Oh, What A Night!

Yesterday, my hubby was struggling to fight off a spirit of annoyance that was growing all day long. You know those kind of days where stuff just bugs you, and you can't even really pinpoint why? I was walking on egg shells trying to offer only a few neutral comments on anything!

The garage door broke on the way out the door for church. That made him late as he's trying to set a good example for his high school Sunday School class.

Then the staff at a restaurant we frequent wanted to be a bit too "attentive" for him, prolonging the check and getting home.

Not that it would have been a big deal otherwise, but an already bothersome morning was further tainted as his fantasy football quarterback was injured on the second play and caused him to lose large to his arch enemy and fall out of first place.

Then his nap was abruptly interrupted when one of the children decided to "play a trick" by ringing the doorbell. She, ahem, was not supposed to even be outside.

Time for evening church rolled around and I half way expected my husband to excuse himself from services. It's not that he makes a habit of it, but he looked exhausted. The pastor, however, had emphasized that morning that his message would be about a topic we are passionate about teaching our teenagers - the pitfalls of se*xu*al immorality.

So together we went. As we drove to church that night, the thunderstorms promised earlier in the day seemed to finally be slowly forming. The sky was overcast; the air felt like an ominous mix of fall crispness and the springlike smell of strong storms approaching.

The sermon was fine. The pastor's honesty about what is going on in schools today shocked a lot of the older members of our congregation. But sadly it was all familiar to us from the reports of our kids who beg weekly for prayer to stand firm in the midst of their Sodom and Gomorrah High Schools. It was nice to have some validation that what our kids are dealing with is much more than just foul language and bad attitudes.

Finally, we headed home to rest and relax before starting a new day. The skies had now turned black - an eery greenish blue-black from the heavy, condensed vertical storm clouds in the sky. Feeling he could finally try to wind down from his day, hubby was even chatting a little with me as we approached the highway. But we both stopped talking instinctively to let him concentrate as we noticed the car three ahead of us stop abruptly to turn into the neighborhood he had nearly missed. A chain reaction ensued. And although I knew we would be landing very, very close to the car ahead of us, I somehow sensed we wouldn't hit. No one can stop a big truck with more finesse than Greg. The very instant we came to a complete stop - BANG!!!

Where had it come from?

In my confusion, I accidentally managed to look in the direction of the white Ford Explorer turning perpendicular to the curb and heading for the telephone pole barely on two wheels and appearing to be in mid-flip. It's like my heart said a prayer without words as I tried to will the vehicle back on all fours, nevertheless knowing it was out of my control. His front two tires cleared the curb as his back two bounced off the road behind it, propelling him into the common grass area before the parking lot, and mercifully (thank you, God!) several feet away from the phone pole.

All of this was in a construction zone as storms were making their way quickly toward us. There was no safe place to pull over and it appeared a witness, unable to find a suitable place to stop, was deciding to leave the scene. We didn't want to appear to be doing the same. So hubby pulled several yards up to give the traffic ample time to see our lights (and the mass of plastic and metal hanging from our truck) and parked by the curb in far right lane.

Everyone was O.K. The kids were panicked and my two youngest near tears. We sat for a good minute trying to discern what had happened when the dry line hit. A few sprinkles and a good stiff wind. That snapped Greg out of shock and into "better hurry" mode.

Remarkably, miraculously, the other driver and his girlfriend also were not hurt. They had gone semi-airborne and the front of his car looked at least as bad as our side, but thank God, LITERALLY, they were O.K. They called the police as hubby had also forgotten his cell phone and mine was not working.

Since during the wreck, our attention had been diverted forward, the other driver had a much better idea of what had happened. As the cars had begun slamming their brakes one by one, the two cars behind us had made efforts to instead swerve over into the far right construction lane. The one immediately behind us was the one we had thought to be the "witness." But the Explorer behind him had anticipated his move even earlier and was already up beside "the witness," who clipped him and then ran. This propelled the Explorer into our second tire wheel well, which then sent him flying. "The witness" who had left the scene had caused the whole thing. (And looking at how the damage landed, we believe the Explorer driver's report.)

It seemed like forever for the police to arrive. In actuality, it was probably about 6-7 minutes. (They were aware it was a NON-injury hit and run.) By the time they arrived, the storm had turned into sideways blowing hail! We had waited to pull the hanging pieces off the truck to load them for driving home because we knew the officer had to see where everything landed for his report. The Explorer driver and my husband got soaked loading the pieces up and I got soaked as the officer stood at my door to take our report while leaning as far into the cab as he could for shelter. The four of us were not wet, but DRENCHED. Pieces of signage and loose debris were now being blown into the night sky as I attempted to write our information for him on wet paper in his notepad. I really think he just finally decided to commit our number to memory. Honestly, for all we were dealing with, both the officer and the driver of the Explorer, a student at our near-by college, could not have been any nicer or more professional. What a blessing to deal with this set of people on such a dreary night.

I wanted to post a picture of the significant damage, but true to the kind of day it was - full of bothersome LITTLE details - I can't find my camera cord. I am just THANKFUL! Thankful we are all O.K. Thankful for God answering prayers we can't speak and moving either cars or phone poles to accommodate survival. Thankful we were in my hubby's big honking truck. Just thankful it's over and the kids got a real life lesson in finding the positive.

This morning felt a little strange. Everyone awoke with this surreal sense that last night's events were forefront before even a word was uttered. This will forever now be one of life's most prominent shared memories for the five of us. And we are keenly aware of it. We are grateful for the way it ultimately turned out, but it almost doesn't even feel real, even though it's all we've talked about.

But we can add this to the blessings: Greg was forced to take today off due to the rain last night, and the kids were already out of school for conferences, so we were able to sleep in and share today as a family - even as we silently celebrate that we still are one.