On The Today Show earlier this week, I heard the story of Stephanie Nielson, a 27-year-old mother who, with her husband Christian, was badly burned in a plane crash in mid-August. Stephanie suffered burns over 83% of her body; her husband suffered burns over 30% of his body; the pilot was killed in the crash. Stephanie has been given a 60-70% chance of survival; Christian is expected to survive.
In addition to the fact that Stephanie has an incredibly long struggle ahead of her, she is an unusually beautiful person, judging from her writings in her blog. I'm not talking superficial, external beauty (although she has plenty of that), but beauty of the soul.
Stephanie and her husband have four young children, ages two to six. Her blog, which I have just begun reading since hearing of her plight on The Today Show, reveals her joy in life and joy in raising her four children. Apparently she had a following of blog readers all over the world, and those bloggers are now joining forces to aid Stephanie in any way they can.
Meanwhile, Stephanie's family is taking care of the couple's four children, and they are also re-publishing her earlier blog writings. The announcement of the crash can be found here.
If you would like to help Stephanie and Christian Nielson, you can make a donation here. Just click on "Donate to NieNie." (The cJaneRun blog is written by Stephanie's sister Jane, who is caring for three of the four Nielson children.) Jane mentions in her blog that Stephanie underwent her first major surgery this week, a skin graft, and so far the surgery seems to have gone well. She is still in an induced coma.
Let's keep Stephanie, Christian, and their children in our thoughts and prayers.
What a brave lady. How very sad. I shall definitely keep her in my thoughts and prayers.
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