OPERATION Williams Family

Updates below!

Rachelle Williams, a beloved member of our Halo Fitness Experience and CrossFit703 community, recently suffered a severe spinal cord injury on 4-24 due to a weightlifting accident (see below for more details and updates). As she navigates this challenging journey of recovery, along with her devoted husband and four children, they face significant financial hurdles in the weeks, months, and even years ahead.

In times like these, our solidarity and support can make an immense difference. We are called as a community to contribute whatever we can to aid Rachelle and her family during this trying time. Your donations will not only provide much-needed financial relief so they can focus on Rachelle and her recovery, but also serve as a beacon of hope and strength for them.

Together, as a united community, we can lighten their load, even if just by a fraction. Let's stand by Rachelle and her family, showing them that they are not alone in this fight. Your generosity and compassion will undoubtedly make a profound impact on their lives.

**Consider checking the box to cover the processing fees so the Williams family receives 100% of the donations!

Rachelle was admitted to the ICU at Inova Fairfax on the afternoon of April 24 after a weightlifting accident, resulting in a severe spinal cord injury. She underwent a surgery that evening to fuse portions of her spine and spent the next 7 days in the ICU. She was on a vent around the clock until a trach was placed on April 29th. She has since started weaning off of the vent, and as of May 7 is spending more time off of the vent than on it! She also regained her smell after 10 days, a huge victory!

She currently does not have any use of her lower body, and limited in her upper body. She just started intense PT and will need this for the forseeable future. There will be significant house and living considerations, they will need help for their 4 children in the form of a nanny or au pair, and so many more things that all require additional financial resources.

UPDATES provided by Rachelle's sister, Dawn:

7/26/24:

“Every morning when I wake up, I tell my brain to move my body one part at a time. Today, my index finger did what my brain told it to do!!”

These bonus updates are favorites

. Today, Rachelle also made French toast-including the cutting up of the strawberries. She went outside on her “bike.” (I can’t wait to share the potential miracle of her riding a real bike someday-rumor has it that it will be red). Rachelle is a favorite of therapists and apple fritters from a local bakery are sometimes the result

7/15/24:

A week of new steps (someday, we ARE GOING TO say steps and mean actual steps!! Praying that way?!) and visitors.

Weekly boxing has been added-think a slow motion fight

, and fighting is awesome right now!! Rachelle was upright in gait training for a full 60 minutes and her blood pressure stayed stable. Both surprise and planned visits of friends and family robbed the daily routine of sameness and touched emotions. Later this week, that neck brace is going to be history (!) and there may even be a hair cut in the works to celebrate

7/3/24:

I can’t clear my eyes for the tears! Shouting!! Thank you, Jesus!! Please, more!! I typically only do weekly updates, but…miracles are happening!!! Pray on warrior friends. Check. This. Out.

Manually moving a chair!!! Electrodes are NOT moving her thumb. RACHELLE IS MOVING HER THUMB!!! (miracle memory check...when this journey began she was on a breathing tube, stomach tube, and could only shrug her shoulders and raise her arms only inches, and could feel nothing from the upper chest down)

https://www.facebook.com/1687069530/videos/988489722981357/

6/17/24:

Did you glance at these pictures and then quickly scroll the text to see if God had given us the miracle we can understand?! To be clear, Shell is not walking. Although if you haven’t prayed for the miracle that she will yet today-today isn’t over, so do it!

When Ray sent the pictures my brain didn’t know how to take it all in. It was my “normal” sister, upright for the first time in seven weeks. (Gosh, that’s not very long-why does it seem like a lifetime?) Nearly everyday now they have Rachelle “walking” with electrodes and the like, making her legs do the motion while a harness holds her in place. It’s exhausting and awesome, all at the same time. The other picture shows her with a stylus, crafted specifically for her with copper wires that take the “feeling” of her skin so she can “touch” a screen. It’s all the teeter totter of the ups and downs. These things are way cool-and awful that you’d need them. The speech and breathing therapists think she’s a rockstar at deep inhales and exhales. It IS great…but what the heck measuring stick are we using here?

Specifics to take to Jesus:

*the kids go in different directions with various family members this week for the rest of the summer

*YOU continue to encourage Rachelle and all of us. Your letters, gifts, humor-awesome! Pray for one another that we won’t get weary in this encouragement.

*There is a meeting with all the players working with her case on the 19th.

*there continues to be increased “pins and needles” feeling in her fingers, feet and even some in her torso-they come and all too quickly go. Sensory vs motor perhaps, but something

5/29/24:

I don't know for whom I'm doing this update. We are suspended in time but it somehow keeps moving. I sang to the twins over the phone at their bedtime. Tonight was Audrey's orchestra concert and tomorrow is Wiler's band concert. Parents go to stuff like that, they take pictures and post about it-they run around crazy after work/school trying to make dinner and handle other kids and all the things that happen so you can get to a concert smiling with your instrument in the right shoes...I FaceTimed Audrey tonight to hear about it and their precious neighbor recorded every song for Rachelle and Raymond. They didn't have time to watch it, yet. Her schedule is full and tomorrow is somehow double full. Ray barely has time to glance at his phone. "Outcomes," "limitations," "toughing it out," ...phrases you don't anticipate saying in this season of your life. Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is bright and open, and Rachelle has a view of Lake MI through the cityscape with a sunrise before 5:30am. Ray gets to stay with her. She's fighting hard-PT, OT, assessments, utility bands, tendodesis grasp and release...

Wanna write to her? Want to make the mail person roll their eyes but secretly wonder why this person gets so much mail? Maybe he/she will ask, and Ray or Rachelle can brag on the people carrying a corner of her stretcher before Jesus. Maybe they will get to tell the mail person about Jesus. Or maybe, she just needs to hear from you. Rachelle Williams, 355 E Erie St., Chicago, IL 60611 Audrey (their daughter who turns 12 in June) said what we all feel pretty well, "I'm happy that she is finally at the rehab place and happier because she gets to sit in a wheelchair and will get her trach out soon, but I'm sad because I still really miss her, so I'm happier and sadder all at the same time." PS. If you haven't prayed for Rachelle and all the peeps connected to this journey today, or begged God for a miracle-there is still time left in today-I double dog dare you to do it!

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By Halo Fitness Experience

Rally for Rachelle