Mission Accomplished!

We proudly announce that Elder Taylor McBride has faithfully completed his missionary service and has been released by his Stake President. We are so proud of him and the mission that he served. While there is a bittersweet element to the way his mission was cut short, we are celebrating his success and dedication.

A dear friend of ours told us he looks at Taylor's return much as when a wounded soldier comes home from war. They are celebrated as heroes, given a Purple Heart, and discharged honorably. We feel the same way about Taylor. We know he served with all his heart, might, mind, and strength.

This afternoon he had the opportunity to visit on the phone with his Mission President, who thanked him for his hard work and dedication. Taylor's main concern was that someone should take care of the baptismal dates he had set up for the rest of the month.

Chrissie, and I were privileged to participate with Taylor and President Barker in a bedside mission report and testimony meeting yesterday afternoon. It was a sweet experience to hear Taylor's thoughts on his service, and his witness of the truthfulness of the Gospel. After we closed, President Barker told Taylor that he felt prompted to release Taylor from missionary service, and to begin looking forward to the next phase of his life.

Taylor does feel much sadness that he was unable to finish the way he had planned, and to say goodbye to the people he had served and loved. He left in such a hurry, all he brought home was a backpack with a few of his personal belongings.

We don't really know at this time what the recovery will be like. How long, how difficult, how restrictive. Eventually those things will be determined. Until then, we ask for your continued prayers and faith on Taylor's behalf. We know that through the power of the priesthood, and the prayers and faith of our friends and loved ones, miracles have already occurred. We have hope and great faith that Taylor will make a complete recovery. In fact, we expect it.

Taylor is happy to have visitors. He is still in the ICU, so please call first: Brad 602-418-3135, Chrissie 480-235-5325. (He would still love to get letters - 2869 E. Page Ct., Gilbert, AZ 85234 - or emails to taylormcbride18@gmail.com)

We are proud of our son, and are glad to have him back from the Lord's errand.

Inside Taylor's Head

We are finally understanding what is going on inside Taylor's head, and I wanted to take a minute to try and describe it as simply as I can.

If you look at the picture above, you will notice there are two different sets of stitches. The top set are from when his head hit the curb. The bottom set is from when the gate hit his head, and is the one we are worried about. It is right above the cerebellum. The cerebellum is Latin for the "mini-brain". It controls voluntary movement and balance, among other things.

(The red part is the cerebellum)

You might not be able to tell, but the lower injury is right on top of the cerebellum. When the gate hit his head, it caused two bad things to happen:

1) The skull was fractured and pushed down against the cerebellum.

2) The brain was injured resulting in swelling.

These two things combined are putting pressure on a vein that runs directly under the fracture. That vein's job is to take blood out of the brain, back into the body. The pressure is causing the vein to be partially "occluded" or pinched off. The vein was also cut a little bit, resulting in some bleeding.

So, the doctors are watching to see if the swelling of the cerebellum will go down to let that vein flow more freely.  If the swelling should get worse, then they would operate to relieve the pressure. This, however, is something they don't want to do, because it is delicate and risky.

Our hope is that the swelling quickly goes down, and the vein can flow freely. So, Taylor will be in the ICU for a few days so they can monitor him.