A story of faith, hope and survival. A Hartland man, critically injured in a bus crash overseas, told his story for the first time. "Spiritually, I'm on top of the world," are nearly the first words out of Andy Meier's mouth. Amazing, considering the trauma he's been through. He nearly died when a tour bus he was on crashed with a jack-knifed semi in Bosnia. The bus then plunged down a 40-foot ravine into a river. The bus, with 35 people mostly from Wisconsin, was headed to the holy shrine in Medjugorje "I'm totally amazed I'm alive Mike," Meier said. "It's a huge miracle." More than two dozen Roman Catholics from Wisconsin were rescued from the crash, which could have killed them all. Andy, 53, and his son Frankie were sitting at the front of the bus. "I can still see it in slow motion," Andy explained. "The driver losing control and trying to get it back, and (the truck) jack-knifing right into us. And all I could do at that moment was to try to push my 4-year-old son.. It's just a parent's instinct to try to get him down to the ground so he would not take the force of that, of that collision." Doctors in Bosnia were sure Andy would die from his injures. "My whole head was open. They had to shove gauze and towels to keep my head from all the blood just coming all out," Andy told us frankly. He attributes his survival to prayer. But he knows it's a long road to recovery. "Do I like being a paraplegic? No not really. But I'm going to embrace it. It's who I am now. And I'm still going to be able to function. I'm still going to be able to love my children. I have a closer relationship to my wife now than I did before. I'm sorry to be weepy, but it's so beautiful. It's so beautiful to have this closeness with my wife now." During our visit to Andy's Froedtert Hospital hotel room, we showed him the video of the crash for the first time. The pictures shocked him. "Oh wow. Look at that. Oh my goodness. It's a wonder anybody survived. What a miracle," are some of the things he said. He was especially touched when he saw his son Sam place a hand-made cross at the crash scene. Overall, he is thankful no one else was hurt... thankful he survived... and thanks a higher power. "Amazing. Amazing we're alive. Praise the Lord. Whoo."