Happy New Year Everyone!,
Wow! Who could believe we are already into another new year? Time passes so quickly, doesn't it? Speaking of time passing...a lot of time has passed since I last updated you and soooooo much has happened in that time. I will do my best to update you on the most important things that have happened.
We first of all would like to thank each one of you for your continued prayers, your calls of encouragement and reminding us of your prayers, your love and support for us in this time of recovery. Without your prayers and positive thoughts heading our way we would not be able to stay strong and continue to heal at the rate of speed that we are experiencing! God Bless you all in your personal contributions toward us in thought, word, deed and prayers!
The last time we updated you we were anticipating a big cross country trip to accomplish some very important things for Don and I and it seemed like a huge amount of tasks, stops and encounters that needed to take place in a very short period of time, didn't it? Well, we are happy to announce that literally everything on our "to do list" for the trip was accomplished, thanks to your prayer support.
We had originally planned on leaving the morning of December 14th to start on the first leg of the over 4000 mile trip we had planned. Well, as most of you know, neither Don nor I are morning people and because of his sleepless nights mornings are even harder for us than ever before. Many nights Don struggles with sleeplessness and pain and doesn't even get to sleep very well until 4AM-6AM so he is just sleeping the best until 9AM or 10AM most days. So we talked about it and decided that if at all possible we would try to head out around noon on December 13th to give us an extra day to get to Tulsa which is 1105 miles from our doorstep here in Mesa, Arizona! Under normal conditions we could just make it in two very long days of pushing hard but since Don needs to get out of the vehicle about every hour and a half to stretch and walk a bit that was going to add some time to the trip. So we had that goal in mind and were anticipating getting a jump start on the trip.
Well since Don did not have a license anymore due to losing his wallet in the accident, my days were filled with running him from appointment to appointment and pharmacys on top of constantly having to massage his right foot and leg for sometimes up to 45 minutes at a time to help with the pain. I was trying to keep up with regular living with meals, dishes, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, yard work, Christmas decorating (remember Donnie putting up icicle lights outside?) and trying to get all the stuff from the Las Vegas ordeal put up (a whole U-Haul full), that I was not seeing any possible way we could leave at all, let alone a half a day early! Don was so uncomfortable and miserable most of the time that it was all I could do to try to help him get more comfortable with either essential oils, massages, drugs, food or whatever which left each day a little worse with the issue of not being organized or ready for the trip. My anxiety was starting to really climb when I would look around and it seemed as if there was more stuff to deal with instead of less!!! I wasn't getting adequate sleep and Don was having to wake me up in the nights to rub his feet. I was so exhausted that sometimes when he would ask me to rub his feet in bed I would start to move toward his feet so my head would be at his feet and his head at my feet, that I would literally fall asleep half way down the bed. Is that funny, or what? Don used to sit up and move his head to the bottom of the bed but he moved so slow that I thought it would be better if I moved instead of him. Well the first couple of nights that was ok but after that, I would drop off to sleep in the middle of the move. Who ever heard of that?! Well, Donnie would just go out on the couch and put his socks on and get the foot massager out and sit there for a long time having it massage his feet because I literally could not stay awake long enough to do it for him.
All of this was going on when all of a sudden just two days before we were wanting to leave Don had two of the worst days of pain and sleepless nights on the planet. He was probably the worst I had seen him since we returned home. Nothing at all would curb the pain and he could not sleep at all! I had a talk with him about the wisdom of taking this huge trip with me getting interupted sleep and him no sleep and the house in shambles and nothing packed. I told him that unless we see literally a miraculous turn around that it was impossible for us to take off on the 14th let alone by noon on the 13th. I am a person that cannot leave my house in anykind of a mess or dirty in any stretch of the word so this meant that if we were to be able to go at all I would need a host of helping angels to come and work with me on this impossible project! At 5AM on December 13th we sat knees to knees holding hands and prayed like we have never prayed before asking God to show us clearly what we were to do and for Him to send a host of helping angels and relief of Don's pain as well as miraculous restorative sleep and clarity as to what we were to do about the trip we had planned. We cried together and held each other as we relinquished our personal wills to do what God would see fit as best for us to do. Don cried out to God in the most pleading, childlike way for his help and deliverance from his pain and sleeplessness. He poured out his heart to God telling Him that his heart's desire was to see his parents and get to Tulsa to get his license and attend the JCT 25th Anniversary/Christmas Party. God wants us to be able to have our deepest hearts desire and Don was telling God what his hearts desire was. Don went to bed to get some sleep and I looked around thinking it was impossible for us to leave that day. I made a few phone calls to my sister Julie, my friends Sally and Dee and explained the situation and shared how hopeless it looked for our journey. I started working on the impossible tasks and by 7:30AM, just 2 1/2 hours after he layed down, Don came out of the bedroom and announced that he felt energized, rested and amazingly different with almost no pain! I was astonished. Well, we both put our best foot forward in getting the trashed house together and packed our suitcases. I even got everything in the house back in perfect order and only ran out of time to vacuum and mop the floors. We aimed at getting on the road by noon but it was 3:03PM when we drove out of the gate. This was truly a miracle in more ways than one!
