Email  Print  Feed

Countless Blessings

Brian Sakultarawattn feels lucky and blessed. The 34-year-old is celebrating 13 years of marriage to his high school sweetheart and awaiting the arrival of their third child.

“Life is very full,” he says.

Hearing the love and warmth in his voice on this cool winter day, there’s no hint of the relentless physical pain and daunting mental obstacles he has overcome in the past 15 years to reach these milestones.

“It’s hard to look back,” Brian says.

At 19, he was on top of the world. He had a good job working at a tree farm near his hometown of St. Helens, Oregon. He was engaged to 18-year-old Haley Havlik. The couple spent endless hours in the local mountains, he says, “hiking, camping and dreaming of a wedding, babies and living happily ever after.”

On December 26, 1995, a fiery explosion at Brian’s jobsite left him battling for life and limb — forever shattering the idyllic life he shared with Haley and replacing it with a daily test of their love for each other and faith in their god.

Hours after the accident, Haley and Brian’s family listened as doctors talked about trying to save his life. And, they warned, if Brian did miraculously survive, he’d look much different.

“The fire had spared almost nothing,” says Brian, explaining that his arms, legs, hands and face were covered with third- and fourth-degree burns.

To keep him alive, surgeons had to remove infected limbs. His forearms and left leg were amputated. Later, he lost his vision. Three weeks after the accident, Brian awoke from a coma with a quilt-patch of skin grafts covering his body. His fiancée remained at his hospital bedside.

“I told her I’d understand if she couldn’t or wouldn’t go through with our marriage,” he recalls.

Haley’s devotion and commitment, however, never wavered. “She told me it just didn’t matter how I looked physically on the outside,” Brian recalls. “She said, ‘It’s the emotional and spiritual stuff on the inside that counts.’ ”

Two years after the accident, Brain and Haley were married. The community rallied around the young couple, raising money to build them a home equipped with special ramps for Brian’s wheelchair and plenty of room to raise a family. Today, more than 15 years later, after hundreds of surgeries and thousands of prayers, Brian is thankful for his abundant life.

Haley is his hero. “She has to do so much because I can’t,” he says.

That’s not to say that Brian’s days aren’t equally busy. He helps home-school their two children, teaches bible study to teenagers at his church, volunteers at the local hospital, and frequently speaks to community and church groups about his commitment to faith and family.

“Every marriage has its struggles, and we’re no different in that way,” he says. Brian advises newly and long-married couples alike to forget the notion of a 50-50 partnership or a Plan B if things start to fail.
“Each partner has to continuously put the other’s needs first and constantly give 100 percent each and every day,” he says. “For better or worse and in sickness and health. Forever.”

And just as they dreamed when they were teenagers in love, Brian and Haley will celebrate their wedding anniversary and new baby at home, warmly embraced by their family and faith.

Do you like what you read? Purchase Exquisite Weddings Magazine »