!?!?! Are you seriously kidding me! What are the odds? Too high to contribute them to anything other than God Almighty showing his care and intervening in the situation.
I asked Matt & AnnMarie via texting and email what they needed. A local church was supplying them with great food, praise God for the body of Christ! So I wrote Matt a card, Alex drew him a picture and I grabbed two books from Susie's extensive library. Stephan (the German student) mailed the package Friday when he got back to Germany and Matt received it Saturday evening!!!!
Not only that, but Susie prayed for Matt and AnnMarie that morning as we hung out. When I got home that afternoon, I got an email that his surgery was scheduled for the next day (Friday)! Wow, God showed up big time - at least on my end and from my perspective.
They still need a lot of prayer for patience and perseverance. Not only that but this recovery will be a long, long road - at least 4-5 months.
I cannot wait to meet them at the airport. I don't care what time of day or night it is, I want to be there! It will be the second best reunion ever! (The first being when Dave came home from a 10 month stay in China while we were dating and engaged.)
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