We drove in driving rain and about 58 degrees which is freezing for Arizona. We got to Globe, Arizona and had Don get out to walk, potty and get a sandwich before heading across the "no-man's land" of the desert. We drove out of the rain by the time we hit the New Mexico border. We drove to Las Cruses, New Mexico and got there about 10PM for the night. The next day we got going about 10:30AM and made it to Clinton, Oklahoma just west of Oklahoma City after having a really sunny, dry beautiful day of driving. Don actually drove for about 3 hours of the trip too. (Sshhhhhhh, don't tell anyone because he didn't have his license back yet.) We had to get up early (6AM) to get off to see his friend Virgie before heading off to Tulsa. We had a nice but short visit with Virgie and he was so glad to see her for the first time in many years. She is 82 years old and lives in a senior living duplex area and is very happy there.
We rushed on to Tulsa and immediately went to Sam's Club to get a small gift for the JCT Trucking Office Staff and continued on to the office before everyone was finished working for the day. We arrived about 2:30PM and stayed until around 4:30PM. What an emotional time that was for Donnie!!!! He just cried and embrased so many of his friends and co-workers there at JCT. He cried as he embrased John Christner his long time friend and boss there at JCT Trucking. John and Don were able to sit down in John's office and talk business for over an hour. Don is really wanting to get back in a truck and get to work. He just has to realize that his body has to catch up with his mind. He'll probably surprise us all at how quickly he does get back to work. Don wants to stay here in Mesa, Arizona and drive more locally for JCT if that is possible. Time will tell. When we walked out of the JCT office Don said, "That really made my day, that is my family and it was so good to see them all."
On Friday, December 16th we got so many things done on our "to-do list" including getting Don's CDL license back, seeing his doctor there and many other things that we really felt good about everything. We also had a little "open house" at our hotel for people we knew in the area there were not going to be at the JCT 25th Anniversary/Christmas Party on Saturday. Our open house was from 4PM - 8PM but ended up being until 10PM. Many people came and enjoyed some snacks and treats with us there in the hotel lobby. It was so great to see everyone! Our salesman, Lance Collins from MHC Kenworth where we bought our last truck came and the shop foreman from MHC Kenworth, Jessie came and brought a beautiful suede throw with fleece lining and the MHC Kenworth logo on it as a gift. What a surprise that was! It was so good to see them and of course, I had to take pictures! That night was so good for Don to see all the friends and prayer warriors that have prayed us through all of this. Many tears were shed and the love we both felt from everyone was so amazing!
Saturday we had to go to our camper and get several things out of it including most of Don's clothes and a few other things. It had already been winterized for us by the awesome campground owners, Chad and Nancy Cline. They have been more than wonderful to us with helping us with the camper and keeping our pickup truck at their private home while we are gone. God has truly blessed us with that whole situation. We just love the Warrior RV Park there in Tulsa and Chad and Nancy have been such great friends and angels to us, we could never thank them enough!
That night we headed off to the JCT Trucking Anniversary/Christmas Party. Our insurance agent from Great West Casualty, Brenda Hood and her husband Mark drove down from Kansas City, Missouri to attend the party with us. We had never met Brenda in person before but she has been an angel, arm of God and a true friend to us through all of this! She has gone way beyond the call of duty in many areas and we could never thank her enough for going beyond the call of duty on our behalf. It was truly a blessing to meet her in person! She has the cutest Yorkie named "Molly" that she brought with her. The dog lover in both of us was reignighted for sure!
Clifton and Donna Biggs of northern Oklahoma drove down to attend the JCT event as well. If you remember, Clifton is David Terry's double cousin (the driver of the truck when the accident happened).
It was great to see them again too. The JCT party was totally awesome! There were over 500 people there at the convention center in Tulsa and one of the highlights was a new Freightliner Tractor with a Utility Trailer were in the dining room as gifts to John Christner for his 25th Anniversary in business. They had a photographer there to take pictures of those that chose to go up the staircase they had at both sides of the tractor and sit in the drivers seat. This was the first time Don was able to get into a tractor again. It felt so good to him and he was so happy. The whole night was totally awesome and it was great for me to get to know more about John Christner from over the years. They had a great program with many competitor's owners on recording sharing the love they have for John Christner and the loving, supportive competition they have between themselves. The integrity, stewardship and honor that was given to John that night was a great testimony of his character and good, honest and giving heart in all that he does. He is truly a man of his word! It is no wonder he has been so blessed and has been so successful. God has honored him for his integrity! Thank you, John!
