On Friday, June 13th, at approximately 8pm, several members of our family were hit twice by a speeding vehicle at an intersection on Parks Hwy while on their way to meet up with 9 other family members as we all wrapped up Loryn and Jordan's visit up here in Alaska. Zadyn, Jordan Sr, Jordan Jr, Jameson and Kenna were riding in Zadyn's car about 3 miles or so ahead of my car which contained myself, James, Loryn, and 3 of our other children. As our car rounded the corner on the highway, James noticed over a mile ahead of us there was a car in the intersection that appeared to have been hit. He told us he saw an accident and I started trying to figure out where to pull over to help people. At about the same time, we all noticed my 18 year old brother Zadyn's car was crushed in the intersection on the highway and a silver Subaru sedan was beyond it, equally disabled. Next, we laid eyes on 4 of our family's children and my brother in law sprawled across the edge of the road, covered in blood, all expressing different emotions and expressions. My daughter, Kenna, screamed my name as she reached for me across the highway, and I reached for her as I screamed out my window for oncoming traffic to stop. My brother sat next to her, frozen, wrapping himself around his own body. My nephews held each other desperately, crying. In the middle of the family was Jordan Sr. His calmness was clearly not truly from being calm; he was gravely injured and was in shock. It took what felt like forever to triage our children and teenage brother ourselves, then James, Loryn and myself ran all the kids to my car. The memory is a little unclear about who ended up where doing what after that, but I know the next thing we did was check on the boy that hit our family and tend to Jordan Sr. The boy seemed completely unscathed from the looks of it, but EMT's and our family encouraged him to please seek medical help, which he did. Despite what was done to our family, we made sure to take care of the other 18 year old as well until his mother arrived. Jordan Sr.'s most obvious wound was his head injury, but he was complaining of serious pain, which had EMT's immediately concerned about punctures or other internal injuries. Loryn, James and myself had to take turns stabilizing, supporting or comforting Jordan Sr, all 4 of our injured children, and the 3 children of ours that witnessed everything. As EMT's guided Kohen, my 14 year old, out of the car, he was left to stand and stare blankly, frozen, at the car his family was almost killed in. We later discovered the reason Kenna, my daughter, was screaming so intensely was not from what I feared were life threatening injuries, but from when Jordan Sr. had to remove her little body from the car and she came face to face with his massive head wound. All 5 of our family members required transport to the hospital; 3 had to be brought by ambulance. Zadyn is said to have sprained ankles, however, we are pretty sure he has broken ankles/feet, and the doctors have admitted it is very possible they're missing something as his injuries seem so extreme for simple sprains; he currently needs to be in a wheelchair (which the hospital was not able to provide), and we are hoping further imaging will reveal more about the severity of his injuries are and what his recovery looks like, as well as the long terms damage from his injuries. His feet were purple for the first several days, and while they're now returning to his normal skin tone, he has extensive bruising and swelling on both feet and needs full time care at this time. Jordan Sr. was in very scary shape upon his arrival at the hospital. We were told he had many broken ribs, a punctured lung, severe road rash all over his body from being thrown from the car and a horrendous head wound. He received 9 staples in his head, and due to his lung continuing to leak and starting to collapse, they opted to place a chest tube; this was a gruesome, painful and traumatic procedure for both Loryn and Jordan. Jordan's progress has been exactly what we'd hoped, however, the road to recovery will be lengthy and grueling. Jordan and his family were supposed to leave the following evening to return home to Arizona where he works as a Garbage Truck Operator. Jordan can not travel for a minimum of 3 weeks, and will be out of work for 3-6 months if not longer. Jordan is going to need a walker, different clothes to fit his body more comfortably right now, continued transportation/rental/gas/etc while dealing with severe injuries, ready made meals or delivery, travel expenses home for his family, living expenses, extended care/boarding for their dog while they're stuck in Alaska (as their pet sitter is understandably not able to commit full time to several more weeks of dog sitting with no notice), and much, much more. While we hope for full recovery in the future, at this time all we know is that his family's lives have been turned completely upside down. Several households in our family are struggling from the affects of the accident. Most of us will need counseling, some of us are needing to take time off work to care for all the injured children and adults. To make matters even trickier and more unfair, we also have a family member that is falling desperately ill at the absolute worst time, and we had another one of our children suffer through an emergency surgery on his small intestine just days before the accident; our family has been absolutely incapacitated. And, as if the situation could not be more problematic already, Loryn and Jordan's vehicle died on them on the way to the airport as they left Phoenix to visit us in Alaska, so this family of 5 with a severely injured husband and 2 injured children are going home to no vehicle, no ability to earn an income, and no means to get home or to and from appointments without the stress of juggling around vehicles of friends and family. While we know all their loved ones will help anywhere we need, it would be an incredible relief to supply them with either the repairs on their vehicle that are needing to be done, or a long term rental.

The needs are extensive. The injuries are immense. The range of traumas are broad. Please consider blessing our families with resources, tools and assistance that will make these next weeks and months (if not longer) easier to navigate. We are so deeply grateful that our children are here. We are so unbelievably thankful to our God for saving Jordan Sr. I will give and provide and support to the very best of our ability, but, like every other average family, we are unable to do enough on our own for the overall situation that our entire family tree is involved in right now. We appreciate the support, love, prayers, and words of encouragement. If you are unable to help financially, we would greatly appreciate you sharing our story. Our children, our brother, and my sister's husband could use all the love, support and well wishes they can get!

*I have shared more photos in a public post on my facebook profile (search for Devyn R'nae Musson).