A funny thing happened...

...on the way to the hot springs yesterday. Scotty and I had planned an early anniversary trip with 3 other couples to camp out at a nearby (2 1/2 hours from town) hot spring. Upon arriving at the altiplano, the flat stretch of land about 1,000 ft. above where we live, we found that the major road running between La Paz and several other large cities had been closed off for a car race. We were somewhat surprised but mostly annoyed that they chose to close off this road, being the only one out of town in that direction. Well, like good 4x4 owners, we decided to search the backroads instead of accept a failed trip. The 8 of us, in our Landcruiser and a friends Patrol, excitedly took off into the fields to test out the ruggedness of our vehicles (and our bodies) on the rough dirt "roads". We wound our way through little villages and dry river beds until we found the correct road that led us to the springs. We stopped for a picnic and then took down the 3 bikes we had strapped on top to do the rest of the trip on bike, 3 at a time taking turns while the others drove. When it came to be my turn, I anxiously followed behind Scotty and Jason, not loving the fast, jarring feeling that came with very rocky, downhill paths. I had brakes on all the way, but still managed to enjoy the valleys below and mountains all around. Jason took off on a side trail and later met up with me, both of us still behind Scotty, whose dust trail I had seen quite a bit ahead of us. As we rounded one corner together, we saw Scotty standing still with his arms hanging at his sides, his head drooped (like Napoleon Dynamite), and his bike lying on the ground. My general sense was that something was not right, but it wasn't until we got closer that we noticed the bad cuts and scrapes and more blood that I was comfortable with seeing on my husband. I quickly removed his helmet to make sure there was nothing major on his head and we continued trying to ask him what had happened. After a minute he informed us that he thought he needed to sit down and we assisted him to the car where he sat in a daze. By this time, everyone was crowded around and trying to figure out what went wrong. Scotty was a complete mess and I wasn't totally OK with continuing on our journey, being so close to the end, but he encouraged us to press on, he'd be fine. As soon as I had him lying down in the back seat, ready to resume the trip, he casually mentioned that he couldn't remember anything that had happened that day. I called over my nurse friend, Sara, informed her that he had no memory, and she made a quick and good decision for us to immediately go back to La Paz. For the next couple of hours, Scotty continually asked "what happend?" "how long was I out?" and kept noticing with surprise, "my shoulder hurts". I patiently answered about 20 times that he had fallen off his bike, we didn't know how long he was out, and we would get him looked at soon. He endured a very bumpy, 2 hour long ride back into town without complaining. Slowly, as we continued to ask questions, he started to remember bits and pieces of the morning. By the time we got him to the hospital, he was ashen and in a considerable amount of pain and shock. He was x-rayed and found to have a very broken collarbone, almost a compound fracture, that needed surgery immediately. The poor guy didn't look so good and had to put up with a few more x-rays and a challenging shower before he was allowed his own bed and a few hours rest before the surgery. Friends came by and sat with me during the 3 hours he was being worked on, coming out just before 11pm that night, tired but taken care off. Today has consisted of many visitors, snoozing, eating, recapping the exciting events of yesterday, and prayers of thanks that things weren't any worse. The helmet he was wearing was cracked in 4 places, giving me a better picture of how hard he hit the ground and how fantastic it was that he had head protection. Tomorrow is our 2nd anniversary and we are celebrating our marriage and the grace God has given us that we are both well and alive together. It's kinda a bummer that he'll be in the hospital until Tuesday, but I've got a few ideas to make the day special. How grateful I am to the Lord for a godly husband who is patient and trusting when hard times come.