Ellie's Baptism (and Bonnie's car accident)

Originally scheduled for May the 17th at 4 pm, Ellie's baptism was postponed due to a car accident that Bonnie was in that day at noon.  A car, turning left across two lanes of oncoming traffic, pulled right in front of Bonnie without giving her any time to react.  they didn't have any insurance, but we were over insured, so we haven't had to worry about any expenses yet.  That is of course except for a new car...  My 2001 Honda that I purchased new and had very well maintained and paid off for the last 12 years was totaled.  The insurance company found it worth about $6100, from which our $500 deductible was taken, leaving me with $5600 to purchase a new car.  Call me spoiled, but I really didn't want to deal with someone else's garbage, so I wen with a new vehicle, a 2014 Honda Civic.  I was able to get the payments down to about $114 a month on a lease to own.  this will leave me with $12,000 to finance three years from now.

My parents were here in town and there were other driving from north Slat Lake for Ellie's baptism when the accident happened.  We spent 6 hours in the ER and Labor and delivery department to patch up a broken ankle and monitor the baby.  Bonnie was 6 months pregnant at the time of the accident.  She burst into tears when she heard the heartbeat for the first time after the accident.  The broken ankle, some minor lacerations on her knee, and bruises on her other knee and arms from the air bags are all the injuries she received... We feel blessed that nothing more serious or permanent happened to her.  Doctors feel that, even though her ankle needs surgery, it would pose too much risk to the pregnancy, so they put it in a cast two weeks later with orders of no weight on it, so we have a wheel chair that she is in when she is not in bed.  She also has crutches that she needs to use on occasion, but she has fallen a few time already, so the wheelchair is very helpful.

My parents had to return to Arizona for Marissa's High School graduation.  We had some trouble rescheduling Ellie's baptism due to Scott and Andrea's baby blessing.  We had made a special baptism date and program for Ellie.  Our stake only does baptisms on the first Saturday of the month and the 17th was the best date to get as many family and friends here.  We eventually decided to go with the regularly schedule date for May birthdays on June 7th.  There were no other baptisms to be don for our ward, so Ellie got her own program again and though there were some who could not attend, my parents were able to come back, this time with Cristie and her 4 kids. Randy was there with his family.  Bonnie's sisters, Becky, who camped in our back yard for two weeks to help out with Bonnie's accident, and Joanne, with her husband Chris and father-in-law Jim, the Homer family (John, Carol, Nick, Sean, Teresa, and John's Mother), Shelly Farmer from work, and several others, including Sadie McGraw and her mother, Christine, from the old ward were all there, making a large crowd just for Ellie.  We were touched by all the support that she received.

Ellie was the first live baptism I have ever done.  I never entered the waters of baptism during my mission in Japan, though I was involved with a couple investigators that did get baptized.  That made it very sweet for me.  My father, Gordon, and John Homer were the witnesses, and they joined me along with my brother Randy, Chris Cole, Nick and Sean Homer as I confirmed Ellie a member of the church.