"Are those sirens for you??"

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, so all our congregation was at shul and getting ready to study the book of Jonah when we got the call...then heard the sirens. The boys, my Alex and Padawan's Jacob had gone for a bike ride; something they do regularly around our shul. Unfortunately, this time something went terribly wrong and they crashed.

Here's a summary of what happened...I sent this message to my friend Ann earlier and they are praying for swift recovery for Jacob. Alex is a tough guy, but didn't hit as hard as Jacob...

You have probably heard by now that the boys (my Alex and Lisa's Jacob) were biking down a curved hill by shul, lost control and careened into the guard rail, flipping over. Alex is OK, surprisingly after going airborne and doing a rather extreme face plant. Jacob landed harder and has a 1% compression spine fracture in the middle of his back (at the base of his ribs) that is going to take some time to heal.

It was rather traumatic, since it was at the beginning of the Jonah study yesterday, and my poor Alex, who was still conscious after the crash (Jacob was not for several minutes) could not get several of us on the cell phone, and finally got ahold of Kit Kroker. Thankfully a Mom driving by stopped and asked if they needed help and then called 911. By the time Alex got me on the phone, I was listening to sirens screaming past the shul...when he said they were for him, I was on full panic, as you can imagine.

We went to the scene, Jacob was transported to the hospital and we all followed and spent the rest of Yom Kippur in the ER. But, all's well that ends well - it could have been tragic. You should see Jacob's helmet :-(

So, now we just see how sore they are, eh? I'm keepin' the ibuprofen handy for Alex, as he is gonna be very sore. I'm concerned about Jacob, as he has a pretty low pain tolerance...he's gonna hurt, for sure.

Baruch HaShem - Praise the LORD! It could have been sooooo much worse; we could have lost the boys in the time it took for them to wipe out. I am so thankful for the protection of our Master and for the skilled and compassionate paramedics and medical staff at the hospital - what would we do without them? I want to thank our LORD for our friend Al Authorlee, who is an awesome nurse and came with us to the scene and then stayed with us at the hospital to help mediate and facilitate information flow - much needed in an ER.

Pray for Padawan, Lisa, this has hit her hard - will you? Pray for a swift recovery for Jacob, as well.

All's well that ends well, I always say. Here's pics of Jacob and Alex at our recent day spent on Rainier - I'm so thankful that they are not the last photos we have of these two fantastic young men.

Alex Michael

Jacob Aaron