A Memorial Day that will not be forgotten

I haven't kept up with my blogging so for the next week or so I will be doing a little catch up.

This one dates back to Memorial Day. We were invited by Dave's brother to go out to the desert and ride their quads. Miranda and Alek went out for a ride on the small quad and Shammah took Isabel on the big one. All was going great in camp until Shammah came peeling back into camp frantic that Miranda and Alek had ran into a jumping cactus and had cactus ALLLL over them. (I still get a lump in my throat thinking about it). Riley immediately ran to the trail head. Dave and I jumped into our van and headed down the trail. John was ahead of us on the big quad. I will NEVER forget what I saw when we reached them. The look on their sweet little faces are still painfully etched into my memory. They had jumping cactus from head to toe. John grabbed some rocks and started taking off the cactus as quickly as he could. I don't know what we would have done without his quick removal. I could see that Miranda had the worst of it so I went to try to comfort her. Riley was off lovingly helping Alek. Miranda was so frantic I realized that she needed a priesthood blessing to calm her down so that she could relax a little. Dave and John gave her a priesthood blessing and she relaxed immediately. She cried out a little when we pulled out some big ones but she was really brave after that. Alek was very calm until they got to his calves. Then he started to get frantic and I realized that he now needed a blessing as well. After Dave and John gave him his blessing he was very calm and was able to stay composed while we picked out the thorns from his body. It took me over 2 hours to get all the thorns out of Miranda and over an hour for Shammah to get them all out of Alek. Right after it happened their Aunt Shammah tried to help them as much as she could but they were so covered that she knew she needed to leave for help. A couple of weeks later she was still pulling out cactus from her thumbs and fingers. She and John showed so much love and compassion to them, it is nice to have family so close by.

BTW: We are still finding thorns as they work themselves to the surface of the skin.

Here are some pics.

These first four pictures are of Alek. His are not as graphic as Miranda's however his pain was just as real.

Here are pictures of Miranda's wounds.

When we first started trying to help them there was several times when I had to turn my head to try to choke back my own emotions. It was so difficult to see them in so much pain. The priesthood blessing that they were given was a powerful blessing of comfort to them as well as myself. I felt a strong feeling of peace wash over me as they each received their blessing. I am thankful that the Lord has given his children the priesthood as a tool to heal and comfort us. I know that it is a real and powerful blessing to us.

After we got all the thorns out I took them back to the crash sight and took some pictures. BTW Alek is fake crying in these pictures.

Triumphing over tragedy!!!