God Is Good

This isn't the first post of 2012 that I care to write.  I'd hoped it would have been about the fun New Year's we'd had with friends and pictures of my sweet boy playing with his best buddies.  Not the case.

Yesterday Chip and I were in a really bad car wreck with a school bus in Jackson.  Through all of the negative and hurt and aches and pains I feel this morning they equal nothing to the possibilities of what might have been and the chain of events that led us to our safety.

Every Tuesday I work in Madison.  Sometimes Chip rides along with me because he has an office there too.  I ALWAYS take his car (Toyota Camry) because it's so much better on gas mileage than my Toyota Sequoia.  Yesterday was different, I took my Sequoia because Hill's birthday is Thursday and we wanted to get him a Power Wheels of sorts which wouldn't have fit in his car.  We could have done this Thursday when we go to Jackson to pick up my mom from the airport, but we didn't.  Thank God.

It was about 1:30 and I picked up Chip from his office and we decided to head down town to Two Sisters to eat a nice home cooked meal to give us energy for the Toys R Us trip ahead.  I was driving down High Street and a school bus with no kids was driving across West Street and we collided.  Who knows who is to blame...who cares...we are all safe by the grace of God and that's all that matters.

The chain of events that led us to Jackson in our Sequoia that day started back at Thanksgiving.  I'd bought Hill a Jeep Power Wheels at Black Friday from Wal-Mart.  I bought Harvey one too for JJ and Allen.  Harvey got his at Christmas and Hill wouldn't get his until his birthday.  The Warrington's said that the Jeep wasn't powerful enough to ride over a pecan so I returned both Jeeps only to leave me looking for Hill another gift....  Otherwise I'd have been in the Camry yesterday and either A) we'd be dead or B) we may not have headed downtown for lunch before the errands we may not have had to have run.  Either way you look at it Chip and I are safe and able to walk away and hold each other and our precious son.  I choose to see the positive through all of this and continue to know that everything happens for a reason, God has it all figured out.  It was an awful yet wonderful day, if that even makes sense.  It could have been fatal, kids could have been on the school bus, Hill could have been in the car, people could have been hurt...but we weren't.

The replay of the accident continues to flash in my mind.  It was like I was able to process every thing through every milisecond as though time stood still.  I can't say it's haunting, but I can't say it's pleasant either because of the blessed outcome.  The bus was headed into the drivers side (my side) and I slammed on the brakes and turned my wheel to the right to dodge it.  Slow motion of realizing I couldn't cut the wheel any more to dodge the bus was inevitable and is most vivid.  I remember the impact and the airbag deployment then after that there was no mortal control to be had by that point.  We spun into nearly a 180 where we landed on the sidewalk directly between a light pole and fire hydrant.  We did not hit either of them.  How did we not hit them since I didn't have control of my car with airbags deployed, seatbelt locking up, flinging, gripping of the wheel all within a mere second.  I could  not have humanly placed my car in that spot even if I had had control of the vehicle.  I still can't figure out how my car could land like it did.  Look at the picture.

Ok, so you see the picture of the dome of the Capital in the background?  You see the light pole behind my car?  I was going left to right - so I had just passed the capital gone through that light and was hit.  My car must have pivoted on the back wheel because otherwise I have no explanation of how this would be possible.  I truly don't need an explanation because I know the answer.  No doubt we had angels and God himself on board.  Praise be to God.

In this picture the tow truck driver is moving the car.  The hydrant was near the drivers door but unscathed.

After impact I don't remember seeing Chip only hearing his voice asking me twice before I responded, "Are you ok?"  I responded yes and jumped out of the car to check on the bus driver who flung to the oncoming traffic lane of  West Street, the street she was coming from and onto the curb.  Again, downtown Jackson 1:45 and no cars  or pedestrians on the side walk - total God thing.

She said she was fine, she wouldn't open her bus door - I'm not sure if it's their policy to wait for a school representative to get there or what.  So she just sat there and Chip and I were crying thanking God repetitively for all of our blessings and that Hill wasn't there.  I called Chip's step mom to pick up Hill because I knew we wouldn't be back before 5:00 to get him from daycare.  Thank you dear Angel Joyce.  Chip called his secretary to come pick us up and take us to a rental car place.  We had to clean out all that we could from my car and put into Shelly's.  As I was doing that and the adrenaline was wearing off I'd realized I'd hurt my hand.