Early Sunday morning we headed to Mt. Vernon, Illinois to stay the night before heading to Don's parent's in Iuka, Illinois. Early Monday morning (in the rain) we headed to Mom and Dad's house. That was another tearful reunion! Don was so happy to see his parents!!! This was a MUST DO on our to-do list for the trip. I knew about this next surprise but had not said anything to you the readers or to Don about it. That evening Don's family and extended family had put together a surprise dinner for Donnie. His parent's and I talked about how we were going to get Donnie to go to Salem that night and they said they would just say they wanted to take us out to dinner. It worked like a charm! We got to Salem and turned right at this one corner. Don was raised in this town and knew there weren't any restaurants in this area but I just kept admiring the christmas lights all around to distract him. Then we made another turn and he leaned over to me and asked, "where are we going?". I replied, "I have no idea". I really didn't because I had never been there before and didn't know, right?! Well we took a couple wrong turns evidentally but eventually ended up at this place his cousin works. Don looked in the front window from the truck and saw his cousin's husband, Floyd sitting there and he said, "That's Floyd!!". He immediately burst into tears because he realized that this was a surprise for him! His family reunion had taken place on October 11th during the time Don was in the hospital which was very hard for him. He is the MC of the event and of course couldn't be there. So this was just like having the family reunion all over again. This time there was a piano there so I was able to get out some of my stress, tension and other emotions as I played the piano all night. I started out playing Christmas Carols and many family members joined in singing. It was good background music for the night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! This whole evening totally made Donnie's Christmas! He was so happy that words could not express it!
The next morning we returned to Mom and Dad's and spent some time with them and left about 1PM to head to Lexington. It was raining (of course) so we drove all the way to the Kentucky state line before driving out of the rain. We arrived at our condo about 8:15PM. Our good friends, Frank and Sally Doub drove down from the Indianapolis area to see us and just got to their hotel about an hour before we got home. They were staying only about 3 miles from our house so we invited them over to visit. It was so nice and warm that we actually stayed out on our deck and visited without coats until almost midnight! It was 57 degrees when we came in. We had to have a little blanket thrown around our shoulders but it was not windy and very still and it felt very good! We had to get up early so we could get the oil changed in our van and have breakfast with our great friends, Stan and Phyllis Briggs. That was a wonderful time too! Then we had our good friends Sally and Frank Doub and Bob and Dee Edwards drive down from Indianapolis, Indiana to celebrate Dee's birthday which was actually on the 21st which was today's date so we had a great time together. We all met at Sahara's Mediterranian Restaurant and had some wonderful food and then came back to our condo for a wonderful coconut birthday cake and gifts. Bob didn't like coconut so luckily I had some red velvet mini cupcakes for him that we brought with us. The cake was wonderful! The time passed very quickly and Bob and Dee had to leave to drive back to Indy, yes here and back plus a party all in one day. They are awesome people. Frank and Sally stayed another night in the hotel and then took off the next morning. Again, we had to sleep fast with so much to do the next day. I had a much needed hair appointment with Tiny, my hairdresser and Donnie had to get his glasses adjusted at the same time. We had a bunch of little things that had to be done while we were there in Lexington and we got them all done just in time to set up for our open house for people to come see us. It was from 6-8:30PM and we had a blast. The house was full of wonderful people and they came when they could and left as they needed to. I asked Tina Coons to bring her adorable 1 year old minature Dachshund "Daisy" with her and she followed through! She is the cutest ever Dachshund and she loves "Aunt Carol"!!!!! I just loved hugging and kissing on her and she was the star of the show. She was so well behaved and the perfect little pup!!! That was a real highlight for The Queen, for sure!
