Monday, March 1, 2010

Praying for a Better Week

Last week I had one of the biggest scares of my life thus far. On Monday morning Emma and I headed out to church where I help clean the nursery rooms once a month with a few other girls. When we wrapped up there, I ran into town to do a few errands before returning home.

It had snowed quite a bit the night before, but nothing too major for west Michigan. As usual, I had to take a detour home since the main road to our house is closed. I was driving along when I noticed a woman sitting in her car at the end of a long driveway. I figured she must be waiting for a child to get off the school bus (I was close to a local elementary school at this point). I looked at my speedometer, realized I was going 30 mph and then looked at the clock and saw that it was exactly noon. I knew between 11:30-12:30 the speed limit by the school is 25 mph so I began to break. That's when everything went terribly wrong.

As I started to break, my truck started going sideways into oncoming traffic. I tried to correct and started going to the right. I tried once again to straighten the vehicle out and found myself back in the wrong lane. At this point, there was a local farm bus headed right for me- ironically the farm my husband works for. I had a decision to make. Hit the bus or try and get out of it's way, possibly landing in the ditch.

I chose the ditch. We were not going fast at this point. It felt like everything happened in slow motion. Unfortunately, the ditch was deep and my truck didn't handle it too well. One minute we were on four wheels, the next minute we are on our side. Poor Emma had been sleeping at this point, unaware of what was going on. Next thing she knows she's hanging sideways in her car seat. I panicked for a minute, unsure of how to get myself out of my seat belt and back to her. Thankfully, the guys in the bus all got out and came over to help us out. Once I freed myself, I was able to get to Emma and hand her out to those waiting.

Here are a few pictures of the truck afterwards. I didn't get any of it in the ditch since my camera was in the truck somewhere at that point. It really doesn't look to bad all things considered. The mirror didn't even break off the side! It folded in when the truck hit the ground.

Looking back, we have so much to be thankful for. First and foremost, Emma and I were not hurt. We may have been a bit sore that night, but certainly not hurt. Also, I was supposed to have two other little ones along that I take care of. However, I received a call the night before that the youngest one was sick so they didn't need me. I'm sorry that he wasn't feeling well, but I am so grateful they weren't with us. I am also glad that the farm bus was the other vehicle on the road. I didn't really know the guys that helped us out, but I knew where they were from and I knew we could trust them. The individual who's front yard I was in was very gracious as well. She let Emma and I come into her home and stay warm until my husband arrived. It also was a Monday, so we were able to go to our marriage seminar at church that evening and be surround by people who care about us.

It turned out to be a very long week. Emma and I spent almost all our time and home which made us both a bit crabby. When we finally got out on Friday night we went out to dinner at Wendy's. Of course it was snowing again. As we were leaving the restaurant, I came out the door and turned the corner where I promptly feel on my rear. Luckily I was able to hold Emma up so she didn't hit the ground at all. Needless to say, I am once again sore. After Monday it doesn't really bother my though. I am just reminded how wonderful it is to be here. To be able to walk around, to be able to take another breathe, to be able do so many things that others can't. Monday didn't go how I planned, but God knew how it was going to end and His hand was in it every step of the way.

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