Chain of events right?  So Sunday my wrist gets this soreness about it.  It happens one or two times a year.  I  don't think it's carpel tunnel but I associate it with pushing my body up and down off the floor with Hill 2,364 times a day.  So I wear one of those carpel tunnel braces for a couple of days to rest it and then it goes away.  Well I had on my carpel tunnel brace during the wreck, which I'm 99% sure prevented my wrist from breaking.  My hand though was bruising rapidly and was very painful.  My knuckles on my fingers are all bruised and a little bloody from my wedding ring scratching them.  In the big scheme of things if that's all that came from this was a potential broken hand all would be well with the world.

So, I gathered important things from my car like Hill's Barney DVD's and a kids book...I know right?  I was disoriented.  Honestly, I'm not sure what I have.  Anyway, we put them in Shelly's car and she took us to get a rental car.

We are now sporting a Chevrolet 'eraser car.'  You know something small and uncomfortable that you bust your head on every time you get in and out.  Yup, that's the car.  Well we decided to hit up a MEA Clinic (urgent care type place) to get my hand checked out since by this time it's like 4:00 and I knew I couldn't make it to our local clinic in time.  Chip was driving and all of a sudden I was not ok.  I've never passed out before, but I think that this feeling is what it feels like before you do so.  I started taking deep breaths and remembered having this feeling one other time before...when I was having my c-section with Hill.  I'd lost a lot of blood during my section and remembered this whoozie feeling as they operated.  Yet, here I am not bleeding and about to pass out - I kept saying, "I'm not ok, I'm not ok" so Chip wheeled into St. Dominics Hospital since we were right there.   Good thing I got ok once we were there because they were swamped and unless you were visibly wounded you had to take a number.

I went to the waiting area with all the sick people and lasted about 3 minutes in there because the lady vomiting across from me was all I could take.  I went and stood up front by the admittance people where I ended up having to translate for Mr. Hernandez to the admittance receptionist.  After that I figured I was a shoe in, not have to wait - scratch my back I'll scratch yours type of thing.  Nope, I did get a little extra care because she set me up a chair in the hallway so I didn't have to hear Mrs. Vomityourgutsout dry heave anymore.  After 3 hours and an X-Ray of my hand and collarbone I was not broken.  Thank goodness.  They took an x-ray of my collarbone because even though it didn't hurt I have really bad bruising and seatbelt burn so he wanted to be safe.

By seemingly days later we were on the road in the eraser car back to Kosciusko.  Still hadn't eaten the homemade lunch we'd originally set out for so we settled for Schlotzsky's sandwiches.  Simple trek to eat lunch sure turned my world upside down.  The conversation on the ride home was quiet as we were trying to pinch ourselves to make sure this wasn't a dream, it was all so surreal.  We will be buying another Sequoia as I'm sure mine is totaled.  We will be making a Will because you're never promised tomorrow and we want to make sure our little angel is taken care of.  Who knew yesterday morning when we woke up that this would happen?  Count your blessings my dear friends, we just never ever know.

I'd never been so glad to see the land of Koz.  I went to pick up my sweet boy from his Nana and Papa's house and he ran up to me and just gave me the biggest hug ever.  All I could do was cry happy tears and squeeze my little angel back.  I bet he gave me 20 hugs, I guess he knew Mommy needed them.  He always knows how to make everything right.  He is my everything.  So once we got back to the house Hill's special request was to sit in the recliner and watch Mickey Mouse with his Mama.  How could you argue with a fantastic plan like that?  So we did, and I cried some more happy tears and thanked God for his many blessings.

This morning as I can't sleep, I feel like I've been hit by a bus.....wait, I have been hit by a bus.  Even though I feel like crap I'm so glad to be here to feel like crap.

Thank you for all of your phone calls and messages.  Keep us in your prayers as Chip and I forge through these next few days of soreness and emotional numbness.  My family will be here from Texas soon since Hill's birthday is Thursday so that will be a breath of fresh air celebrating Hill's 2nd birthday...or as Hill say's his "too many" birthday.