Dallin is home

Again, thanks to everyone for all your posts, texts, emails and any other form of social media. Even a few phone calls! Welcome to the modern world! We wish we could answer everyone individually, but a mass posting will have to do for now.
Anyway, there's not too much to report now. As you can see, Dallin is home with his brothers and sisters now and doing well. We all had a GREAT Christmas morning and have had a lot of fun playing. For those who don't know, Dallin came home the afternoon of the 23rd and has been doing better each day, although his recovery never as fast as we want. Thanks again for all your help, concern and support. May the Lord bless you this Christmas season for your selflessness.

Update on Dallin

We continue to be overwhelmed with an outpouring of love and concern from all of you. It's difficult to keep in touch with everyone, so please accept our apologies for the lack of personal contact as our primary attention continues to be with Dallin. That said, we do feel we owe you at least an update, so here you go:
Dallin is in good spirits, for the most part. He was moved from ICU to a regular room yesterday and has started physical therapy, which consists primarily of small movements to his legs and even getting into and back out of a wheelchair several times now. It's all very painful and he is enduring it as well as a 10-year-old could do. We expect him to be home for Christmas but the likelihood of going up to Utah is getting pretty slim now.
The latest news from this morning is that they found from a recent X-Ray another break in his right arm. You can see in the photo that he's pretty uncomfortable, with two casts. We tell him it will make a good story, but the only story he's interested right now ends in "happily ever after." Today, some firefighters came down to the hospital to visit the children and it lifted his spirits.
I've gotten a lot of questions as to whether or not it would be appropriate to call and/or visit. Please feel free either way. Our only request is that if he's sleeping, let him rest. And not even the nurses know when that kicks in. My last two mornings of visiting him have been staring at the outsides of his eyelids for an hour. But you may get lucky. It's just that darn medication. It makes him drowsy. If he's not asleep, he's certainly alert enough to have visitors and would welcome the attention. He's at St. Joe's Hospital on the 5th floor, room #27. Just up the Camelback elevator and straight down the blue hallway.
But all in all, he is recovering nicely. He'll spend a couple of months in a wheelchair once we get him home, so that will be another challenge, but we're just grateful for all the faith, concern and prayers that have gotten him this far. We have no doubt that he will have a full 100% recovery and that this experience will serve to make him a stronger person in the end. I know it has strengthened our faith.
Mikayla and Jaris are both home and recovering nicely.
Lindy and I wish all of you the best Christmas season possible. Please hug your little ones a little longer than you normally would. Appreciate the blessings you have and let the true spirit of Christmas permeate in your hearts and spill over to those around you.

Matt and Lindy

The accident

The Lord works in mysterious ways. We've truly been blessed to know how many friends we have. It's funny how you really get to know them through a trial like this. They come from everywhere and offer to make dinner, watch kids and even just be there for a comfort.

For those who may not know the full story yet, last night around 8:30, Mikayla and Dallin were riding back from the school Christmas concert with their Aunt Jaris. She was driving through an intersection at about 50MPH when a 16-year-old boy in a truck from the opposite direction thought he had enough time to make a left turn in front of them. He misjudged and the two vehicles collided, head on. Dallin, in the front seat suffered the greatest injuries.

I got the call back at home and immediately jumped in the car to run down there. Pulling up, all I could see was policemen, fire trucks, flashing lights and a long line of vehicles in either direction. My heart sank. I parked illegally and ran to see what I could. Dallin had already been hauled off and Mikayla and Jaris were being bandaged up. I comforted them as best I could and called Lindy, who had stayed behind with Spencer to help clean up. She met me just as they were leaving and she jumped in the ambulance with Mikayla and Jaris. I followed close behind.

We arrived at St. Joe's Hospital in downtown Phoenix at about 9:30, by my best guess. I didn't really pay much attention to the time. Mikayla and Jaris were taken to different areas of the hospital. Both were considerably hurt, but everyone's biggest concern was with Dallin. All we knew was that he was being looked at and that he would need surgery soon. But we weren't allowed to see him yet. In spite of her injuries, Jaris' only concern was with Mikayla and Dallin. All three got a cat scan and a series of X-Rays to determine the full extent of the damage. Mikayla was badly bruised and had some burns from the seatbelt across her right shoulder/chest. Her collar bone was broken and she had bruises on both her ankles from the seat in front of her. Both Mikayla and Jaris were hurt, physically and emotionally yet we knew they would be OK. Still we were anxious to see our little boy. To comfort him and tell him everything would be fine, even though we didn't know.

After what seemed to be an eternity, we got called in by the orthopedic surgeon for a meeting. He assured us that Dallin would be OK, but that the recovery would be a process and somewhat of a struggle. He broke his left forearm, both bones and his right femur, just below the hip. He also tore open a large part of his forehead. Around 2am, a plastic surgeon worked on his forehead while the orthopedic surgeon put some rods and screws in his leg. The arm would have to wait to allow the little guy a chance to regain some strength. His arm surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 7am. A year from now he'll have to go back in to get the metal parts removed.

As of now, Mikayla is home and doing well. She's in good spirits but still sore and tender. Jaris suffered a nice-sized gash below her knee that has been stitched back together and she has a couple more days before she can leave. Dallin is constantly medicated to keep the pain under control. If you thought he was goofy before, you should see him on morphine. He's been keeping us laughing, in between expressions of discomfort and wanting drinks. When he found out he'll have to be in a wheelchair when he gets home, his feeble response was, "awesome." He has some bruising on his lungs and a cyst or something on his skull they're looking at, but nothing to be concerned about. He's been as good-natured as you could expect a kid to be that is going through this. They all have.

We know it's been in large part because of the prayers, love and faith of everyone we are privileged to call our friends and family. God has truly blessed us through this and will continue to do so. We shutter to think about what would have happened had they not had their seatbelts on. This experience has served as another lesson of just how precious life truly is. It has brought us back to a reminder of what is most important. May the Lord bless each of you this Christmas season for your unselfish love and concern. We'll do our best to keep you posted- feel free to call if you like. We expect a full recovery and to be able to spend Christmas together, whether it be here or in Utah. Either way, we'll be thinking of you and thanking our Heavenly Father that you are in our lives.

We appreciate it and love you all.