Last weekend, my husband and I went down to visit my new baby niece.
We had a hard time trying to figure out a good weekend to go down. One of the reasons was because we're wanting to trade in our car for a van soon. My husband was nervous that driving the car 6 hours each way, was just asking for something to happen... like an accident, hail damage, or just plain having car problems.
But with no other time working, we went; praying that if God truly wanted us to make this trade-in, He would protect us.
And boy did He!!!!
Friday night as we were driving down, everything was going well. It was about 9:30 and I had been dozing in and out of sleep. We were an hour away from my sister's house.
I suddenly said "oh my gosh!!"
The car in front of us went left, then sharp right, into the ditch, up the hill, spun around, slid down hill, spun around again and then stopped.
My husband is really quick in these situations. I don't know if it's a guy thing or the fact he was an EMT.
He hit the hazards and started to slow down. By the time the car had stopped moving, we came up to the cause of the accident. There was an entire roll of insulation over both lanes. We were going slow enough by this point that Nate could easily maneuver around it. Then we pulled to the side of the road. The next two vehicles behind us (a pick-up and a semi) had seen Nate's hazards and started slowing down as well so they didn't hit us. They could not really go around the insulation though. BUT since both were bigger vehicles, they could go over it which actually got it off the road for the next group of cars.
When we stopped on the shoulder, I looked at the other car.
"There's a kid standing up, Nate!", I said.
You all know that kids are my passion so I started getting a little more concerned but tried to stay calm. Nate was out and down to the car faster than I could get my shoes on.
He first asked if they were okay. It was a mom and a 3 year old boy. Neither of them were injured so praise the Lord for that. I had gotten down there and heard Nate say "Go up with my wife to our car and I'll try to drive your car out of here".
So I walked with them back up to our car. The pick-up that was behind us had pulled over too. The man helped Nate.
They got the car up onto the shoulder and started checking if it was okay. Amazingly it was except the trunk wouldn't stay shut. As they worked on it, I talked to the little boy.
I asked him if he was okay and if anything hurt. He said he was scared. Then he told me how they wrecked and he fell. He had been in a car seat but it wasn't on very securely.
I talked to him some more about how he was meeting his dad so they could go fishing. He told me about his new fishing pole and how big of a fish he was going to catch. He was a real cute kid.
His mom had been looking for her cell phone and couldn't find it. So I called it for her.
The guys never could get the trunk to stay shut but they decided it was heavy enough, it shouldn't be a problem. She was only a mile or two away from her destination.
She was pretty shaken by the whole thing but thankfully no one was hurt. I still think of her often and pray that neither of them were too sore the next morning.
I really think about the boy. He was spending the weekend with his dad. Was he sore? Would his dad take the accident into consideration?
I have to leave all that up to God. More than likely, I'll never see them again.
There's so many things that could have gone wrong with that accident. They could have rolled their car. It's amazing that they didn't!! If we were any closer to them, they could have hit us or we may have hit the insulation straight on or we may not have been able to help in the way we did. If we had been further back, the pick-up and semi behind us could have hit us.
The whole thing caused us a 20 minute delay but that's not bad considering what else could have happened. I don't think I could have handled it if that little boy had been hurt. Like I said, he's on my mind a lot now and he wasn't injured!
I must have tensed up during the whole thing or something because when we started driving again, my shoulder hurt. I couldn't raise my arm at all.
But that's not a big deal in the scheme of things.
We're thankful they're okay. We're thankful God protected us as well. And we're thankful that we were able to help them. No one else stopped to help. I don't know if someone else in our position would have or not. But we did and we're thankful.
We didn't drive our car at all while down there. Saturday night a storm was coming in and Nate was worried about hail damage but the storm ended up breaking up.
Sunday was the long drive back.
We're in the midwest and there were storms everywhere.
An hour after we left, one of my sisters and the other sister's husband were both texting us telling us they were in a tornado warning and one had been spotted South of them.
We weren't driving in rain or anything. I prayed right then that we'd stay ahead of it.
Three hours into our trip Nate's co-worker called to see where we were. He told us about some storms going on but thought we'd stay behind it. So we were driving in between two storms basically the whole way.
Do you know what?
We didn't even hit rain until we were an hour away from home. And even then, it was only pouring, white knuckle type driving, for about 20 minutes! That's amazing considering all that was going on around us!
Nate's sister had text a couple times saying that people on Facebook were talking about a tornado near our town and the news talked about one spotted in a town close by.
When we got back, we had to stop at my parents to get my step-son.
(We get him on Sunday nights so instead of trying to be back in time, he just went to my parents for a couple hours)
My parents said that they assumed we were driving in storms the whole way because the radar was just red the whole distance.
Well, there was a little hole that God had us driving in. I'm still amazed at it.
We keep hearing stories about that night. Stories about how hard it was raining, how much the wind was blowing, how much hail there was and all sorts of things.
We even know of someone else driving home but they were coming from the East where we were coming from the West. They had to stop and go into a church basement.
We must have been in another world.
One little town we drove by had been tossed like a salad just an hour or so before. Trees had fallen and leaves were plastered to people's houses. We didn't drive through it but was told about it later.
Nothing was like what had happened in Oklahoma, but there were still storms and God had kept us out of them.
I don't think it was all to protect our car either. I think God protected US.
Just driving in the pouring rain for 20 minutes made my body ache. I haven't felt well all week and I think it's a combination of things. But from my experience, I know that if we'd driven 6 hours in storms (like we certainly could have) I would be even worse. My body just doesn't handle those kinds of things anymore.
I've been having some lungs/chest issues for about a month now and it was really acting up on Sunday before we even left. If I had been tense the whole trip, I can't even imagine what I would be feeling like now.
God is good.
Yes, He could have made both trips completely different. He could have NOT allowed the insulation to be in the road at that moment. He could have NOT let it storm at all so it wouldn't be a concern.
But He was allowing those things to happen and no one can predict why. We can't read His mind and see what He sees. But we trust that He knows best.
In all that, He was very much protecting us.
Like I said.. He could have made both trips completely different. WE could have been the ones that came upon the insulation first. We could have been closer to the car wrecking. We could have driven in storms.. even a tornado.. all day Sunday.
Sometimes God protecting us doesn't mean avoiding all negative things. It means keeping us exactly where He wants us.
Nate and I praised Him after the car accident for what could have happened but didn't.
We praised Him while we were driving home, realizing how amazing it was that we weren't even in rain.. let alone a big storm.
We still praise Him for all He has done, will do and is doing for us.
God is good. Praise Him.