The last guests left about 9:30PM and we were bushed!!!! I mean bushed beyond bushed! The house was trashed and I just didn't have any more strength to do anything about it so we went to bed without doing a thing! I told Donnie that it was totally and completely impossible for us to leave by noon the next day which was our plan. We had to get the house put back together and fixed up from my sister Julie being there, bathrooms cleaned from the party, 4 loads of laundry to do and the stuff we brought to put back there and anything that was undone from my fast exodus from when I got the call about Donnie's accident back on September 17th! Whew! All this on top of trying to get the place in a position of being able to have an appraiser come in and possibly get it shown for prospective buyers if the market is good enough for that. We also had to gather all of our tax information and papers so we could do our taxes in January! Well, The Queen has her standards and they are very high so I dug into the work very early in the morning. Don was not feeling well at all so I had to do everything except load the van by myself. I also had to go to the bank to speak with our personal banker about address changes, getting a debit card for Donnie on our personal account, etc. I had to get the van gassed up and ready for the trip to Mississippi. By the time I got everything done and got the condo shut down for the Winter and everything packed we finally pulled out of the driveway at 7:02PM!!!! Thirteen hours after I started working on the mess. Oh my Gosh! Well, at least everything was done except for vacuuming which I could have someone do for me, if needed. I was feeling pretty good but we had an 11 hour trip to my sister Ruthie's house. Well, we only got a little over 2 hours away and Donnie spoke up saying that his pain was getting real bad and he needed to stop for the night. Well, I checked the GPS for a Hampton Inn and we stopped there for the night. It was in Franklin, Kentucky. Yes, we didn't even make it out of the state. I got the big oil kit out of the van and Donnie's massage equipment in to the hotel room and went to work on him. He was feeling a head cold coming on and was all stuffed up and ached all over. He was pretty miserable so I headed to the truck stop across the way to get him some daytime and nighttime cold medicine so he could get some sleep. He did sleep a little that night and felt a little better in the morning. We got going about 9AM Central Time and arrived at Ruthie's just as it was getting dark about 4:30PM or so. Ruthie had an awesome chicken noodle soup dinner ready for us to sit down to and believe me...it tasted sooooooo good! It is always so relaxing and restful at Ruthie's house! She insists on us getting our rest. We got up Sunday morning which was also Christmas morning and headed to church with Ruthie and Doug. What a wonderful time that was! The service, music and people were awesome! Donnie cried as he was so overwhelmed with love from all of the people that came up and hugged and greeted him letting him know they had been praying for him and continue to pray from him. Just the final touch and necessary stop on this awesome trip. Donnie wanted so badly to meet the people in the Petal/Harvey Baptist Church that had not only supported us in prayer but in financial gifts and physical gifts as well. God is so good!
The day after Christmas Donnie was not feeling very good. He hadn't slept much the night before and just ached all over. It was raining and miserable outside and we sat around relaxing until early afternoon. Then we decided to take a drive down to the gulf to Gulfport, Mississippi and found a great seafood restaruant on the beach that Donnie really enjoyed. Donnie was pretty sleepy so on the way down and back he dozed off for most of the trip.
Tuesday it was much better weather wise and Donnie felt a little better. So he and Doug took off to look at tractors because Doug was going to be getting one to work in the yard with. Ruthie and I went separately to town and did a little shopping and errands while the guys had some guy time doing guy stuff. We relaxed the rest of that evening and started getting our things packed and ready for the trip back to Arizona.
We got on the road about noon on Wednesday and drove until about 11PM stopping frequently along the way until we reached Weatherford, Texas just west of Dallas. We were back on the road by 11AM and made it back to Las Cruces, New Mexico and stayed at the same place we stayed on the first night of our trip. We were back on the road by 10AM on Friday, December 30th and made it home to Mesa, Arizona by 4:30PM where it was 73 degrees and perfect sun!!!! Wow did that feel good! Since we left home at 3:03PM on December 13th we drove 4365 miles! Now that is a marathon! God was good, we got everything on our to-do list accomplished and now we can start rehabilitating Donnie back to strength, flexibility and health. Donnie noticed that he is a little weaker than when we left because of not being able to do his regular exercises.
New Year's Eve we attended my favorite pianist/psalmist's concert at a church in Scottsdale, Arizona as our evening out. It started at 7PM and we were home just after 10PM. His name is Marty Goetz and he was so annointed and amazing that night that we felt like we had a little taste of heaven! If you have never heard him, check him out online and see him in concert in your area. The concerts are free and it is absolutely awesome!
January 3rd Donnie had two doctor's appointments; one at the Desert Pain Institute in the morning and the other with the Neurologist for a Nerve Study in the afternoon. Well, he did not sleep at all the night before so he was worn out before we even left the house. We had to get up very early to get to our early appointment at the pain institute. The determination was to add a new pain reliever just at night so he could sleep better, hopefully. Also, the doctor said that the MRI results showed the pinched nerve in the SI joint and he is now scheduled for a cortizone shot this Friday. The nerve study showed another pinched nerve in Donnie's right knee that is causing his right toes to be numb. So now we have to schedule another MRI for his right knee. It gets to be very draining and endless but we keep going! Please keep praying.
Last night Donnie was so sore and tired that I just put him on the massage table and massaged many, many essential oils, massage oils and massage lotions into every inch of his body and worked out the soreness. He got up and said, "I feel tremendously better and energized." Well he stayed up for about another hour and then when he hit the pillow he slept very well until 5AM! This is awesome for him! He got up for a little while and went back to sleep from 7:30AM - 9:30AM, thank you Jesus!!!! Hopefully today will be a better day! The sun is high in the sky and it is supposed to be in the high 70's. We have so much work to do in the house and out in the sheds but at least Donnie feels like helping with that so it will go faster.
We love you all and thank you for your prayers and love!,
Don and Carol Schirr
